Beech Tree News Network

Next year, I might hire someone to decorate my house for Christmas.  I just can’t seem to pull it off.  I think it’s because I have too many different parts with no real theme.  I’ve always been like this.  I’m not sure if it’s because I have truly eclectic tastes or if it’s because I’m indecisive.  I can’t settle on one theme, so I use everything I have.  

In my living room alone, I had a woodland theme on the mantle, Santa on the piano and a llama in a Christmas sweater on a side table.  I put those tacky vinyl stickers on my dining room window—Santa—on my kitchen windows—gnomes and reindeer—and on my back door—a snowman and snowflakes.   I smile every time I see them, but I realize they are the height of cheesy décor.

I did better on my outdoor decorations this year.  I placed wreaths with simple blue bows on each of my six front windows and wreaths with peace doves and white bows on my double front doors.  It’s a lot simpler than what I usually do.  I wish I could do outside decorations like my friends, Lisa and Patrick Johnson.  Their lights and decorations are beautiful and are grouped in themes.  One year, I stuck large candy canes with lights along my sidewalk.  People kept tripping over the candy canes and getting tangled up in the light wires.  I was afraid I was going to get sued, so I took them down.

I think part of my problem is I like to make things myself, and I’m not very good at it.  I’m not being falsely modest or self-deprecating.  There are things I do well.  Crafting, however, is not on that list.

This Christmas season, I tried to make a gourd lantern, like the ones I saw on Etsy.  I traced a Christmas tree from a stencil onto the gourd, then set about punching tiny holes into the stencil.  The goal was to place a tea light into the inside of the gourd, which would project light through the stencil, creating an image of a Christmas tree.  The punch I was using wasn’t making the holes large enough to let much light through, so I switched to a drill and small drill bit.  Of course, you can guess what happened.  I lost control of the drill and ended up with a large hole in the center of my Christmas tree stencil.  

It’s those kinds of things I do season after season.  You would think those kinds of failures would stop me from pushing blindly ahead next Christmas, but I don’t have much hope that they will.  No holiday or special occasion or empty space in my house is safe from my trial-and-error attempts.  When my daughter, Nikki, and I shared an apartment in Galveston, she insisted I run any decorating ideas past her first, because she didn’t want to be embarrassed when her friends dropped by.  Most of my ideas were relegated to my bedroom, like my vinyl record album cardboard cover cube idea.  I liked it, but Nikki didn’t deem them living room-worthy.

In December, I took my daughter, Natalie, my granddaughter, Sabria, and Sabria’s half-sister, Lanie, to tour the Lexington castle.  It was gorgeous.  There were swags of greenery and lights on the banisters and railings. Christmas trees covered in huge glass ornaments, ice skates and Santas.  Horses fashioned from grape vines with holly and bows in their manes.  Our tour guide said they hire a decorator to bring everything in, then take it all down at the end of the season.

That’s what I need to do.  Get somebody who knows what they’re doing to decorate my house for the holidays.  Although…we do have several grape vines on our property.  If I started on it right now, I could probably make that horse by Christmas.