Blogger: Wendy Lawton
I was poking around in old blog posts and saw this one from six years ago. You know what’s funny– almost nothing has changed. This is still the way I deck the halls– even though we’ve added a cat, Molly, to our family in the last year. So far, so good. She shows no signs of wanting to un-deck the halls. It makes me happy because I love decorating for Advent and Christmas. Keith and I were married on the seventh day of Christmas forty-five years ago and I was born on the sixth day of Christmas, so the Christmas season is a magical one for us. And, of course, Jesus was born on the first day of Christmas– the most important day of all.
So we make the season as special as we can. The day after Thanksgiving, instead of shopping the Black Friday sales, we decorate our house for Christmas. Our very first Christmas ornaments were the two doves from our wedding cake. Every year after that we bought a special ornament for each person in the family and wrote the date on it. Each year as we trim the tree, it is a day filled with memories– some fun, some poignant.
We usually have two trees— one in the entryway to greet visitors with lots of bling and sparkle. We’ve decided not to tempt our kitty with double the opportunity so we omitted that one for 2016. The second tree is our family tree, the one filled with meaningful ornaments. It has our old candle-like lights and almost forty-five years of memories. The gifts under this tree are for family members.
We have a magnolia garland over the fireplace to go along with the magnolia blossoms tucked into the branches of our Christmas tree. The filet crochet Lord’s Prayer hanging above the fireplace was crocheted for us more than forty years ago by an elderly woman in our church. It’s hung in our house ever since.
Being longtime doll and toy collectors, we always incorporate dolls and toys into our Christmas decor, including our Victorian skin horse. (Remember the wise old skin horse from the story of The Velveteen Rabbit? I often think this very horse could be that wise old toy.) He lives atop our piano because he is irresistible to little children and, being about 150 years old, he’s not up to many more gallops.
Our Saint Nicholas, dressed in winter white velvet and gilt, is another old friend who shows up at Christmastime. He’s a far cry from the modern day “jolly old elf,” but I love his gentle face. We always pick one or two of my own doll creations to feature at Christmas. These are two of my dimunitive nine-inch tall favorites. I sculpted the porcelain faces and hands and we put them on hand-carved wooden spring-jointed bodies so that they can hold any pose a human can. (Well, almost.) The one on the left is Beatrice Louise and on the right is Just Jenny.
This year I added a bookcase of Christmas books to the decor. I didn’t realize I had so many. And these are just a portion of the picture books.
But the centerpiece of our Christmas decor– just like the center of our Christmas celebration– is Jesus, whose birth is at the heart of the season. Our nativity is kept at child-eye-level and we encourage our little visitors to explore it as we tell them about the miracle. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
How will you deck the halls for Christmas?
Wendy, thank you for inviting us into your home for the grand tour! This post is a keeper.
* No ‘decked halls’ here, I’m afraid. I’m far too unwell, and Barbara’s work responsibilities increase by the week. She’s so diligent, and I am so proud of her!
* But we will watch the St.Olaf Choir on PBS, and have already communed with The Grinch.
Fun. Of course you have a number of fur friends to contend with as well, so less may be more. More peace at least.
I’m a bit bunged up from the car wreck, so I haven’t started decorating yet. The first thing I put up each year and the last thing I take down is my collection of nativity sets. They include the set we had when I was a small child, so it’s at least 60 years old. The cardboard stable with Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and 3 sheep was my mother’s when she was young so that part is 90 years old. There is the set I bought piece by piece in the 60s, and a set dressed in cloth I got at Walmart about 20 years ago. There is a set bought since we adopted our kids, who are African American and Hispanic, where the figures have the more ethnically accurate darker skin rather than the pale European skin tone. I put the breakable ones on the book shelves in the entrance foyer. I also have 2 cross-stitched sets and a plastic canvas set my husband’s mother made for the kids to play with. It’s a great way to keep me focused on the real reason for the season.
Carol, our adopted sons have darker skin too. My nativity sets are colorless–one just white glazed with brown smudges in the creases, the other made of wood. I wasn’t as deliberate as you’ve been, but the message is important.
Mine are mostly pale European versions. Our Walmart has the darker skinned versions in individual pieces. Maybe yours does, too, or Hobby Lobby might carry them.
*I’m a stickler for historical accuracy in my Roman novels and otherwise. Stylized is good, but I don’t buy the cutesy sets that don’t look like real people in clothes appropriate to Israel at that time. The people gathered around the manger would have been olive skinned and tanned in real life. I was very glad to find them.
What a meaningful collection, Carol. Get well!
We have Holy Family silhouettes we put on the lawn, highlighted by spotlights. I enlarged a mantel-top design I found in a magazine 25+ years ago. I sketched it on plywood, Handy Hubby sawed, we both varnished. Then we said, “How are we going to make them stand up?” (the indoor design clearly wouldn’t hold up to winter storms). Hubby wrangled a way, and our one-of-a-kind nativity has graced the yard of three house–although we can’t quite find the right spot in this last home . . . Bethlehem has been in a different place each of the last five years. And it seems that Abbott tradition waits for a winter storm to put out the Holy Family–never on a warm, starry night, always with the cold nipping our noses.
* When son #4 was in middle school, he was reluctantly helping me hang garland and lights on the stair rail in our three-story Victorian (the cozy barn we live in now is so much simpler to decorate–oh joy!). Silly me, I asked, “If I weren’t here, would you and Dad still decorate for Christmas?” He answered, “We’d put out all those Christmas lights you won’t let us” (hey! I let them put out a LOT). And he added, “But we wouldn’t change the tablecloth with the seasons.”
*May all of you, dear B&S friends, deck your halls with laughter!
Don’t you love those things kids say. When you’re in heaven, changing the tablecloths on that great feast table I’ll bet that son will still remember you every time they lay a cloth on the table! Traditions.
From the time they were three, I let my kids decorate the tree. When they were small, we had oodles of unbreakable ornaments hung low while I hung the glass ones high. In grade school, they started using step stools and ladders and hanging the glass ones to the top. We always buy a real tree here in NM, and shopping for it was a favorite tradition for both of them. We have a 17-foot clerestory, and my husband and kids both like a 9 -10 foot tree. Even now, my college daughter wants to help buy and decorate. It’s a tradition I love.
It’s a wonderful tradition and a great help!
Your home looks beautiful, Wendy! On years that we’re home, we usually purchase a live Christmas tree, around 6 feet tall. We buy ornaments for our boys each year, but I’ve never thought to put the dates on them. I’m going to have to do that. We also hang ornaments that my parents gave me when I was a girl. The stories and memories that come when I see those make me smile. 🙂
*Our decorations are pretty simple. Pine garland around the railings and banisters, stockings hung over the fireplace. A few of the boys’ creations here and there and candles. I love scented candles. Sometimes, our family will turn off the overhead lights and eat by the light of candles and Christmas lights woven into some of our pine garlands.
*And, I have a Christmas porcelain tea set that sits on our coffee table in the living room that just makes me happy.
I am so glad we put initials and dates on the ornaments because when it came time to send them their ornaments for their own home I couldn’t remember whose they were. 😉
Thank you for the peek inside your home, your heart. I decorate very simply for Christmas, only decorating the entry hall into our home. Everyone comes into the house by way of the garage, so I get the tree just as close to the front door as I possibly can, leaving just enough room to squeeze through. I hang stockings there on the bookshelf, and my little stash of Christmas books sits on the floor by the tree. A wreath goes up on the front door, red ribbons on my front porch rocking chairs, lights drape the front porch and line the house. This year, I added a red ribbon to my mailbox. 🙂 The sweetest new addition established this year was that the girls and I volunteered a day at Operation Christmas Child … the warehouse. Wow, oh wow. My heart is invested. I’d love for that to become an established part of our Christmas. Such a blessing.
You’ve discovered the secret to raising selfless kids– teach them to offer service.
I collect rocking horses and have them on my tree and scattered throughout the house. Love your grand steed atop the piano!
I do love this wise old horse but keep wondering where he will go when it’s time to let him go. It’s a real commitment to maintain these old treasures, temperature-wise and care-wise. Too many of the younger generation are just plain grossed out to realize he’s made of real horse hide and horse hair.
This Christmas is very special — and bittersweet — as it’s our first back in the States after nearly a decade overseas. Seeing our nomadic life reflected in the hodgepodge of eclectic world-culture ornaments and decor makes my heart happy — and ache. After so many years of the expat life, no one place in the the world is truly home. Which turns out to be a blessings because it keeps me ever mindful of my real Home. However, having said that, last year we were living out of suitcases, unsure of what the future held or where in the world — literally — we would be in a few months. So unpacking our OWN special Christmas things in our OWN house and finding our OWN places to put them was extra tender and special this year. First the first time ever, we have 2 trees. One in the living room with all white lights and all our family ornaments. The other, in the entry way with colored lights and all aqua and silver ornaments. I put garland on the banisters and stair rails — something I’ve always wanted to do. And we put lights up on the outside of the house for the first time in 15 years. We lost my father-in-law 2 years ago December 23, so this season is so very bittersweet in all aspects. But most days the sweet outweighs the bitter, and the ache in our hearts for those far away draws us closer to the Great Comforter and calls us to our knees for our friends who are yet to know Him. May He be made greater in all the earth this Christmas season.
Welcome home, Jennifer. You are blessed to know that home is where your family gathers. Too many of us see it as a structure. You know the truth.
Beautifully said, Jennifer!
Your cat reminds me of the year when I was single and lived in a Victorian apartment. I hung ornaments on the plate rack near the ceiling all-around the room. The next morning I woke up to the sound of repeated splats and discovered my cat was walking around the plate rack and deliberately knocking off each ornament. She considered that her own territory. Needless to say, I had a LOT of broken glass to clean up.
What a terrible scene to wake up to, Janet!
This is so typically “cat,” that I have to laugh. But it probably wasn’t funny to discover that morning!
What beautiful decorations, Wendy! Thank you for giving us a look into your home at Christmas time. I’m behind on my decorating this year thanks to a new puppy. We opted not to do our second tree this year because of not wanting to risk it by the puppy. 🙂 I’ve adopted two kitties in recent years, too, and thankfully neither play with the tree aside from a little nibble here and there. Isn’t that a relief?
I hear you on the puppy thing! We have 6 month old Havanese puppy that is still quite the handful. So far she seems blissfully indifferent towards most of the decorations. If only I could say the same thing for the family’s socks…
Haha, I know what you mean, Jennifer. That’s great that your pup is leaving the decorations alone! 🙂
The nice thing about a puppy is that they do not climb. A little Victorian picket fence around the tree and presents would do the trick. But Christmas with a new puppy is such fun.
I thought about the fence around the tree idea, Wendy, but our pup is 5 months old, nearly 60 pounds, and likes to play roughly with our bigger adult dog right where we usually put our second tree. So it seemed wiser to skip it this year. 🙂 But we still have our family tree in a room only the kitties get to go in, so I’m happy. 🙂 I forgot to mention that I adopted one of my cats on the 12th Day of Christmas, so I can relate to those days being special in many ways.
We always decorate tough. Wrap the lights tightly to the tree, looped around branches in a nice tangle so that WHEN the tree is knocked over, we can just soak up the water, pick up the broken bulbs, and stand it back up again. It is survival of the fittest with ornaments and decorations in a household of 3 active boys and a 90 pound dog who is still just a huge puppy. But we have fun decorating and I hold the ornaments loosely. Many of them will break, but that is OK, we enjoyed them for a time and we can always go to the thrift store or an after Christmas sale and get more. Someday, our tree won’t be knocked over, not even once. What a boring house we will live in then! Perhaps I will console myself by buying some nice ornaments…
“Decorate tough.” I love that!
Kristen, we anchor our tree to the wall. I really think we can stop now though … the cats are older and don’t try to climb it anymore. A few of our artificial tree’s lower branches sag from last year’s treatment though. 🙂 Making memories. 🙂
Oh, you reminded me of the time our pup, Pepperoni, got her collar caught in the tree lights. She pulled the tree over, and ran across the room to hide under the coffee table, tree unrolling from the lights behind her. We could barely right the tree, we were laughing so hard.
What a great attitude, Kristen. Choosing active boys and a big puppy over a “Martha Stewart Christmas” sounds like a wise, wise choice. Those boys will rise up and call you blessed. (The puppy won’t notice.)
I love your perspective on this, Kristen! Sounds like you really know how to find the joy in Christmas and not worry about things being perfect. I could learn from you!
Oh, you guys have the best Christmas Crash stories…Hey, everyone here who has had to anchor a tree to the wall or chased a dog and tree combo across the room should all get together and write a Christmas Novella collection. Crashing Christmas or something like that. Wouldn’t it be fun!
Dear Wendy, thank you so much for your beautiful tour, and I love your rocking horse on the piano. He’s great!
This part is for Andrew now.
Andrew, I would like to give you a gift for Christmas this year.
No, not one in a box so I’d need your mailing address, but one I hope will stretch across the country and maybe even the world. I want to pray for you to be healed.
May I ask two things of you. Could you tell me exactly what is wrong with you, (I honestly do not know, I apologize) Be as specific as possible, because you know God works with specifics, and that is what I want to ask him for.
The other is may I have your permission to ask others to pray for you as well, I would like to invite everyone who reads this blog, and everyone they may know who would pray, any church, ministry, group or healer anyone may feel led to ask for prayer, rather than just myself, because I am a firm believer in bombarding heaven if it is necessary.
To that, I also now ask you Wendy if that is all right. I recognize that the blog is not normally used in this manner, but over the months of reading Andrew’s comments, which essentially let us see into his exceptional mind, I can’t bear the thought of losing you, Andrew without putting up a fight. So man has had his chance. Let us now put you in the hands of the Creator, who himself brought me into life on the prayers of my father.
I pour the blood of Jesus Christ upon your head, Andrew. You spirits of pain and sickness, I command you to leave in the name of Jesus. For by His stripes you are healed. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. It is written. Amen
Wanda, I think everyone who reads this blog regularly prays for Andrew. He’s a blessing to us all.
Yes. We do pray and this is a wonderful gift, Wanda.
Oh, joy! Thank you, Wendy.
And you too, Janet Ann. If any of you who pray for Andrew could let him know, in whatever way you’d wish to, so that he can have that gift as well to hang on the Christmas tree.
We call down the blessings of the Lord. Oh thou most Holy, who came to us in the starlight that eve so lang ago, all praise and glory to thee. Thy hand upon our Andrew now, thy healing heart who seeks always health and goodness for his children, sprinkle now your stardust of gold upon him and give him back his life. In your name we pray. Amen