So This is Christmas

My rule is simple: Christmas comes after Thanksgiving. I don’t care how “festive” everyone else is feeling. I don’t care how many Santa displays pop up in stores before Halloween. Christmas is my favorite holiday, so why spoil it by burning out weeks before the day even arrives? I just don’t get it.

Anyway, after all the turkey and fixings had been finished, Christmas shopping was fair game. But my aim was a bit different this year. Before worrying about what to buy for Jessie, my family or anyone else, I had to get my apartment into season. I’m not much of a seasonal decorator, but Christmas is the exception. I definitely didn’t want to be staring at the same black and brown based room all December without some holiday cheer.

So, Jessie and I went shopping Saturday night to break in my apartment for its first Christmas. I didn’t go overboard, but I’m pleased to have the basics. We named my tree Wesley (it said Slim Welsley Pine on the box), and he’s a good-lookin fella if I do say so myself.

I was raised with a fake plastic tree. And after 24 Christmases without a real tree, I wasn’t about to start with the hassle now. Putting it together was a snap, although Jessie claimed her veteran branch-bending was more aesthetically pleasing than my novice job. For what it’s worth, I thought it looked about the same all the way around. After wrapping Wes in some colored lights (I don’t like the trees that go with plain white lights) and gold tinsel and plopping the star on top, I moved him to his home for the season—in the corner between the TV and couch. I moved one of the end tables and lamp into my bedroom to make room.

Jessie then helped me wrap some garland—a word I had never heard of until two days ago—with lights up and around the window and curtain rod. It looks nice and festive. The tree itself is small: six feet tall and a bit on the slender side. But it suits me and my apartment well. Now I just need to accentuate it with the coolest ornaments in the world courtesy of my dad.

Still, nothing’s going to touch the childhood memories of Christmas at home. My dad and brother Jeff always do an awesome job decorating the outside of the house, and my mom and sister Molly usually match them with their work on the inside. Plus, going through everyone’s ornaments was one of the coolest and most unique Christmas traditions I know. (Check out what I wrote about it back on my old Web site in 2004.)

I’m not sure what else, if anything, I’ll do to fancy up the apartment for the holidays, but the tree and garland definitely give it a glowing warmth that it lacked before. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And now that it’s December, I’m more than OK with that. Print this post