Christmas Time Already?

I brought out my snowman collection to start with the winter decorating seeing as the blanket of snow is still on the ground and does not seem to be leaving any time soon. I put everything out and stood staring at the room hating it. The more I fiddled the worse it got. It was too cluttered. So I choose a few and put the rest away. I won't start the Christmas decorations until the 1st of December.

We moved here from a small isolated town up north. The city put the lights up around Dec 1st and roughly the same time for the stores to start decorating. I remember the first Christmas advertisement starting at about the last week of November. You know, Christmas carols played through the phone lines at say....Christmas Time. When did the Christmas season start a week before Halloween? Did I miss that memo? I'm pretty sure I was around for the last twenty years.

I couldn't believe watching the first of the Christmas commercialism onslaught a week before Remembrance Day. The USA hasn't even had their Thanksgiving yet and we are already listening to Christmas carols while on hold. But I totally digressed there.

I was shocked to see Christmas Tree up at the last week of November and after Dec 1st, it seemed like every window had a light display or a tree lit up. I couldn't believe the transformation that occurred in such a small amount of time. We usually put our tree up two weeks before Christmas and some years that seemed early.

I always knew when Christmas was around the corner. I would come home from school and Mom would have baked the Christmas Cakes. I still remember the warmth that hit when walking into the door. (In Prince George, snow was usually on the ground before Halloween.) The smell of the spices hung in the air causing your tummy to gurgle. The house was warm from both the oven and the wood stove fireplace (Not a huge honking actual cook stove) would be lit in the rec room. To this day I love the smell of cinnamon, ginger, cloves and allspice, with a dash of nutmeg baking. Its like a happy place for me.

I was one of the lucky ones, I have fond memories of growing up. There was the trial and tribulations of the tender years if you want to put it that way. I didn't come out of it totally unscathed but on the whole looking back I can say that I was very lucky. I had parents to were always there even when I didn't want them to be there. Christmas time over the years changed and in some cases still needs to change. Its time for the adult children to set their own.

I guess in some ways that is what the house is reflecting this year. The change that has taken place. I don't feel the need to have every single thing out for decorations and live with the discontent because its the holidays. I have discovered the "Less is More" cliche. It the first year I have really like all the wintry stuff around. I plan on doing the same with the Christmas decorations.

Mind you the "Less is More" thing does not apply to Christmas Tree lights. The more blinded the family is the better. Growing up, my father always did the lights. We would have trudged out to get the tree my father selected the day before and it would sit in the basement over night. The smell would permeate the house. Then we would wait patiently (as kids do) for Dad to get the tree into the stand and put the lights on. Then we got to decorate the tree. Growing up Dad would direct up and Mom would tell him to leave us be. He would spend the evening evening out the ornaments until he felt the tree was just right. It used to annoy the hell out of my mother but, as an adult I do exactly the same thing with the tree. Even our daughter is picky when it comes to where to hang an ornament. She wasn't home last year for the tree trimming but she sure critiqued the tree when she saw it.

We have a six foot tree. Last year I had 1500 lights on it. All clear. It was cool. I might see if I can hit the two thousand mark this year. Oh Yeah, I'll apologize ahead of time for any brownouts in the area. I gotta have my lights.