Decking the Halls

The holiday are here.  That means redecorating the house with seasonal cheer.  Over the years, I have accumulated a lot of decorations, mainly because I can never resist them in stores. 

This is my tabletop, featuring a pair of vintage snowman candlesticks I picked up last year.

I do love snowmen.

It's baaaack!

There are two of these.  They jingle.

Snowman swizzles, for egg nog.

Served in vintage snowman glasses, of course.

This year I found a lovely vintage crocheted doily.  I think it looks kind of snowflake-y. 

This was a labor of love for someone.  I'm sure they lost their eyesight over it.  Oops, I probably shouldn't mention that at Christmastime, should I?  Having no place to put the chicklet dish over the holidays, I incorporated it into the decorating scheme. I need a place to put my cough drops, after all.

I also found this wonderfully festive holiday bear.

And what display would be complete without the not-so-festive holiday hamster?

Adding to the ambience are some bright twinkling lights on the patio (shot through an appropriately misty glass door for atmosphere).

But the centerpiece of any holiday display is of course, the tree. 

It is very important to select the proper tree.  You will have to live with it for at least three weeks, so choose wisely.  Once you have brought the captive home, the first thing to do is make sure it is secure in the holder.  The last thing you want is for the thing to come crashing down in the middle of the night, or worse, while you're under it giving it water.  Now you are ready to begin the decorating process.  First, lay out your lights. 

It's a good idea to plan ahead to make sure you don't end up with two female plugs on the end.  Progressive is good, but some things need to work the old-fashioned way.

After removing all the light strings and starting again, you are rewarded with a lighted tree.

Then, remove ornament box from closet.  (Before doing this, check to make sure winter boots are not sitting on top of ornament box.  If they are, remove them.)  Set box on living room floor.  Realize you don't remember where you put the ornament hooks last year.  Return to closet, pull out two other boxes of decorations.  Search each box thoroughly.  After not finding hooks, replace boxes in closet.  Stand staring at ornament box trying to use ESP powers to locate hooks.  Open ornament box.  See hooks sitting right on top.  Take break. 

Put on holiday film to get in the mood.  Realize that Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie ever made.  After sitting on couch for two hours watching all of Die Hard, begin hanging ornaments on tree.  Finally, after many hours of hard labor, this is your reward:

A perfectly decorated holiday tree!  Light some candles and enjoy the peaceful holiday mood.

Note:  do not light candles until the tree is safely up, otherwise you may end up with The Towering Inferno holiday display, which conveys a slightly different mood.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

And, just because I can: