Monday, December 21, 2009

Not exactly a Pottery Barn Christmas

Every year I get the Pottery Barn holiday catalog. As I browse through the perfectly decorated trees in varying shades of blue and silver with matching ornaments, ever so simple yet elegant table centerpieces and matching holiday comforters, I just sigh.

Don't get me wrong. I love decorating for Christmas. But my decor is definitely not suitable for the pages of a glossy magazine.

Let's start with the tree. I let the boys hang the ornaments. They have not mastered the art of spacing them out and a single branch may hold three to five ornaments. The ornaments also move around from one day to the next, and new ones appear. Like this:

I find unusual objects in the Christmas tree...like a yardstick,

LEGOs (this was a big space ship, but by the time I took this picture, just a few LEGO bricks remained),


and a sock.

I also find festive handmade decorations taped on doors, cabinets and walls throughout the house.

We call this one "mean Santa."

A LEGO candle stands next to our small kitchen Christmas tree. It IS safer than a real candle.

A countdown Santa with an interesting arrow pointing to the wall outlet. A warning, maybe?

A winter penguin with no eyes taped to the banister stairs.

And my favorite wood snowman, now inside a red box with tiny candy cane stickers on the side.

I make fun of it all, but I like my hodge podge, mismatched, willy-nilly decor. It makes me laugh. Every day there is something new. And I know sooner rather than later, I'll be able to decorate however I wish, and yardsticks and Bendaroos will not be part of my festive decor.

But I have a feeling "mean Santa" will somehow show his face every year and become an important part of our holiday decor.

4 comments:

craftytammie said...

This made me laugh! I found a plastic rattlesnake in our tree this weekend. As a compromise, there's a 3 foot tree in each kids bedroom, for all those preschool ornaments being sent home, but they still like to redecorate the living room tree.

Jamie Opat said...

Susan, this is hilarious! I love the sock and the mean Santa.

nancy in ks said...

Thanks for the smiles!

Nicholle said...

funny! love the mean santa!