Tag Archives: Christmas decorations

Early Christmas Decorating

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Introduce the topic of Christmas decorating to any conversation and you will quickly find that people are unexpectedly passionate. Early decorators typically are just happy doing their thing and others can like it nor not. They’re doing it for themselves and are satisfied with their life choices. The Not-Before-Thanksgiving folks can be pretty passionate about their belief that we should give that holiday its own space and wait till December.

When I was a kid, we always decorated the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was tradition. First, we would give thanks on Thursday for all we had before heading out to forget gratitude and bargain hunt on Friday. Then on Saturday we would embrace Christmas as we had finally crossed some imaginary line on the calendar.

When I was the marketing director for my county, I was responsible for the Christmas event in our county seat. That meant organizing businesses, nonprofits and crafters for an afternoon of fun on the first Saturday in December.

It was a lot of work in addition to my regular job and I typically started planning in July or August. Friends, it is hard to think about Christmas trees and hot chocolate on a sweltering summer day so I would often begin listening to Christmas music just to make those planning days more enjoyable, By fall I was watching Christmas movies and by Veterans Day I was decorating at home.

This year, I started decorating last week and put up one of my trees yesterday.

I typically don’t host for Thanksgiving so I’m not ruining anyone’s holiday with the greenery and lights on my mantle. The tree I put up yesterday celebrates winter more than Christmas as it’s loaded with berries, pine cones, wooden mushrooms, little primitive churches and birds.

Before that I spent some time adding small festive touches to bookshelves and corners of the house that could use some brightening up.

Personally, I don’t mean to rush Christmas so much as I want to have more time with the beautiful decorations and white lights that I enjoy so much. Christmas can wait while you all eat your turkeys. Personally I’m thankful to be vegetarian so I don’t have a bird’s demise on my conscience. That’s one of many things I’m thankful for as I enjoy the warmth and light of my fortunate life.

Besides, it is a lot of work so it’s nice to stretch out the enjoyment as much as possible.

Friends, I hope you will do what works best for you. Cover everything in tinsel and baubles as early as you like or….wait till the week of Christmas. Whatever makes you happy works for me.

Life has felt dark and uncertain lately. Personally, I’m happy for the comfort and joy I feel in the presence of the warm glow of Christmas lights

Deck The Hall at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens

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If you’re looking for some festive fun in Ohio this year and are near Akron, consider Deck The Hall at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens. This historic mansion is open for tours year round but is decorated to the hilt for a special Christmas event that runs through December.

I went for the first time last year and enjoyed it immensely. 

The home was built by F. A. Seiberling, co-founder of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. He and his wife Gertrude built the home which was completed in 1915. The Tudor revival manor house is 64,500 square feet and has 65 rooms. The estate has five historic buildings and ten restored historic gardens across seventy acres. It is massive and gorgeous. 

I arrived well before dusk so I could tour the manor house before it got too busy. The self guided tour at that point was already well populated so I was glad I didn’t wait. In fact, there were places where it felt like guests were expected to just keep moving in an endless line rather than stop and study the surroundings. I would like to redo that house tour on a less busy day.

All the same, I enjoyed the experience with the gorgeous decorations and Christmas music to set the mood. 

Outside, Christmas lights of all colors glowed bright against the dark December sky. There’s a conservatory to explore as well as a good gift shop and places to enjoy snacks. I had a cup of hot chocolate and a delicious cookie that night as I walked the property and stopped here and there to enjoy some of the more unusual displays. Santa visited with children and there were other holiday things to see and do that night. 

This event does sell out so it’s important to get your tickets in advance. One more thing. It was impressive to see how ready Stan Hywet was for the crowd. Every employee and volunteer seemed extremely well trained, courteous, friendly and excited for every guest to have a good experience. In a world where customer service is lacking in some areas, it was delightful to experience such good service. I think it’s important to give credit to these folks for a job well done. 

Want to go? Click here to visit their website. Also, visit Make the Journey Fun on Facebook for more pictures!

Life Needs An Undo Function

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In the world of computers, there’s a function called “Undo.” It’s literally what it sounds like- you can undo your last change or even the last few changes of a document or file you’re working on.

It’s a fabulous way to fix a mistake or to return to a previous state simply because you changed your mind.

Do you ever wish that life had an undo function? Wouldn’t it be handy to just take back that stupid thing you said or to clean up the egg you dropped on the floor?

I make plenty of mistakes and often say dumb things so it would get a workout in this house.

Yesterday I was staring at my newly-decorated-for-Christmas fireplace mantle and I was sure it could be better. I had combined two simple pine garlands, adding some ornaments, ribbon and pine cones before weaving in some twinkle lights as an afterthought.

Wrong order but it still looked nice enough. Yet I couldn’t leave well enough alone.

That’s mainly because I had hit a great sale at Joann Fabrics the night before and came home with ribbon that would look better than what I had used. Plus, I have this neat garland of pretty silver bells on a rustic jute rope that needed a home and would look great woven into the pine!

Hot diggity! I had a plan!

So I dropped what I was doing, dismantled the perfectly good thing that was done and set about making it “better.”

Hindsight is 20/20 and it is now clear that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, pretty ribbons and bells on jute.

I placed the pine garland, woven with perfectly spaced twinkle lights before setting my sights on those pretty little bells. I figured out how to attach the rope to one end of the pine, immediately sending that half and it’s share of thoughtfully placed lights to the floor.

Huh. This would be harder than I thought.

So I fixed the lights and pine and took another run at it, this time being careful to place the weight of the bells toward the top and back. This sent the entire thing to the floor, leaving the mantle bare.

I will spare you the full story of how many times this didn’t work. Suffice it to say my mind got stuck on an annoying loop of wishing I could just undo the last ten moves. The bells are currently in a pile on the floor as I’m far too disgusted to look at them.

Meanwhile, I put the pine, lights and adornments back to the best of my ability, looping in the new ribbon to add some nice muted color and texture.

And now, as I step back and admire my handiwork, it is clear that I liked it better the other way.

Seriously, friends. Where is that Undo button when you really need it?

Guernsey County Courthouse Christmas Lights

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For all the Courthouse enthusiasts who are out there making the journey fun, something special goes on each holiday season in Guernsey County, Ohio. They put on a holiday light show at the courthouse that features about 30,000 lights synchronized to Christmas music.

The courthouse is a prominent 1881 era sandstone building that presides over the lovely Cambridge downtown. Seeing this modern light and music show featured on this gorgeous old building is pretty incredible.

The show begins at 5:30 p.m. nightly through January 1. Bundle up and plan to have dinner at one of the downtown restaurants. Better yet, make it a day and hit some of the shops too! There’s a nice vintage store and a used bookstore that I’m partial to. Oh, and the town hosts Dickens village characters as well.

I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow.

Want to see some clips of the light show? I’ll post some on the Make the Journey Fun Facebook page! Check it out now!

Goodbye Christmas

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Some years the Christmas decorations get to stick around until after the new year. Sometimes others are addressing their valentines while I’m just starting to pack up the Santas and trees.

This is not one of those years. Operation Just Put It All Away got started yesterday as I began gathering up all the shelf sitters, pictures and other assorted holiday cheer that adorned most rooms of the house.

All that’s left is the tree and that will probably be today’s project.

There was also a time that I would decorate a tree in every room. There was a gingerbread tree in the kitchen, Victorian ornaments on the bedroom tree and even the bathrooms had small three foot trees on the counters. My favorite was always the tree of vintage ornaments from the forties through the sixties.

This was not the year for any of this either. It was a constant struggle just to have the one tree. This is because my adorable house panther thanked me profusely almost daily for giving him such a magnificent play thing in the middle of the living room.

And no, the sprays and oranges, tin foil and other assorted fear tactics don’t deter him from attacking and eating the tree. He’s his own man and isn’t about to cower to the scent of citrus.

Sigh.

My house badly needs cleaned and to go through the annual decluttering and I was happy beyond words to begin the process yesterday. There was an exception though.

The vintage tree is my favorite. It’s always the first to go up and the last to come down. Since that wasn’t possible again this year, I compromised by filling a couple of snifters and even a domed cake plate with some of my favorite vintage pieces for the kitchen counter.

A small shelf hosted a number of plastic Santas, houses and snowmen.

I was a little sad to say so long to these pieces for another year. A few come from my parents but most were accumulated piece by piece at antique malls and flea markets in my travels near and far. There’s already a small army of Santas but I’ll continue to buy whenever the price is right or I find something I don’t have.

They bring me joy.

Since I believe it’s healthy to always have something to look forward to, I’ll look forward to unpacking them again next year. Maybe by then my cat won’t be such a tree loving heathen.

Like Pieces From A Christmas Village

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Many buildings in Ligonier’s historic district resemble pieces from a decorative Christmas village or maybe a model railroad town. They are quaint, classic buildings along streets so tidy you hardly see a stray gum wrapper.

People clearly take pride in their town and work hard to keep it looking nice.

Most places are decorated for the holiday too, creating an all around festive atmosphere. Where I come from, people are grumbling about decorating a tree and hardly decorate outside anymore. In Ligonier, everyone is putting their best foot forward to lend an air of festivity everywhere you look. Even the plumbing supply store has a great window display.

Here’s the town hall along the Diamond.

And the bed and breakfast where we stayed.

This gorgeous old church looks like it was plucked from a decorative village in a Christmas store.

I would love to see inside this private residence on Main Street.

As you can see, all these buildings are decorated simply with wreaths, lights, red bows and boughs of pine. There’s no over-the-top Griswold family style light display and it’s nothing fancy but it is effective.

These small touches really do make a difference and the work of individuals has made the entire town feel welcoming and Christmasy. The take away here is that we can all do our part to make our neighborhoods more appealing for everyone.