First of all: I’m NOT Anti-Christmas. As both a religious holy day and secular holiday, I think it holds meaning by honoring our humanity and promoting generosity and peace. This is good.
But what about all those Christmas do-dads that often decorate our homes. I don’t mean candles, lights, nativity scenes, Christmas trees, stockings, etc. I mean figurines, ashtrays, baskets, dolls, and the like that have a Christmas theme but to my mind are rather tacky. (OK, instant disclaimer: I realize that one person’s tacky is another person’s sentimental treasure.) But whatever qualifies as Christmas clutter in YOUR home, perhaps it’s time to prune the pearls from the superfluous. Remember the first rule of Christmas physics: “What goes up, must come down.”
In this spirit I searched around and found the following items that don’t add grace to our Christmas décor:
- 2 stuffed Christmas figures (a moose and a snow-lady
- 4 Christmas baskets
- 4 miscellaneous figurines
Some have beauty but none have a good display place without crowding stuff. The problem is – who or where do I take these things without just passing the clutter on to my neighbor or folks who have much higher priorities (like food and shelter) than a few trinkets? I suppose a homeless shelter or soup kitchen would be worthy of a little Christmas cheer, but will these items really do it? I don’t know. What do YOU do with unwanted Christmas do-dads other than just pass them on to others in a white elephant sale?
PS: Notice that in an extreme exercise of self-restraint, I haven’t yet indulged my favorite Advent rant about how our society hurries Christmas before its time and starts to celebrate before December 25. Does anybody know when the 12 Days of Christmas really are? 😕
