Saturday, December 23, 2006

Christmas class or kitsch?



So what kind of Christmas decorator are you? Are you a classy, sophisticated decorator? A trendy one? A cute one? A kitshy one? A schizophrenic mix of many types? I suppose that in many ways I am the latter. Deep in my heart I am a bit of a naturalist, I love natural decorations; greenery, pinecones, berries. But then there is the other side of me, the one that loves the glitz and sparkle, the side of me that likes to indulge in beautiful European glass Christmas ornaments. While I love my glass snowmen and Santa's, my favorite glass ornaments are the round or oblong or even fancier shaped ones that have those decorated depressions in the sides that remind me of kaleidoscopes.

Of course what I like is different from reality. As much as I would like my home festooned in natural greenery, greenery is expensive, and shelling out $55 for the tree an $15 for the door wreath pretty much taps out the greenery budget. The year I made a beautiful evergreen garland for my mantle it dried out so fast I was afraid it would start a fire. So much for greenery.




My tree has many ornaments, including all my beloved blown glass, many handmade ornaments, and the wonderful ornaments my kids made when they were very young. Then there are the weird ornaments that for the most part were gifts, that make me a little nuts. Like the pink and white Power Rangers ornaments. When my kids were small they loved the TV show the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. So one year for Christmas my mom-in-law gave the kids power ranger Christmas ornaments. I have to say they have never exactly been my favorites. Plastic superheros simply aren’t my vision for Christmas. So every year I would try to discretely position them so they weren’t so obvious. As we decorated the tree this year, my daughter said “You can’t move power rangers this year mom” as she purposely hung the pink power ranger front and center on the tree.

So this year I am stuck. But I guess it doesn’t really matter as those power rangers are now Christmas tradition. I’m now even kind of sentimental about them, as they remind me of my mom-in-law, who’s now gone. (But given my druthers I’d still put them more towards the back of the tree!)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't have a "style" of decorating for cmas and to tell the truth, if I had my druthers I'd probably put a wreath on the front door and call it good. DH, however, has to be appeased to some extent. One of my favorite decorations on our pitiful looking tree is a hand made bead from a wonderful friend that just happens to live in Utah. Wonder who that is???????????