Confessions of a Casual Perfectionist: Day 17

It’s NaBloPoMo Day 17!

Today’s confession: I don’t like holiday decorations.

There. I said it. I don’t like holiday decorations. Not only that, I’ll take it a step further. I can’t stand holiday decorations. Would “hate” be too strong a word? I’m probably not going to make very many friends with this post today, but this is about confessions, and this is a timely one.

I don’t like holiday decorations in my own house.
You can do what you want in yours.
Yes, your decorations look lovely.

Luckily, my husband doesn’t like decorations either, so for years, we lived in a decoration-less house, and it was awesome. For years, we’d say, “We have kitties! We can’t have all those decorations out!” or “We travel for the holidays, so what’s the point?”

Those were true, but they were all just excuses we had for not having a tree and for not being so “festive.” And, we loved every minute of it.

I have a box of ornaments from my childhood, and I’ve experienced the magical glow of a lighted tree…but I just don’t want to decorate. I hate getting everything out. I hate putting it all up. I hate taking it all down and putting it all away.

So, we didn’t.

Then we had a child and decided not to travel anymore for the holidays, inviting all our relatives here, so we had to pretend we actually like decorations.

I’m very good at pretending to like all this, so some people who read this will be shocked. I try to keep my feelings to myself, and my husband is the only one who gets to hear my grumbling and muttering when it’s time to drag out all the decorations. Lucky him.

I was [tortured with] surrounded by holiday decorations as a child. My mom would decorate every square inch of our house, starting the day after Thanksgiving and they would stay up until January. I’m not kidding.

My mother-in-law also takes great pride in her decorations and her tree.

Sometimes I feel like I’m all alone in my feelings. I like the way our house is decorated now. We’re rather minimalistic as it is, but it’s exactly the way we want it. I don’t want to change it, just because there’s one holiday or another right around the corner.

All this being said, if I have to decorate, I’ll admit that I do have a fondness for snowmen. People have given me various snowmen artifacts and paraphernalia, and they are cute and festive. I begrudgingly dig them out, dust them off and display them. I spend a month trying to keep them clean, straight, and unbroken. Then I dust them off, pack them up and try to fit them back into the space we have allotted for them in the storage closet with all the other decorations. And for what? Because decorations make people happy?

I guess decorations do make me happy…when they’re all packed away for another year.