Saturday, November 28, 2009

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I can't remember a year when we didn't decorate for Christmas. Growing up in western NY state, where White Christmases were the norm, it was easy to get into the spirit. Dad would decorate the outside of the house with big, bulb lights and a homemade gigantic star that was placed in the middle of the porch railing. Mom would take care of the inside, for the most part. She did have some help with the tree and the platform underneath:

Most of the houses and trees, and the brick paper and the mountain paper in the background belonged to my paternal grandmother, Mary HODICK when she was growing up, so the set was spectacular. I'm not sure, though, whatever happened to the set once us kids all grew up.

As an adult, I carry on the tradition of decorating for the holidays. I don't have any family heirlooms, and the oldest thing I have is ... well, probably a nutcracker of some sort (I have 37). Tonight I finished my annual tradition of decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving. It sure looks a lot different from my childhood home in NY, and certainly has progressed from Grandma McHugh's aluminum tree and color wheel!










5 comments:

Miriam Robbins said...

Impressive collection, Colleen! My sister-in-law also collects nutcrackers and puts them out for the holidays. Thanks for inviting us into your Christmas home!

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

The house looks great! I imagine it is much nicer to do the outside work in AZ than it was in NY!

Colleen said...

Charley: Yes, it is! But it was rather windy today, so as soon as I took the outside picture I had to deflate the inflatable nutcracker. Do they use inflatables there when it's snowed?

Sheri Fenley said...

Oh Colleen you are so organized. I absolutely love the decorations! We tried a blow up one year but the noise from the compressor drove me nuts so got rid of it. Thanks for sharing your home with us.

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

The inflatables are very popular in Phoenix, a few miles south of here. Unless we get a foot of snow all at once they just pull them up and they sit on top just fine. It seems that fewer people are doing lights on the houses here, instead they do the inflatables or the wire shapes with lights.