Christmas Decor

Has this holiday ribbon made it to your town yet? Everywhere I go in my usual family-and-friends route through Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, I see it. This super-wide bendable mesh is the latest thing to hit Christmas decorating since the invention of inflatable yard snow-globes — at least around here. Folks are decking their halls,  mailboxes, wreaths, garlands, trees, lamp posts and even presents with it. I love it — it seems so bright and festive and cheerful — and I would join in except I spent major $$$ a few years ago on going all gold and white for our outdoor Christmas decor and I imagine that my dear and darling husband would not take kindly to a major redo. But it’s tempting. I tend to overhaul all our outdoor Christmas decor every several years or so. The current white and gold replaced a symphony of gorgeous metallic purples, reds, golds and greens that I was in love with but my children cringed every year and heaved ponderous sighs about living with circus decorations. And in its full glory, the white and gold isn’t much better – when I put everything out in its originally intended spot, the house takes on a sort of puffy Victorian fairy-tale look that really has nothing in common with anybody who lives inside it. Consequently, I pare it down to the bare essentials of a couple wreaths, some mailbox decor and a few bows here and there — leaving many $$$ worth of wreaths, garlands and ribbons packed up and unused. But do not tell the husband, please. Our secret???

Family and Christmas Trees

If you’re the oldest in the family and a girl and you’ve got one or more younger brothers, you know what a responsibility it is to keep those boys in line. I’ve been at it for almost 50 years and apparently my job isn’t done yet. Take, for instance, decorating the family Christmas tree. When we were young, Christmas began when our dad brought the big packing-barrel of tree ornaments out of storage and begin untangling the lights. As soon as the tree was draped with twinkling red and green and yellow-gold, we kids took over. (And it’s only now that I recognize my mother’s genius in making us children feel it was an honor and privilege to decorate the tree, thereby marking at least one chore off her holiday to-do list — a lesson I, sadly, never learned to apply to my own family. Sigh.) Anyway, I am four years older than my brother — our other brother is 16 years younger than me and didn’t figure into my growing-up adventures — and I always feel felt anointed with special powers of superiority, no matter what the subject. During the holidays, that subject was the Christmas tree. As my now-middle brother and I unpacked the ornaments and placed them on the tree, we inevitably began arguing. Why? Because my brother couldn’t follow basic principles of Christmas-tree design! I mean, c’mon! Who doesn’t know you’re supposed to put big ornaments in the back and lighter ones in front? Who doesn’t understand you’re supposed to balance colors and texture?? Who doesn’t get it that you put shiny ornaments next to lights to enhance their shininess??? It’s not rocket science here, people!!!! Whoops … sorry … deep breath … deep breath … As you can see, I maybe still have an obsessive-compulsive problem with tree-decorating. And with my brother. Because when I went to my parents’ house this past weekend to help them put up their tree (It is a privilege and an honor, right?), I found a note from my brother staking out placement for his favorite ornament: “Do not rehang. Sister, this means you! It’s perfect.” My mom said that he said he would have done all the tree decorating when he was there the day before but he knew I’d stage a redo. Just because he’s now a photographer and a college professor who teaches photography and art, I guess maybe he thinks he knows something about design. And big sisters.

Christmas Decor

This past weekend it seemed as if folks finally were catching the Christmas spirit. I mean, how can you not when you look out the window on Saturday morning and see snow? In my northwest corner of Alabama, sadly, it was only freezing  bitter cold — although beating Florida and moving up to  No. 1, football-wise, certainly put everybody in a festive mood — but as you headed east and north, it definitely was snowflake time. In Lynchburg, Tennessee, it was the weekend of the annual Christmas festival and holiday tour of homes, where snow crunching underfoot was just an added bonus. This Lynchburg homeowner decided to help Mother Nature along with these gorgeous bigger-than-life snowflakes in the front-yard tree. Just seeing this made me smile … and want to immediately head to a roaring fire with a mug of hot chocolate and plenty of refills.

Fall

I don’t want to sound all grumpy and old — I mean, I know who Monsters of Folk are, after all – but aren’t we rushing the holidays just a little bit? Look, it’s only early November, but I’ve already seen enough Christmas-shopping commercials and front-door Christmas wreaths to last me through December. And the thing is that I love the holidays. I am definitely a Christmas kind of girl. I believe you can never have enough wassail and frankincense and festive good cheer, not to mention yummy food, fun parties and presents for all. It’s just that I also am a fall kind of person. I love autumn leaves and pumpkins and brown and orange sweaters. I adore warm days and cool nights and those lovely 5 p.m. sunsets. And I know, I know — stores started  selling Halloween merchandise in August so technically we’ve had enough time to celebrate fall. But, still, it’s the first week of November. I’m just not ready to flip the switch to Christmas yet — particularly since that means Thanksgiving gets sort of lost. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays — you get all the fun without any of the pressure. What’s not to like about that? This arrangement I saw in a Tupelo, Mississippi, hotel lobby this past week would make the perfect Thanksgiving decoration — although it’s probably gone by now and replaced by a Christmas tree. Sigh. And, really, why fight it? I have been thinking about going ahead and unearthing the holiday CDs that every year I put away so carefully so I can find them easily the next year, which never works, of course. It usually takes me a couple weeks to track them down, so that should be about right. Feliz Navidad!

Decorating

I know I said I was continuing the New Year’s Countdown through Twelfth Night – Tuesday — but now that our tree is (finally) down and all the wreaths and garlands and Santas are packed up and I’ve broken almost every one of my resolutions already, I’m sort of over the holidays and ready to move on … to another holiday, that is.  Does your space feel empty without all those Christmas festive touches? I’m always glad to get my house back after turning it over to Christmas for a month, but I miss the whimsy of holiday decor — plus, it covers up the cat hair and distracts from the dust. So I keep the wintery things (snow people, mainly) out and gradually add red heart-y Valentine’s Day things, such as those cute heart “trees” and heart candles I put on the mantle after taking off the Christmas stars and angels. On the table by our front door — my absolute favorite piece of furniture in our whole house because so far in almost five years of marriage it’s the only one my husband and I have bought together – I’ve got a couple red and wintery serving pieces plus red and green candles I keep out until spring just because I like to. I  added a touch of Valentine’s Day: A wonderful mini folding photo album out of handmade paper that my younger daughter found at Sojourns, a Fair Trade shop in Birmingham, Ala., and put in my Christmas stocking. Adorable! In our kitchen, I dismantled the bowl of shiny Christmas ornaments that sat on the table and replaced it with three red heart candles. I love the clean look of red on white. Every year around this time I’m so grateful for my grandmother’s advice to always buy red. “You can use it for three out of four seasons,” she said, “and you can always find red things on sale.”  So true. Thanks, Grandma. See? I was listening.

New Year Countdown

Welcome to the first Saturday of 2009 and the ninth day in Cathy’s New Year’s Countdown for a tip on dismantling Christmas at your house. Look, even if you are one of those wonderfully organized people who already have (almost) all the holiday things wrapped, packed, labeled and back in the closet where they belong, you probably have a snowperson here and a Christmas candle there, still hanging around. And of course all the rest of us are staring at the tree that needs taking down today — or is that only me? Anyway, I admit I’m only so-so at housekeeping and downright bad at organization and in no way should I go around dispensing advice on these subjects, but I do love that wonderful feeling when everything is clean and uncluttered and efficient. Granted, because I’m inherently lazy and content to live like a slob, I don’t enjoy that feeling very often. But I know how to get it without much effort, so here’s a quick and easy route to post-holiday satisfaction: When you finally take it all down and put it all up, challenge yourself to 1) Throw/give away three things you don’t use but keep in storage anyway (this is where you can guiltlessly get rid of all those ugly Santas your aunt keeps giving you) and 2) Reorganize so you can easily put your hands on the essential part of your family holidays (the stockings, the Christmas CDs, the Advent calendar) that you spent two weeks trying to find in 2008. Do these things, and I promise you December 2009 will be a little less stressful. Not much, but a little. And isn’t that good enough? Check back for day no. 10 in Cathy’s New Year Countdown.

New Year Countdown

On the second day of Cathy’s New Year Countdown, it’s time to do your part for the economy: Get out there and spend your Christmas money. On yourself. Look, you were good all December. You got everybody everything on their lists and you did it within your budget while ignoring all temptation to treat yourself. You resisted the pull of those luxurious cashmere sweaters that felt so good, those fabulous high-heeled pumps that called out your name, that gorgeous jacket you accidentally tried on. But your job as a giver is done now! It’s over. You did good and everybody’s happy. Time to reward yourself. And, listen, all this talk about sales and bargains and slashed prices are true right now. Go shopping this weekend and I promise you can get about three times the value for your money. Really. I promise. If you don’t believe me, check out Web sites such as http://www.gap.com/ and http://www.victoriassecret.com/ and see for yourself. Actually, Gap’s Web site is one of the best for online shopping. You can bundle orders from Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic for one $7-shipping fee; you can return (most) items to the stores; and right now, with up to 80 percent off on online purchases, Gap and friends are practically giving their things away. Do not miss out. And check back tomorrow for Day No. 3 in Cathy’s New Year Countdown. (I know I was calling this the 12 Days of Christmas Countdown Part 2, but I’m ready to move on.)

New Year Countdown

All I can say is, wow — having Captain Adorable around for Christmas made it the best holiday ever! Our 9-month-old grandson considered the Dec. 25 festivities further proof that the world is full of fascinating things to touch, squeeze, throw, pinch and put in his mouth. My family had a wonderful Christmas and I hope yours did the same. In fact, it’s still a party around here — well, not right now since I’m the only one up at 5 a.m. and everyone else is sleeping it off. But still. We like to keep the good times going, unlike a former sister-in-law who literally — and I mean absolutely quite literally — began dismantling the tree as soon as the last wrappings were torn off and everyone was sitting around in a post-present daze. “Can you reach that string of lights?” she’d ask before we’d even had time for that third cup of Christmas morning coffee. Sheesh. I’m not that eager to get back to normal. So let’s keep things rolling with Cathy’s New Year Countdown as we count down the original 12 Days of Christmas to Tweflth Night, or Jan. 6. That seems like a better tradition than packing things up as soon as the stockings are unhung. For Christmas countdown Part 2, I’ll continue holiday-ing with tips, ideas, suggestions and all things festive. Ready? For Day No. 1, here’s my ode to Dec. 26 (after all, why should Dec. 25 have all the fun?):

‘Twas the morning after Christmas

and all through the land,

everyone was still sleeping

except for the band

of bargain-hunting shoppers

determined to find

discounts and sales

that will give them a hand

with next Christmas’s parties

and presents and such

so they can save lots of money

and tell husbands they hadn’t spent much.

 

Read the rest at my column in today’s TimesDaily, at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20081226/ARTICLES/812260323. And check back for Day No. 2 in Cathy’s New Year Countdown.

 

12 Days of Christmas Countdown

Merry Christmas! For Day No. 1 in Cathy's 12 Days Before Christmas Countdown, hope everyone's having great holidays.

12 Days of Christmas Countdown

Welcome to Day No. 2 in Cathy’s 12 Days Before Christmas Countdown. It’s Christmas Eve — time to get those stockings up. And if you still can’t find them (when you unpack the Easter decorations in a couple months, they’ll be there as wrappings for your china eggs) but don’t want to brave the crowds to buy replacements, try this incredibly stylish alternative my friend Marlene does at her house. Can you see what she’s used in place of stockings? Look closer. She’s got Santa hats up around her fireplace — turned upside down, they’re the perfect Christmas “stocking.”  Fabulous idea! But then, she’s that sort of stylishly fabulous person. I think she just lets me be her friend for comic relief. Check back tomorrow for Day No. 1 in Cathy’s Christmas Countdown.

And check out my rant about ugly mother-of-the-bride and -groom dresses at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20081224/SW/812110271/1085. I hate it when women feel as if they have to wear these dowdy, shapeless and outdated dresses when their children get married. Yuck! We deserve better! Anyway, that was my subject in my Fashionably Speaking column in the latest issue of Shoals Woman, one of the magazines published by the TimesDaily newspaper in Florence, Alabama. Read it and see if you agree.  And have a wonderfully Merry Christmas Eve today. Hope all you’re shopping’s done, your baking’s finished and family and friends are not stuck in airports somewhere or negotiating icy roads and arrive safely.