It’s the first day of December. I haven’t even thought about decorations. I needed a Christmas gift bag this morning for a luncheon I was attending where we exchanged gifts and I remembered everything was up in the attic and I don’t have the upper-body strength to bring down the heavy door. I was home alone. I searched the house and found one sad little Christmas bag in the top shelf of my closet. I forced it down and cleaned it up and deemed it good to go. I filled it with the gift I’d bought and off I went. When I got home, I thought about that little bag and how long it had been in my closet. It still had a tag on it from a friend who’d given me a gift four years ago!
But that’s okay because I like to keep a little bit of Christmas all year long. This used to be a joke between my husband and me. He’d go around after Christmas and get everything he could find and put it in a pile on the dining table and then he’d pack it all back up. But he usually missed one thing. So I started purposely leaving one Christmas knickknack or decoration to see how long it would take him to find it. Now, he just leaves it put or packs it away later. Because he knows I like to keep a little Christmas all year long. This year I have two cups that belong to my daughter. She recently moved and she sent things home with my husband after he helped my daughter and son-in-law pack. This little cup is one of those things. She knows how much I enjoy drinking coffee or hot chocolate out of this cup. She sent me the two she had. She will be living in Japan for four years, so I was touched that she is letting me use these cups while she is gone.
This cup of coffee helped me get some writing done this afternoon. Then I started glancing around my office and found some other Christmas treasures that I kept out this year. I love this festive little shoe that a friend gave me years ago. It stays on my printer cabinet.
Another friend gave me this sparkly ornament one year. (Yes, all of my friends know that I love shoes and purses.)
And finally, on the wall next to my desk I have a little shelf that has all kinds of miniature shoes on it. Here are my Christmas shoe trees and even a shoe angel who carries her little shoes with her. The tiny glass slipper came from a friend who went to Europe. And the bigger glass slipper is special to me, too. All of these are gifts from friends or family and I cherish them. So why pack them away when I can look up and see them and smile all over again?
I hope you keep a little bit of Christmas with you all year long. After all, that spirit can carry us through on hot summer days or rainy, sad days. The spirit of Christmas should be with us all year long. So tell me what items and treasures from Christmas do you display all year? Or maybe you want to start my tradition. If you could, what would you leave out this season that will help you through the next year?
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I have a couple of ornaments that I leave out and hang on my kitchen cabinets. But I love Christmas music no matter what time of year. The message is still important. My daughter dislikes Christmas music to this day because of the fact that I played it so much while she was growing up. I also enjoy books with Christmas themes all year. There are so many good ones that I can’t possibly read them all just during the month of December!
That sounds lovely, Gail. I enjoy Christmas music, too. Just listened to some today while I did my morning stretching! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
I thought it was just me ! Raised a Minnesota girl, I leave my snowman collection up year round. Also my “Officer Nutcracker,” over a foot tall, stands guard on the curio shelf, along with other law enforcement collectibles 🙂
I would love that, Bonnie. I like snowmen but we have to make sandmen down here in Florida!
I have a shelf of small angel ornaments that sits in my office all year round. Some are beautiful glass ornaments, some are little Willow angels, but to me they are all beautiful and lift my spirits. Like your husband, mine used to try to put them away with the tree ornaments. Now he knows they come off the tree and right back into my office.
Sandra, I love Willow Angels. I have mine on display in a hutch in my dining area!!