Deep Dive On Decorating
I’ve always enjoyed decorating for the holidays. I believe it’s because of the fond memories I have as a child with my sisters and father, preparing the house for whichever celebration was up next.
We’d help dad string Christmas lights, begging him to go higher and higher on the roof! Notably, strapping baby Jesus down with cables “so nobody would steal him” was a sought-after task.
For Easter, we’d use Scotch tape to adhere the cardboard bunnies to the glass on the front bay window. My father also had the “melted popcorn” decorations. I had to google the name. They are those one-dimensional flat plastic things. The plastic looks swirly and melted. Then came the plastic eggs all around the lawn (I’d never use plastic like that these days!) My sister Maria and I invented the coolest thing with those eggs though. This was back when you could purchase colored toilet paper. Remember the blue and yellow rolls? Why did that go out of fashion? We would take a bunch of yellow paper, wet it and put it inside the eggs. We made yoke! I’m sure you can guess what came next…
In retrospect, I feel my father truly enjoyed decorating with us. It wasn’t a parental obligation thing. He went all out and the house was always the best on our block. He has a talent for it. My sisters and I inherited our creativity from my father and his side of the family. My father could have been a great artist or creator but never was afforded the opportunity. My grandmother Pauline, after her husband died at 30 something, was forced to become a secretary in the “Mad Men” era. So my father and his brother were latch-key kids, also helping with household chores. Creative pursuit was not in the cards.
The interesting part of all of this is that he always and still does find creative outlets. Like decorating for the holidays, refurbishing garage sale finds, gardening or giving me creative suggestions for the house.
Some may feel that decorating is cheesy or a waste of time or money, but not me. It’s imaginative and more importantly, reminds me of so many happy memories decorating to the nines with my father.
Each holiday I buy a few more items to add to my decorating arsenal. For Halloween, my concept has been skeletons. My father taught me about themes and color – stick to a select palette and one concept. Here are some photos of my display this year! I hope after reading this you are inspired to get creative with your family and decorate. Not to mention it adds fun and joy to our neighborhood streets.
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