I made the executive decision yesterday to decorate our house for Christmas, on November 15th. This is maybe the earliest I have ever decorated, and I’m feeling good about it.
I have referenced (probably ad nauseum, sorry), that things are BUSY right now.
We have like 4 swim meets coming up before Christmas. Asher’s birthday is December 2nd. The garage/ room projects are still….there. Thanksgiving is next week, at my house. (Very small- just basically my parents. And maybe my sister-in-law’s family. So, very low stress. But still- gotta prep, cook, etc.) Holiday cards? (maybe) Present buying/ wrapping.
And then, I have the huge 3 day home hosted swim meet that I am coordinating all the volunteers for on December 17-19. I took some time yesterday morning to work on that (hence no blog post), and at the moment, my rough estimates show I’m sitting at needing around ~250 volunteer positions for the course of the 7 different sessions of the meet.
Which is, a LOT, and also, more concerningly, way more positions than I’m probably going to have families to actually work! So, yeah! Yippee for figuring that out. But it’s okay, because I’m sure most families will jump at the chance to volunteer a bunch of extra hours on the weekend before Christmas. 🤯 (False. They will NOT.)
SO- I looked at the calendar, saw a big “open” Monday evening after school, and I told the boys, “Let’s DO THIS!”
It is early, yes. But you know what? It’s done. (Kind of…minus the tree. And our outdoor decorations.)
When we looked back at pics from last year, to see where everything goes (because I can never remember), I saw our pictures from Thanksgiving last year. Last year I apparently decorated for Christmas on December 1st, after Thanksgiving.
I started to feel a twinge of sadness/ “guilt”…”Oh, the house looked so nice on Thanksgiving with all the fall decor still up…the orange and leaves and pumpkins….Shoot, maybe I should have waited…..”
But then I remembered the tip from the other day: Just because you do something one year, doesn’t mean you always have to do it!
So just because I’m decorating for Christmas early this year (because it will help my future self out), so what?! Doesn’t mean I can’t have a “fall-like” Thanksgiving next year again. Or not! Anything goes. 🙂
Also, I’ve been wanting to mention this book I read last December, right before Christmas:
It’s a complete history of Christmas- the cultural side of it. How did it turn into this crazy, worldwide phenomena of carols, Santa, reindeers, and putting trees inside our homes?? Where did those traditions even come from? What does any of that have to do with Baby Jesus? And was he even born on the 25th??
It’s all in this book! It is a fairly small book and an easy read, and it was soooo interesting to me! I would highly recommend it if you like Christmas and are interested in its roots. Many things were a huge surprise to me, too.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful that my lighted garland STILL WORKED, because I did not have another to replace it with, and I didn’t want to have to go try and find one.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Love the book suggestion. I really enjoy this sort of thing; seems like a great thing to curl up and read on a cold December night.
I’m still on the fence about putting our small tree up this week. The last few years I’ve always had it up before Levi’s birthday, but that would require me to do it in the next few days…and I’m just not feeling it this year. Renos start tomorrow (upstairs and outside, so won’t impact the family room)…and it just feels like more chaos to manage. BUT, it’s also nice to enjoy the glow of the Christmas lights for as long as possible and I am a relatively minimal decorator. We’ll see – maybe I’ll just rip the Band-aid and do it tonight with the kids?
Also – kudos for having all those adorable fall/Thanksgiving-themed decorations. I have exactly one thing I put up (jack-o-lantern covers on our mantle mini-lights) for fall/Halloween. But I enjoy living vicariously through people like you who have such great holiday decor.
I feel you on the volunteer conundrum. “But it’s okay, because I’m sure most families will jump at the chance to volunteer a bunch of extra hours on the weekend before Christmas. 🤯 (False. They will NOT.)” – This made me laugh 🙂 All the best sorting it out. Everything is figureoutable. Especially if you could find a way to clone us all; two of me could get all the things done I need AND want to do.
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Hahaha, I do have a lot of decorations!!! I really love them. I mostly just decorate for Halloween/fall, and then Christmas, of course!! After that I get burned out and I don’t decorate for any other holidays. 🙂 Looking forward to seeing your tree!
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Have you already or considered reaching out to former swimmers and their families to volunteer at the swim meet? I’m a former high school swimmer (now in my late 30’s) and if someone reached out to me about volunteering, I would seriously consider it. I could also see the parents of former swimmers being interested as well. I think with some googling etc you could find who these former swimmers are. Just a thought!
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That’s a great idea!! I will have to look into this. We are going to be utilizing the high school boys swim team boys (since they are in school season right now, so they are not swimming club right now) to be timers for the Saturday night Finals at our meet. We also have used National Honor Society kids who need volunteer hours to help fill in! Fingers crossed between everyone we can make the volunteers stretch.
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Love it! We are decorating this Sunday – woohoo!!
And that Christmas book looks amazing. I’ve added it to my wish list 🥰
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I have the same Gerber daisy art you do! We had those flowers at our wedding and my husband got them.
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Awwww, that’s sweet!
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Ugh, I wish you didn’t have this volunteer gig! That sounds like so much work! I hope people are willing to volunteer. That is a lot of spots to fill, though! Yikes.
Last year we put up our tree in early November! I was always an after Thanksgiving person but I needed some joy w/ the drudgery of covid. Plus Will was going to arrive on 12/3 and I didn’t want to decorate at the end of pregnancy and I never knew when I’d be painfree enough to decorate. So the stars aligned and I was flarefree on a weekend and able to get the tree up and decorated. I am planning to put our tree up this weekend so again before Thanksgiving but I think it just works best for me to get it up early/pre-Tgiving! We’ll be gone for Thanksgiving and while we come back on Saturday, I know we will have lots of other stuff to do like get groceries, laundry, etc. So it’s one less thing to deal with that weekend!
Thanks for the Christmas book rec! I will have to check that out! Phil has mentioned the birth of Jesus thing to me and how the holiday intentionally coincides with the winter solstice, etc etc. Of course as a questioner, that is something he questioned whereas I never thought to question if Jesus was born on 12/25. 😉
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you know that in the Philippines Christmas starts in September 1, now there’s Christmas decor everywhere so you are not early at all!!!
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Hahaha! I feel like I’ve heard this before! My sister said in Ireland things start up early with decorations, etc. places too. That makes me feel better!!
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by the way, have you started shopping gifts for the family? I need inspiration for the husband. hahaha.
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I’ve bought a few things for my mom and nieces/nephews but nothing at all for my husband yet!! I don’t have any good ideas either!!! UGH!! haha.
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