I walked into the danger zone today. It made me anxious and itchy. I needed to run into Michael's to get a couple supplies, so that I can follow through with last week's promise to hand-make a majority of my gifts this season. There were faux wreaths and garlands out front. There were silk poinsettias between the two sets of sliding doors. And as soon as I walked into the main store, it was as if Santa's elves held a massive kegger and threw up Christmas in all directions. There were plastic ornaments from floor to ceiling. There were sequined signs reading "JOY" and "MERRY." There were big buckets of sticks that looked like glittered candy canes and elf shoes. And the store was packed.
I'm not sure I'm ready, but it occurs to me that if I'm going to decorate this year, I really have to start thinking about it now. When you're a kid, the weeks leading up to Christmas last for-freaking-ever. It's an agonizing wait, and every day lasts a month. It makes sense to hang up tinsel garlands and plastic Santas. It is totally normal to spend a weekend painting wooden ornaments to hang on a tree. But after a while, it goes so fast. As soon as you put a wreath on the door, it's time to pull it down again. At least around here, people tend to leave their lights up long enough to make it worthwhile. (That was weird to me... in South Carolina, by the night of Christmas, the lights were off on everyone's houses. Here, nearly everyone has them burning through Twelfth Night, and some people leave them going almost to Presidents Day. Maybe it's because they're so pretty in the snow.)
I wonder who the people are who can completely change over their decorating with the seasons. Who has the energy to swap out spooky stuff for pilgrim stuff and then again for red and green (or blue and white) all in the space of a few weeks. I know there are people who are that organized. And they are capable of putting out the appropriate gee-gaws and textiles to set a mood, and just as quickly they box it all back up and stuff it in an attic for another year. I've known women who are scary good at this. Me, I'm lucky to have the energy to get a dead evergreen wreath off my door by Valentine's Day.
I love putting up lights, but I just don't know about all the rest this year. If I do it, I'm going to do it sooner than later, so it doesn't seem like I am pulling it all down a mere day after it goes up. The one thing that seems certain this year, we are probably not getting much of a tree. We gave up that possibility when we got a kitten for Halloween.
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