My husband hates when I ask him to drag out the Christmas decorations every year. It continually is a fiasco because we never store them correctly or in an organized way, and they are never in a convenient place. The Christmas decorations generally end up behind all of the summer items that were brought into the Christmas decoration storage from outside, so I usually have to set aside an entire day for him to drag everything up to the main floor.

I love Christmas decorations, which doesn’t help the situation. We have boxes and boxes full, and we’ve only had our own place to decorate for about four years. I really don’t know where all of our decorations came from but I love all of them. I know we inherited some of my grandmother’s Christmas decorations gifts, which of course are my most cherished. They may not be the most beautiful Christmas decorations, but they hold special meaning and many childhood memories so they are displayed most prominently.

Then there are the decorations that my mother purchased for us, or that his mother purchased, or even that friends and extended family purchased. We have a huge amount of lighted Christmas decorations, but they are always tastefully displayed. Now, my mother in law’s house looks like Santa threw up in it every time Christmas rolls around. She is a total craft nut, so she has countless Christmas decorations that are just scattered everywhere around the house. And I mean everywhere.

I don’t think there is one inch in that house that is not covered in red, green or gold during the holiday season. There are knitted tissue box covers, toilet seat covers, wall hangings, quilts; you name it and it is there. So many commercial Christmas décor that you can’t even distinguish where one ends and where another begins. But she loves them, so I suppose that is all that matters. Then there is my family. Hardly any decorations because they clutter the house, and they even started using an artificial tree the past few years.

There are a few poinsettias, a few spatterings of gold bows and green wreaths but nowhere near the explosion of my mother in laws home. I am now seeing that the home my husband and I have created is certainly a mixture of both of our backgrounds, melding into the perfect display of Christmas decorations. I don’t think we’d have it any other way.