It used to take a week or more to decorate at the farm when the kids were growing up. The trees, the spiral staircase, outside - I even cut various sizes of lace paper doilies into snowflakes and glued them on the front and back windows. That was the most beautiful part. I have two closets full of Christmas decorations, many antique, that my kids don't want as it is not their style or they don't have room for. Wish I had had the forethought to go through them and sell them in my booth. Here are the little dolly ice skates I bought recently.
But, I am become Scrooge. I didn't decorate after they grew up as they didn't come to the farm and I didn't want to haul out all of the stuff and put it back up. Too much trouble. We had to go to the city so Santa would come and visit and I just did a minimal job at our other city house for the grandkids.
Last year I found these birch trees from Restoration Hardware. Already lit and easy, with brown paper packages tied up with string.
I have house collections, trees too, and a Snowman collection I couldn't find room for, so maybe another year. I did put out a few on this table and you'll notice the baby skis and child's skis along with the ice skates I recently found.
So, I had this old wood tree-shaped store display I brought up to the city to sell in my booth. I thought I probably wouldn't find anything else like it and used it to display my Christmas village. Didn't have to spread the village out and it went perfectly there. All the little people and things were quickly removed by my baby granddaughter, Penny Lane. She had a ball with it.
So maybe, I have not become such a Scrooge. If not for the grand babies, I still wouldn't decorate, but just for them, I am. Now, I've got to start baking and candy making and shopping for presents too.
46 comments:
What fantastic Holiday Decorations you have shared with us today. I, so enjoyed every little bit of it. Yes, life keeps moving on as we take this journey chapter by chapter. Priorities frequently change and sometimes we don't even realize it. I think the amount of energy we have many times determines what is important. But, I am glad that you did your decorating. It sure is lovely. Blessings.
Thank you Mary. You never really know what's coming till it arrives. Hope your computer problems clear soon and your holidays are good.
The De-Scrooging of Donna! Penny Lane had done wonders. All your decorations remind me of my BFF Carol's house every year. She grew up dirt poor and set out to keep holidays properly as an adult. Her house was breathtaking, and took hours and days and weeks. Now she has moved to South Carolina. I bet she outdid herself again, especially as she will have her grandchildren for the first time in years.
And yet another surprise girl baby grandchild to arrive the first week of February. There will be four now and at least one more to come one day. I am thinking of you dear Joanne.
What a lovely Christmassyfeel to your blot today Donna. I think that on the whole people in the US pay much more attention to decorating for Christmas than we do - although I intend to take my camera into town in the morning and take a few photographs.
I would love to browse through your ornaments..those skates are precious..the last 3 years I have not done our village..
love the set up you have for yours..and quite honestly I love your RH birch trees..very French and Scandinavian..
And I can't wait to see them Pat.
Yes they are Monique. Restoration Hardware used to have the best stocking stuffers of all, so I popped in Sunday last and not a Christmas decoration anywhere. They had at least six workers standing around with the iPads and no one in the store. What? They said they were concentrating on decor more now, but had a Christmas decor catalog. I bet they'll be re-thinking and firing someone over this. Missed an entire year of shoppers. Now, if they'd just asked me...
Love your decorations. I would happily sit beside them and smile.
Very little decorating in our home. No children. Visiting or resident.
Baking and present shopping though...
I hardly do anything, but got in the swing of things today and took a big box over to a womens center with a tree.
I hear you Child. It will be 11 degrees Fahrenheit tonight and I dread going out so I'd like to stay inside and bake.
So sweet of you. I do what I can for the less fortunate too, but do it all year around. Never any rhyme or reason when or why it hits me.
I love those trees with the lights, their simplicity and beauty.
We have no grandkids so I decorate for us, makes me happy. Love the ice skates
Looks like some Christmas spirit! I already think that when the kids leave (will they?) that I will stop decorating! lol
Me too - love the minimalism.
Love that it makes you happy. Made me smile. I just love old things and the skates fit the bill.
I didn't think I would ever stop decorating, but lo and behold... And, no, they never leave.
Those skates! I love it. Birch trees are so beautiful and simple anyway, but to use them as Christmas trees is so clever and perfect. Lovely. My mom still sets up the village each year for the grandkids. Well, one that's kid-friendly and then a "be-careful-no-touch!" village of her more treasured villagey pieces. There's something about miniatures. . . .
Beautiful decorations Donna - making me feel sad I can't get mine out this year! Off to Europe tomorrow and not back until New Year so it didn't seem prudent to drag everything down from the attic.
Love the lighted houses - I've given my collection to my daughter and she's busy this week putting them up for the first Christmas in her little house recently purchased. They will be perfect and luckily her partner is an electrician so can fiddle around happily as he strings them all together - a job I found most frustrating for years!
Many of my little pieces are broken anyway so I didn't care. I would have loved all miniature things when I was a kid. You couldn't find them. We had a tree growing up with bulb lights and tinsel and angel hair all over that stuck in our fingers. Guess everyone did at my age.
It's been years for me too Mary and I hope I remember next time to package in same box lights with village and put lights in first. It was a mess. The littles will enjoy it when they come to see it. Have a wonderful trip home as it sounds like the perfect time to go.
I love the lit birch trees! but christmas is not a holiday I celebrate so no decorating for which I am glad. I enjoy other people's decorations though.
I'm with you Ellen.
Oh Donna your decorations are beautiful - you go to so much more trouble than I do - I am afraid I am becoming an old Scrooge too.
Everything looks delightful, Donna, I love the village on the table with the fir trees beneath. Sadly we have no grandchildren, but it doesn't stop me decorating the house! The tree will come inside and be decorated on Christmas Eve. All our little family will be together for the holiday and I'm so looking forward to it.
That first photo is so fabulous.
It just feels like Christmas. In fact ot would make a lovely Christmas card or notecard.
Wonderful.
cheers, parsnip
We do go down different paths as we age Elaine.
Sounds good Rosemary. May yours' be filled with much love.
Thank you Parsnip. Hope your loved ones will be home for Christmas, if only in your dreams, though I'm sure you and the Ham would be a party in itself.
Nice and festive. The tree looks like fairyland.
I think that you are anything but Scrooge Donna ...... it all looks so beautiful .... you have some lovely pieces ..... I really LOVE the little skates !! I think that we must still decorate at Christmas, even as we get older !! XXXX
Thank you Sandra.
Thank you Jacqueline. I am really interested to find out what I have stored away as I haven't seen it in several years. Maybe The Grinch was a better description.
Those birch trees look so beautiful and simple. Sarah x
Christmas Villages are fun aren't they?
And you can, or maybe that should be could, get just about any kind of village you want(ed) to create.
Started your baking yet?
3rd to the right:)the ringlets..blondish..
Very observant!!!
Oh Sarah, thank you. I am becoming more minimalist.
No Sarah, no baking yet. I was planning on making batches of peanut brittle while at the farm and can't find any raw peanuts here. It's a Dicken's Village and I haven't had it out in years. Grandkids love it.
Yay, it just reminded me of you Monique - full of joy.
Dear Donna love your little skates and your tree with the village display is just wonderful. I think friend you won't make a good scrounge...you just have too much Christmas spirit! Have a great week. Hugs!
Thanks Deb. So sweet of you to say. Hope your holidays are the best this year.
Donna, It seems you did quite a bit of decorating to me! The little cardboard houses are my favorites of your groupings. I know what you mean though, it takes so much effort these days to pull it all together, and then the thought of putting everything away again is enough to make you cringe. I manage to get a tree up each year, sometimes a REALLY little one. But if I'm feeling very brave, I'll go for the 12 footer, not this year.
Jeri, never say never has never been truer. As I've aged, so many things have changed; some I have control over and some I don't, but I've learned to go with the flow rather that always fighting every battle. If I feel like it, I'll do it and if I don't, I won't. I have putz houses and so much more decorations and collections that I'm going to give away or sell. Never thought I would.
I love the birch trees with the tiny lights. I have two fake fig trees in my dining room that I keep lit with those white twinkle lights all year round - something about it feels magical.
Thank you dear Amanda. Long time no see. Been busy? Fig trees with lights sounds wonderful. I thought of you the other day when my granddaughter Isobel started telling me about Rome. She is hooked on history and loves the mythology.
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