Making merry

I love Christmas trees and decorations, I really do. What I don't love is the arduous process of dragging everything out, arranging it in a pleasing holiday manner, then packing it all back up again.

My process is particularly not fun because all my decorations are packed away at E-Z Store about five miles from here. There is one trip to get the stuff, another to take back the empty boxes, another to retrieve the boxes after Christmas, and yet another to take the stuff back for the year. That's four trips, minimum.

Then there's the process of decorating the tree. Although I approach the tree determined to just hang the ornaments and not obsess, I do get a bit fussy making sure each ornament is placed on each branch with the right size here and the right color there. That is not to say that I obsess.

I will say that I love my Christmas tree. It's tall and narrow, sits in a nice wood-like planter box, and is the perfect size and shape for my living room. I was especially happy to find it in a great Christmas shop at Deep Creek Lake because it was pre-lit. Note the emphasis on "was." Last year, after all the decorations were on the tree, half the lights went out. This was not a happy moment. So I'm back to winding strings of lights round and round the tree, which is not my favorite holiday activity.

Any bah-humbug aspects of Christmas decorating are outweighed by the fun of rediscovering favorites like my beloved Woof-n-Poof collection, which can (and in some years, did) make my place festive all on its own. It's also fun to discover new things scored at after-Christmas sales, although I don't do that as much as I used to. I have enough stuff to decorate two places as it is.

And then there's the finished product: my home decked out with fragrant red and green candles, merry Santas and reindeer, and a twinkly tree festooned with favorite ornaments collected over the years.

And that is when the Christmas spirit really kicks in.