Wayne Weekly “Deck the Halls”

We all try to hold on to family traditions during the Christmas holidays. Sometimes it takes the form of certain kinds of cookies and candy. Sometimes special food dishes that have graced the Christmas banquet table over the years. And then there are Christmas decorations.

At my house, my wife Evie decks the halls with a discerning array of festive motif, in other words, some pretty cool decorations that look good. Each year I make the journey to one far corner of our attic and begin the assembly line of transferring totes and barrels of garland, lights, wreathes and ceramics to the bottom of the attic stairs. Generally this happens three or four times before the transfer is complete.

Next Evie takes on the massive task of stripping our walls of our regular décor and replacing it with Christmas. The regular décor…well I get the joy of hauling it to other places in our house to store until after Christmas. Over a period of days, our home inside is transformed into a beautiful holiday spectacle worthy of a television special!

Outside…umm, that’s my job. I have somewhat of an artistic flair I think, but I measure my time and am always thinking ahead, “In a few weeks I got to take all this down!!!” So, the exterior of our house gets an average seasonal treatment. On a scale of 1-10, ten being the best, my final product is probably about a 4, OK, a 3.5.

Now my neighbor next door, he leaves nothing out of the Christmas mix. He’s got oodles of lights, wreathes, lighted candles, a lit snowman and Santa Clause, elves, a lighted arbor at the entrance of his sidewalk, and yes, he has a nativity scene. No stone is left unturned.

The Christmas season can be very hectic, but it can be loads of fun too. I guess you choose your battles. If you want to find fault with the world’s treatment of Christmas, you can. I know I’ve contributed to that. But I’m gratefully at the point where I just want to spend my energy enjoying the season with my family with all the traditions, and celebrate Jesus.