So, tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day for us here in the US of A. I, personally, do not celebrate it for… reasons, but to each their own. If you do, I hope your celebration is nice, and full of peace and thanks. But I’m not here to talk about Thanksgiving. Nah, I’m here to write about what happens after.
Not Black Friday. Ew, no. I hope Black Friday dies a thousand painful deaths and never sees the light of day again. If I had three wishes right now, I’d use one of my wishes on that. It’s a horrible idea, and I have never partaken in that chaos. It’s an introvert’s nightmare.
This post is about decorating for Xmas (or Yule, since we’re both Agnostic), which we traditionally did in our house the day after Thanksgiving — taking them down New Year’s Day or thereabouts. We did that at my mom’s house, and I carried that tradition on with my kids after I got married. It was way easier to decorate when one has kids to put things up for, I guess. But even after the kids left, I still had things up for most of December.
Since marrying Doug, that tradition has kind of been thrown out the window because while he’s all for decorating, he’s not one to, you know, actually do the decorating. He’ll help… if I tell him what to do. That sounds terrible because it makes me sound like I’m the one doing all the work, which isn’t true. We share the load. But if I don’t get the ball rolling then the boxes of Xmas decor will stay in the storeroom. And since I’m disabled and have, like, zero energy, sometimes we’ll have a house bereft of Xmas cheer except maybe a tree. Which is kinda sad.
And I guess there’s often this sense that it just doesn’t feel very holiday-like lately. Not for me, and not for Doug. So, neither of us wants to spend our precious energy putting things up. Which is kinda ironic because the act of throwing shiny bits of color around the house is what helps put you in the mood. Or something like that.
And here’s something I’ve been thinking about lately. We live in New Mexico, right? But almost all of the Xmas decorations are based on things like snow, evergreen boughs, holly, heavy wax candles, red bows, and the like. Things based on England or New England and that have nothing to do with New Mexico.
It’s weird to deck the halls with boughs of evergreen when the purpose behind that tradition was to bring those branches into the house as a kind of a charm to encourage spring to return, because in those days, snow was everywhere and there was no green. You lit up the house because it was dark, the sky was overcast, and you were trying to bring back the light (the whole reason behind the Yule log).
We get snow here in New Mexico, not a lot, at least not where I live. So it feels strange to try and bring warmth and cheer into the place when the sun is shining and there isn’t a snowflake in sight. Sure, colorful lights look pretty at night, but fake snow looks weird, and anything wintery just looks off. At least to me. But I suppose people are used to the aesthetic, so that’s what they put up. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cold here, but it’s sunny cold, not snowy cold.
This year we’re kind of stuck in a contract we signed to have lights put on the house. But I don’t know what else to put up that isn’t going to be strange in the desert landscape. I have one idea, and I’m working on it. I might even get it done before December. Ha! I know about luminarias, but we live in a not-great neighborhood, and those would be gone in a week.
Anyway, that’s what’s on my mind right now. Thanks for listening. Take care of yourself, and I’ll chat at you later.
