No More Decorations

The Decorations are gone
The Christmas decorations in our house are all gone.

The Christmas wreathes that Karla had to have on the windows and the very same wreathes that I nearly broke my neck putting up on the windows are now securely packed away in the garage.

The new Nativity set that we got at Hobby Lobby because our three other nativity sets were just too small… gone.

The Decorations we borrowed from a couple of ladies in the church so that our house would look more Christmassy for the ladies open house… gone.

The nine (count them… n-i-n-e) Christmas trees that filled every nook and cranny of our house… gone. I say if you have nine (that’s n-i-n-e) Christmas trees in your house, you no longer have a house, you have a forest! In case you were wondering how one family could have nine (that’s one more than eight) trees in one house, then here you go…
The Christmas tree next to the office window… gone.
Sports tree with ornaments of the Lions, Tigers, Wolverines, and Pistons… all gone.
The boy’s childhood ornament tree… gone.
The hallway tree... gone.
Karla’s “if you touch my tree your dead” tree… gone.
Our dog, Maggy’s doggie tree complete with doggie ornaments… gone.
The little tree on top of the computer armoire… gone.
The tree at the top of the stairs… gone.
And finally, number nine on the hit parade, the snowman Christmas tree that has only snowman Christmas ornaments is also gone.

(Karla has already informed me that we need another tree next year. You are going to think I’m making this up, but she believes we need a tree in our bedroom closet! A tree in the closet?!? Not a shoe tree, mind you-- a Christmas tree in the closet! Are you kidding me? It’s true that our closet has a window and that window is in the middle of our house, and from the outside it probably would look pretty cool… still it’s a Christmas tree in a closet? That’s just a little weird if you ask me.)

As of yesterday, all the trees, lights, tinsel, candles, nativity sets, wreathes, garland, stockings, Santa hats, poinsettias, Santa figurines, snowman figurines, reindeer figurines, Christmas music CD’s, jingle bells, Christmas village homes, fake snow, ornaments, little fake trees for the Christmas village, angel decorations, and Christmas cups, plates and saucers, have been put away for another year.

If you were to come to our house now, you would never know that Christmas happened in the last two weeks. Just by looking around, you might be tempted to wonder if we even celebrated our Lord’s birth at all.

That might be OK for houses, but it’s not OK for people. Maybe you’re not wearing that green and red holiday sweater anymore, but don’t pack away the Christmas cheer, Christmas good will, and Christmas generosity. Keep on sharing the Christmas joy. Keep on savoring the Christ of Christmas. Don’t stop just because the calendar says “January”. If it’s true that the reality of Emmanuel, God with us, is the most wonderful of news; then it is equally good news in January as it is in December.

So let’s not pack away all of Christmas. The blinking Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer neck tie can go into the attic, but keep the Christmas wonder and joy all year long!