There seem to be two types of people. Those who break out the Christmas decorations at midnight on October 31st and those who are still dreading trying to decorate something, anything.
Ok, maybe three types, some of use are a little in between. But no matter where you stand know that the way you decorate for Christmas is 100% right. There is no wrong when it comes to beautifying your home to celebrate Emmanuel. Everyone of us is different and we are each in different seasons of life.
There is no guilt in having sparse decorations, this is not a contest, only you know your family and what is worth spending time on today, maybe your time is better spent baking or snuggling with your children watching Elf. Nor is there to be guilt in going all out and decorating all corners of the house~I can’t think of any better reason to decorate can you?
Let earth receive her King.
By the Nester
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Simple. Sweet. Love it!
Thank you for such a beautiful & timely post!
God’s blessings,
Sarah 🙂
Halls are decked. Anticipating the birth of our King! And drinking lots of egg nog.
And there is the quote for my kitchen memo board for this next week – Let Earth receive her King. Everything I wanted to say, short and sweet. God Bless!!
Great post. Last year was my first Christmas blogging. I was all excited to get my decorations up, post about them, join the tour!!! Not this year. I am slower then molasses and my view is less is more! I don’t care what anyone thinks. We are not even doing a big dinner, we ordered deep dish Chicago pizza. I want to enjoy the day too! Believe me, I have always gone all out. I have over 800 ornaments on my tree and maybe they will all get on the tree before Christmas Day, maybe not! I will do some baking next week, just for us! This Christmas will be quiet, simple and maybe the best ever.
US too! And we are having Lasagna for Christmas Day Dinner! I did not even put up a tree this year! But I did put out a few candles and lit the mantle and some small things to bring a little Christmas cheer!
For several years I “did” Christmas in our home as a way to have some cheer in our blended family where sometimes cheer is hard to find. Well, this year we are empty nesters. and I guess I don’t feel as if I have to decorate to keep my spirits up. I also decluttered the house this year, and that has made me appreciate the cleanliness and open space in our home. I couldn’t stand the thought of bringing out the boxes of stuff! I’m glad I am not the only one enjoying Christmas in a new way!
Oh, Nester, I love the way you give us grace. My nativity set and one snowman thank you too! Miss you, friend!
[…] wrong way to laugh. And I’m so glad there’s no wrong way to decorate for Christmas. Join me at (in)courage today as we discuss this topic amongst ourselves. Like it? Print, email or […]
I have tires on my front porch and no wreath. Who are these crazy decorators you speak of?
Oh yeah, and one tiny tree decorated with spoons and two other tiny trees with no decorations. I’m awesome like that.
with the holidays being such a stressful time for so many people (me) this is such a important and timely post. thanks! xoxo
Well said! It’s easy to start comparing yourself to other bloggers when you see all the fabulosity (I totally typed that) out in Blogland. I need to remember to keep my focus on the One we are celebrating and remember that this is a time to enjoy, not to stress. 🙂 Great post, Nester!
We are decorated inside, outside, top-to-bottom, and the kids love it! I tend to not want to drag it all out again, but once it’s finished it is fun to enjoy it for a few weeks. We are so very blessed to be able to celebrate and adore Him in our nation. I’m thinking about an article I read this morning about the killing of Christians in the Middle East, and I just don’t ever want to take it for granted.
I LOVE this! Thank you so much for the timely encouragement.
Thanks for your words of encouragement. I love this short and sweet post. Nothing like permission to relax. Why do I need permission anyways? Silly perfectionists.
Oh, I love this! I was looking one day at some of the simple, sophisticated decor that many bloggers are featuring this Christmas–something beautiful, awe-inspiring, and (let’s be honest) jealousy-producing. I showed it to my 17-year-old, who said, “It’s pretty, but it doesn’t look like Christmas to me.”
YES!
Thank God for his comment. What looks like Christmas to him is what I do, here in our home, no matter whether it’s fashionable or trendy. In fact, a lot of it is considerably “out of date” in the world of fashionableness. But I’m not here to be fashionable, am I? I’m here to guide my family in celebrating the birth of the King. Quite a party, really.
Maybe there IS one sort of wrong way to decorate for this big celebration; just one. Maybe the wrong way is the way that doesn’t really work for you and your family. Do you think?
Love that! 🙂
Thank you.
A home decorated top to bottom brings in all the color of the season, and can make for a happy place.
And sparse decorations in a house bedecked with love are more than enough.
God decorated both ways:
Remembering a simple manger
a modest birth
and love overflowing the bounds of heaven
and sleeping on hay
Remembering a host of heaven
Trumpets blaring
Angels singing
A bright shiny star
Merry Christmas
And thank you
As an Interior Designer, I usually have the most GORGEOUS tree with decorations all over my house in glitter. But I loved how you said that we are all in different seasons of our life. This year, with a 2 year old, an almost 1 year old and 3 months pregnant with my third, I didn’t have it in me this year to decorate the house while sick, having to clean glitter from little ones in every corner of the house… so I decided this year that our tree was going to be a “Charlie Brown” tree (decorated with my husbands childhood ornaments) and pull out the stockings and that is it. I didn’t even pull out my nativity this year because I didn’t want it broken and I had no where to put it where little hands couldn’t get it… but I am ok with it for this short season of my life!
Thanks
I wanted JUST a simple wreath on the door and white icicle lights. The husband and boys brought home a huge inflatable Santa riding a motorcycle with a snowman in the sidecar. That’s the way it goes sometimes…
omg…CLASSIC!! =D
Ok, that is CLASSIC! That makes me giggle just reading it. 🙂
Lovely post, I loved it.
You are a hundred kinds of wonderful. Adore this post. Preach on!
I’m with you…do what you love. BUT I think there is just 1 thing that you can do wrong in Christmas decorating…having more than one Santa on your lawn. It breaks the space/time continuum and could have dire consequences. 🙂
Let earth receive her King.
You know how sometimes all you need to change your day is one sentence? That is it for me today. I am smiling.
I totally agree.
I love decorating for Christmas and all the other seasons. It’s just that I am no longer on quite the same time table as everyone. Our house got done this week courtesy of my sweet husband. Once we decided to celebrate Epiphany it was very freeing! Christmas is not over till the wisemen come. So you have till January 7th to meet all deadlines.
I think we are kind of inbetween, decorations go up early december and there are just enough. I get overwhelmed if there is to much xxx
I read you post about not putting out much this year. I gave a huge box of decorations away to charity this year, don’t want it or need it. Let someone else enjoy it. A friend posted this on Facebook and I thought it was great:
“Whenever Christmas begins to burden, it’s a sign that I’ve taken on something of the world and not of Christ” -Ann Voskamp
I didn’t decorate my home this year and our entire family is still truly merry and bright. We are lit from within.
So sweet! And easy to clean up after too! At least, no attic crawling…
Not yet! For the first time in years we did not put up our tree until December. I actually repacked some decorations and put them back on the shelves. It got to cold to hang lights outside so we are being minimalists this year. And that is just fine.
Thank you for this, Nester! I want to decorate more… I think I should as a “mom”. But, for now with two kids 2 & 5, “this” is all I can do without losing my sanity. 😉 And that’s important for Christmas!
Exactly! I’m so glad to see this post. Thank you.
Love your blog and what a great post…
We decided, since we don’t have children, to forget the tree and we have so many other delightful decorations such as wreaths, candles, poinsettia’s etc. that the home is still quite festive. One single solitary candle in each window glowing at night makes the house feel cozy and somehow reminds me of the light of Christ during this wonderful season. Merry Christmas!
I feel better now 🙂 thank you!!
xo
M~
Loved this post!
I can so relate!
I wrote something similar: Mary, Did you Know (that Bethlehem didn’t have a Hobby Lobby?)
http://goodbyehousehellohome.blogspot.com/2010/12/mary-did-you-know-bethlehem-didnt-have.html
I know I can’t be the only one that stumbles across posts written years ago that I just need to respond to.
The 1st year you do something it is “different” same with 2nd, by the 3rd year it is a “tradition” and don’t let anyone argue you out of your tradition.
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