Decorating Unpacked
If you haven’t noticed already, you’ll soon see that we do a lot of things around here on a budget. Now, there are some things I will splurge on, but for the most part, I’m cheap. That especially goes for seasonal decorating. I enjoy making our spaces look nice, but I work hard to do that without feeling guilty about spending a lot of money on non-essentials. Plus - we have three boys and the two biggest ones can eat. I mean really eat. A LOT. That’s probably one of the essential things I need to spend a little extra money on. Not decorating necessarily. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, those three boys touch every part of this house every day. Many times that means they just move things around. There is no rhyme or reason to it. They will pick up things in one room, examine it while they move to another room, then place it randomly wherever they see fit. Which means, I don’t want to be redecorating constantly, no matter how much I enjoy it. For this reason, I don’t seasonally decorate every corner of our house. I also don’t redecorate every room each season. They do plenty of that for me.
Another goal I have when I decorate for Christmas is that there must be more Nativities than santas or elves or flying reindeer. Now, I don’t necessarily have a problem with Santa, but he has his place. The reason our family celebrates Christmas is because our Savior, Jesus, was born. If it weren’t for Him, there would be no reason to celebrate anything, much less Christmas. My boys know the truth of Santa and they also know the Truth of Jesus. I keep that thought in mind when choosing how to decorate each year. You will see some Santa ornaments on our tree, but my hope is that you will see more things pointing to Jesus.
Most years I try to use things I already have when decorating. I don’t normally shop a whole lot, but this year Matt has encouraged me to get out of the house more. For this reason, I decided to pick out a few new things to use, just to mix it up a little. I wanted to show you how it turned out and see what you think.
Dining Room Table
Tiered Tray
Piano
Faux Mantle
Backstory - when my in-laws were missionaries in Guatemala, I told them I would like to have a nativity set from there, since I didn’t have one. They brought this one back for me and I’ve loved it ever since. It has been displayed in 2 states and 5 different homes. It has been played with and broken and glued multiple times. If you look closely, you will see blue Play-doh in Baby Jesus’s hair. It’s not a fancy set and doesn’t catch your eye, but I think that’s what makes it even more meaningful and appropriate.
Christmas Tree
The Christmas Tree is something I don’t stress about. I don’t fill it with garland and matching ornaments. This is the place where we all hang our favorite ornaments as we talk about where they came from and why they are special. We get new ornaments every year as gifts from family and friends and it’s fun to get them out each year and see what’s new. We have ornaments from when Matt and I were kids, from places we’ve traveled, from people who are no longer with us, from grandparents… homemade ones, broken ones, personalized ones and ones that represent our kids’ interests at the time. This is the place where all of those things can come together and represent what is so special about our lives.
While I enjoy decorating and filling our home with things that make it ours, I don’t want to forget why I do it. Above all, I want our home - regardless of what season we are in - to point to the things of Jesus. I want our kids to know who is at the center of everything we do. I definitely don’t always get it right and there are a lot of things I need to improve, but that is my goal. I want everyone who enters our home to know that Jesus is not only the reason for this season. He is the reason for everything.