Christmas PSA Part 2: Decorations

I’m not sure if you know this about our family, but we like to consider ourselves overachievers. When we do something, we like to do it right, on time, and over and over. Ok, we don’t really do everything right, and we’re almost never on time (have I mentioned the four kids?) but we’ve nailed the over and over part.

Christmas decorations fall into this category of overachieving awesomeness, so I thought I’d give you some tips from the pros in case you were wondering how to get your decorations just right this year.

1. Make it fun.

Long ago, I used to feel like our Christmas decorations needed to look picture perfect. I wanted everything to match, have a little elegance, and to be placed just so around the house. My husband, however, is not as much into the matching thing. He’s one of those people that embraces – we’ll call them “eclectic” – decorations, and insists on being able to display these artistic pieces anywhere he wants to as if it’s his house also. Once our kids came along, I discovered a beautiful charm in the homemade, lopsided and slightly quirky. So in the interests of keeping family harmony and having our place be more of a home than a showplace, our decorations are probably best described as cozy.

2.                   Make it a family project.

 Just like with the Christmas cards, we like to put the kids to work doing Christmas lights. I won’t say it goes more smoothly, or more quickly, but it sure is fun to watch.

3.                   Don’t be afraid to re-decorate when the mood strikes.

Don’t let those Christmas decorations sit in the same place for the whole season. How boring is that? It’s much more fun to throw them on the floor once in a while.

Or you could rearrange the ornaments on the tree when the mood strikes.

My personal favorite is to re-stuff dated decorations. Give them a fresh look by removing certain parts and moving things around. If you’re lucky your dogs will get involved and you can create your own CSI episode. Don’t forget to text your spouse while they’re at gymnastics.