Holiday Decorating…What Do You Think?

When it comes to the holidays, I’ve been known to go a bit overboard with the decorating. My husband and I have been married for 7 years and I can still remember the first time he came home after I had decorated for our first Halloween together and he almost hyperventilated and literally couldn’t speak for a couple of minutes. “What?” I asked. “I always decorate like this.” I mean seriously, didn’t the man have any holiday spirit?

I grew up with parties and lots of decorations for any and every holiday, birthday, anniversary; you name it and we celebrated it. Even when we didn’t have a lot of extra money, my mom would come up with festive decorations and we grew up making a lot of them. Mom was always trying out new holiday projects and that’s just how it was.

When my son was young I decorated mostly for him and his friends but I will admit I started decorating well before he was born. For the last several years though, I don’t decorate with enthusiasm but rather with a feeling of “have to.” In fact, last week I said to my husband (for the 3rd year in a row,) that I didn’t really feel like decorating as much this year, speaking mainly about Halloween since that’s the first big “decorating” holiday coming up. And even though I really didn’t feel like decorating the last couple of years, I did. I DID cut back on the Christmas trees last December and can say I’ve gone from 7 trees to only 3 (and that’s with each being fully decorated.)

Anyway, my husband looked at me like I was a crazy person and said, “Then don’t.” If I had a single pumpkin out for October, he’d think that was just fine. He’d think it was just fine if I didn’t have one too. “Why don’t you just put out a few tasteful decorations if you feel the need to decorate?” he asked. Well, first of all, what did he mean by “tasteful?” Have all my decorations not been tasteful in the past? Ok, to be honest, exuberant probably describes my decorating more than tasteful does. But I decorate for the holidays like I cook certain foods, such as spaghetti, chili or lasagna…I don’t know how to make just a little.

“Holiday decorating” for me means, taking every single item off every surface in our house, packing it away for the next 3 months, and filling the space with the appropriate holiday décor. I have about 20 (or more) crates of Halloween decorations, another 10 of just fall décor, not so much Thanksgiving because the stores don’t offer that much, and at least triple all of that of Christmas decorations. So, I do have a lot and always have put every single item out.

I’ve been trying to make up my mind. I know it’s not an earth-shattering decision but since it takes several days to get the full effect, I want to start sooner rather than later. “Why do you even do it anymore?” my husband asked and without even thinking, I answered, “Because I always do.” Hmm.

After giving this more thought, we’ve decided to decorate the outside as usual, which means fog machine, strobe lights, spooky music, and tons of spider web, graves, ghosts, and more…including giant rats and skeletons. (For the first time since we’ve lived in this neighborhood, we have lots of children who will appreciate this.) A few fall flowers and a couple of “tasteful” decorations and we’ll call it a day. Perhaps in a couple of years when the grandkids are older and will remember the decorations, I’ll pull them all out again. Well actually, there’s no perhaps about it, I definitely will. But for this year, at least for Halloween, I’ll give myself a break.

So, my question is…do you decorate a lot? Do you decorate and if so, do you have children? Do you like to keep up family traditions you grew up with or perhaps start some you didn’t have? Do you decorate, even when you don’t feel like it? Do you think the more, the better? If you have grown kids, do you find you decorate less? If you have a toddler, will you decorate more as they get older?

You know, if I’m really honest with myself, after having thought about this for way too long, I think I continue to decorate because if I don’t, it will make me feel “old.” I mean, there was a time going up and down a ladder 352 times, or toting dozens of crates in and out of the attic was no big deal. But now my back aches after getting a couple of crates out and just moving the ladder from one room to the next tires me out. If I stop forcing myself to do it, what else will I stop doing because of my age? Oh no… I think I’m going through a “mid-life holiday decorating crisis!”

What do you think? (Not about me being crazy, but about decorating?)