Christmas Decorations

It is January 8 and my Christmas decorations are still up. And I'm ok with that. I'm sitting next to my tree, its lights reflecting off my monitor. My two manger scenes are still up too. The good one needs dusted but is beautiful. The one the kids can play with is in pieces (one of the wise men is missing but I suspect he is under the couch) but that's because it has been through several re-enactments this holiday season.

My family has never been one to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. I don't mean to offend if you are the type to do so, but I'd rather ease into Christmas decorating. Those who decorate right after Thanksgiving most often say something like this, "By the time Christmas Day rolls around I can't stand all the decorations and I can't wait to take them down!" To me, that seems rather abrupt... and sad.

When my mom was a child, Santa brought their tree Christmas Eve. They wouldn't see a tree until they came down Christmas morning. Can you imagine the excitement to see a tree all decorated for the first time surrounded by presents! I've since learned that it is German custom to decorate Christmas Eve.

Growing up, we decorated maybe a week or so before Christmas and kept the tree up for my birthday in the middle of January. I thought I was cool. Not too many can say they have a Christmas tree up on their birthdays.

My husband's birthday is December 9 so we decorate after his birthday and the decorations stay up until my daughter's birthday. I love how the joys and celebrations of Christmas extend past Christmas day. We even keep the Christmas lights on outside. It's funny how many ask if we are Serbian. Their Christmas was yesterday (January 7) and their New Year's is January 14. Nope, we're not Serbian. We just like to keep the specialness of Christmas going into the New Year and beyond.

So it seems perfectly normal to me to wish you a Merry Christmas on January 8th. Merry Christmas!