Christmas Decorations
I put up my Christmas decorations on December 1st, but take them down again before the New Year. I dislike the falderals hanging around after Christmas is over. Compared to many, I am quite minimalist when it comes to decorations, which I confine to the lounge. We have some well-loved baubles that come out every year. In spite of the fact they are looking a bit worn now, Christmas would not be the same without them. Two years ago, I finally persuaded my husband that an artificial tree was preferable to a real one, which sheds many of its needles by Christmas day and were still being hoovered up in April.
Some people love the festive season so much that they go totally over the top where the decorations are concerned. Most of the year must be spent either putting them up, or taking them down! In the run up to Christmas the media normally features some of the more extreme examples of these seasonal extravaganzas. I shudder to think of the size of the ensuing electricity bills! I am sure that the children in the vicinity must delight in these magical Christmas palaces. When I was young, I would have been thrilled if I seen a house illuminated in that way.
When trying to buy advent calendars for my grandchildren, in our local supermarket, I was disappointed to discover that not a single one had a nativity scene. It is fine to have fun, and enjoy the Christmas season, but it is really sad if people haven’t a clue why it is being celebrated. I get really annoyed when, for the sake of political correctness, some schools have scrapped traditional nativity plays for fear it might offend folk of other faiths. I don’t suppose it offends them in the slightest. Smoke was coming out of my ears the other day, when I heard it suggested that Christmas should be renamed Winterfest!
I have a decoration that I hang up each year, with the inscription ‘Keep CHRIST in Christmas’. I say Amen to that.