I am a Christmas freak. And every January I tell myself that I'm going to pare down the next year. There are probably a dozen large boxes in our attic--up two flights of stairs--that contain things for every room in the house (including the attic playroom.)
But when I bring those down and start trying to remember what goes where, I find myself smiling over little things:
But when I bring those down and start trying to remember what goes where, I find myself smiling over little things:
The five tiny paper houses--two vintage '40s and the others recent reproductions--that sit on a side table in the dining room. I arrange them randomly, like an old Dickens town, interspersed with half a dozen little bottle brush trees. When my grandchildren pass by that table, they suddenly become OCD (something that none of them are afflicted with at any other time) and rearrange them in neat little rows. My own miniature Levittown.
I have a village of bigger buildings similar to the popular collectibles, but these are ceramic ones I finished in the early seventies and there are only five of those also. There are trees, fences, lampposts, and a set of plastic people, including an elderly couple who are bent so that you can seat them in the plastic sleigh pulled by a handsome plastic steed. When oldest granddaughter Brooke was six or seven, she loved that village and always helped me set it up. And always after she went home, I would find the elderly couple sitting atop one of the house chimneys, surveying all.
Of course, the greatest treasure trove of all is the big tree. I have smaller ones, too, each decorated according to a theme: a cowboy one for the grandsons, a jungle tree for the granddaughters, a bird and animal tree in the basement family room, and a red-and-white snowman tree on the front porch with all of the grandchildren's names on the ornaments, and mittens, sleds, snowflakes and hats.
But the only theme for the big tree is the last fifty years of our lives. We have purchased ornaments on almost every trip we've taken and received ornaments from almost every friend and family member. The egg carton reindeer (was there ever an uglier kids' craft designed?) that one of our children made in kindergarten is always on that tree--maybe near the back. There is huge white barbed wire ring with a red and blue star in the middle of it received after I complained to our Texas son that he had never gotten me a Texas ornament. He said this was the biggest he could find. A whole collection of cross stitched trimmings were the gift of a dear friend. A yellow paper bird with a gold foil tail has been on the tree since our first Christmas. There are ornaments from Germany, England, Ireland, Vermont, Florida, Colorado, and California. There is a red glass hummingbird from sister Libby, a hand carved ball from sister Gretchen, and a crocheted egg from a former co-worker. Brooke helped me pick out the Nutcracker figures the year we saw the Joffrey perform that ballet.
Actually, it goes back more than fifty years. I also have a pine cone tipped with just a hint of silver--one of many made by my grandmother in the Forties the year she discovered silver spray paint. Each of these and many more evoke their own memories and smiles. And the tinsel. A couple of years ago, I found real tinsel in a catalog--not that nasty plastic stuff. And each year I carefully put it on strand by strand. And giggle as I remember the year daughter Kate was a senior and we also had an exchange student from Mexico, Aurora Flores. The girls were helping me decorate the tree when I was called to the phone in another room. I could hear fits of laughter while on the phone, and when I returned, there was tinsel on the drapes, the lamps, the ceiling fixtures, the pictures, and in the girls' hair. Everywhere but the tree.
So I probably won't put this all up next year. Right.
Actually, it goes back more than fifty years. I also have a pine cone tipped with just a hint of silver--one of many made by my grandmother in the Forties the year she discovered silver spray paint. Each of these and many more evoke their own memories and smiles. And the tinsel. A couple of years ago, I found real tinsel in a catalog--not that nasty plastic stuff. And each year I carefully put it on strand by strand. And giggle as I remember the year daughter Kate was a senior and we also had an exchange student from Mexico, Aurora Flores. The girls were helping me decorate the tree when I was called to the phone in another room. I could hear fits of laughter while on the phone, and when I returned, there was tinsel on the drapes, the lamps, the ceiling fixtures, the pictures, and in the girls' hair. Everywhere but the tree.
So I probably won't put this all up next year. Right.
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