Decking the Halls at Elm Cottage
Well, it’s officially December now and we have just had our first snowfall of the season. Almost as if on cue, the quickly approaching holiday season seems to have orchestrated a blanket of soft white to start off the annual season of everything ‘ho-ho-ho’. Here at Elm Cottage we definitely enjoy the winter holidays and all of the hustle and bustle and fun moments that this festive time of the year allows. Of course, as avid collectors, it is also the time of the year that we get to rummage though the storage boxes in the basement for our carefully-put-away Christmas collection that has been hibernating since last January.
It does seem to me as if it were just August, so I do not really know where the time, and of the fall months in between, has gone, but here we are again with December just about begging us to provide a bit of extra sparkle to the darkening days. We do wait until Thanksgiving has passed, but once December arrives, the mums and pumpkins are sent to the compost pile and the delicately stored boxes of decorations are unpacked one by one. We generally bring the boxes up from the basement in order of what room we are decorating - bringing everything for that one room up at the same time - unpacking it and laying it out so that we know exactly what we have to work with. It is always a fun and special time of the year when we begin to unwrap our holiday decorations, thus beginning the annual, multi-week task that is ‘decorating for Christmas’.
Inside and outside - the halls and the landscape, the house and the garden - all become festooned with holiday finery. Outside, the house is decorated with natural, evergreen wreaths and other greenery, as well as many things cut right from the garden (red-twig dogwood branches are a particular favorite). The inside of the house is decorated with faux greenery and trees, and there are many reason why. First of all, we have had so many of these things for years now - the trees - they are not something that we want to simply dispose of for no reason; no sense having things sent to a landfill when they are perfectly good and useful. Also, as we do have a rather large collection of Christmas ornaments, we need more than one tree (last I counted it was 13). It just would not be practical, or safe for that matter, to display as many trees for as long as we do (our decorations are usually up for at least six weeks), so faux greenery inside of the house is what works best for us.
We always start decorating on the day after Thanksgiving and that usually continues for a good week, if not more. Decorating the outside of the house requires additional time. And no matter how many times we think that we are ‘all done’, there always seems to be something else to do; ‘finishing touches’ almost becomes a mantra. And the work continues right up until December 25th. I use the term ‘work’ loosely of course, because as far as work goes, it certainly is fun work! The memories that each unpacked ornament brings is a unique feeling that is special to this time of the year alone.
And while our collection has indeed grown rather large over the years, each and every item truly has meaning for us - it is not simply a collection of ‘things’. This is not only the case for our holiday collection, but for any of our collections, for any item brought into our home that we live with and love - each and every object is appreciated. Unpacking the collection, we can remember who’s family a particular ornament came from or who gave us something in particular; when and why. We also remember the items that we have acquired ourselves, whether from a visit to an antique shop or through a chance stop at a local estate sale. No single item in our Christmas collection - or any item in our house for that matter - is simply a commodity; each and every single thing - from a strand of vintage ribbon to an old bottle brush tree; from a nineteenth century Victorian ornament to a worn out old Santa Claus, is precious. Each item in our collection has particular meaning and special memories. And that is why so much care and effort and time is spent at this moment of the year to display, and to enjoy these things as best we can.
So, even as I write this, the boxes are being upacked and the swags of greenery are going up over the archways. Our vintage ornaments are being carefully unwrapped and hung on the tree. Santas and metal figure skaters, and dime store bargains galore from long closed stores are now finding their places here and there throughout the house. Victorian ornaments and old cardboard houses, which have been passed down through the family from previous generations, are now ‘decorating’ our home, as they once did for others. And we do have some newer items too - which will be the collectibles of the future - that are also an important part of our holiday celebration. The goal is to ‘deck the halls’ and to make everything as merry and bright as possible. As the days grow shorter and colder, and as we begin to spend our time indoors, the holiday season is always a welcome celebration of all things past, present and future. Time to hang another ornament on the tree!
Until next time…
