Monday, December 10, 2012

Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication


This has become my new mantra this holiday season and I plan on having the most sophisticated Christmas ever!

I was actually ready for Christmas quite early this year.  It doesn't hurt that our first party of the season is always an open-house during our local Santa Claus Parade held near the end of November.  It goes right by the front of our home.  My house is decorated, my youngest son and I make Christmas cookies and we hand out hot chocolate to all our party goers.  We even borrow patio heaters to help keep people warm.

As usual, I tend to overdo things.  You could say I am the Clark W. Griswold of the neighbourhood!  I come by it honestly as my mother and grandmother always made Christmas special.  Besides, an old Victorian home never looks more beautiful than when it is decorated for Christmas!  

A few years ago, when our house was on the local holiday home tour, I put up 4 Christmas trees!  Yes, you read that right, 4 Christmas trees!  I had one in the front foyer, one in the front living room, one in the rec room and another in our bedroom.  The little tree in our bedroom broke a couple of years ago and, since I wasn't putting up that one, I decided not to put up the one in the rec room either.  We were down to two trees for a couple of years. 

I really missed that little tree in our room.  It was decorated with all the antique ornaments that we owned.  Some were brought over from Holland by Mr. P's grandparents and others hung on my grandmother's Christmas tree.  It was special.  

Mr. P surprised me one day, a couple of weeks before the parade, with a new tree for the bedroom!  I was so excited!  Not only was I going to put up that lovely new tree in our room but I was also going to dig out the tree from the rec room and we would be back to being a 4 Christmas tree family!

But then something happened.  I got sick.  I came down with a nasty cold that lasted for almost the entire two weeks before our big party.  Each day I fell further and further behind in my preparations.  Finally I had to admit that everything I was trying to do was too much.  I asked Mr. P to return the new tree, we hadn't even taken it out of the box.  I did not put up the tree in the rec room and I took my time getting the rest of the house decorated.  

I did very simple Christmas cookies and even (gasp!) bought some.  And you know what happened?  Everyone had a great time!  People raved about how beautiful the house looked and one even asked me for the recipe for the store-bought cookies!

Sometimes simple is better.

After the party was over I thought about my bedroom tree situation and realized that it wasn't the tree that I was missing but those ornaments that mean so much to us.  So I took the decorations off of the tree in the living room and brought out our lovely antique ones.  It's beautiful!

I'll try to share some pictures in the coming week.











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