The yearly ritual of decorating for Christmas is an interesting phenomenon at my house. We dread getting everything out of storage and hauling it all upstairs. It tests our patience to put on the lights, try and find the right combination of decorations for the available nails already in the wall, and then find a place to put our regular decor while the Christmas stuff is out.
We enjoy the decorations if they stay put and the lights stay on. But after Christmas we can hardly wait to take it all down and resume the normal boring life. Why do we bother?
5 comments:
because it is a physical and visual reminder of the special season.
And we have a cool wreath-tree.
Here is the answer to my whining. It was found in the Sunday message by Lloyd Newell with the MTC broadcast:
"Are we motivated by love? If love— is real, authentic love— is the force that moves us to deck the halls, bake the cookies, or give the gifts, then Christmas will feel like a blessing, not a burden. The Christmas story will enliven our efforts —or maybe inspire us to simplify them. We will feel the majesty of that holy night because we know that “he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God” (1 John 4:16)."
I don't think untangling lights has anything to do with authentic love. That's just annoying. When I'm a grown-up, I'll bake the cookies and give the gifts, but I don't know about the decorations. I'll leave that to my mom. Then my kids will love your house even more.
I don't know what y'all are talking about. I love decorating for Christmas --when I have the time.
It's a ritual. Like when the first grass patches would show up between the snow drifts and I'd be begging dad to let us set up the trampoline. He always dragged his feet at the labor involved, but I saw it as the passage into the next beautiful scene of life.
A recent article about a study of numerous families stated four things that make families successful: Traditions, eating meals together, family councils, and respecting eachothers, feelings, privacy, and possessions. I guess the Christmas scene is the tradition we need to know that things are as they should be.
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