Christmas Chaos

In 2011 (5 years into marriage) we finally had our own place. Which meant we could decorate for Christmas any way we wanted. I had grand ideas, but a tiny budget.  This first year I had to pick one of my many "perfect" decorating dreams to start with so I chose the tree. We'd have the perfect tree.

What is a perfect tree? None of the mis-matched or handmade monstrosities that children make. But perfectly coordinated colors and ornaments hung in a balanced fashion. This took form in ornaments in shades of blue with white lights. It looked clean and cute. Just like I wanted.

As the years went on the kids brought home more and more ornaments. I would tell them how much I loved them (I mean, just because they are hideous didn't mean I didn't love that they took the time to make them for me). I would then proceed to box them up with "memories", but they definitely had no place on my tree.

Then something weird happened 2 years ago.  As I was throwing away broken ornaments I realized my tree was running out of things to hang.  I began searching/shopping around but couldn't find a new "theme" that I loved.  I decided, just THIS year I'd like the kids have at it.  They decorated the tree in all THEIR colorful chaos from their years and years of crafting.  From a snowman missing a hand, to special ones they had gotten as gifts from people.  They were proud of the chaos that was our Christmas tree. I'd just pretend that looking at it didn't cause me to twitch a little.

As we started decorating last year (and throwing away more of my matching ornaments from years of being mishandled) the kids sat separating their ornaments into piles waiting to start the decorating process.  I guess we were doing it again. Our tree would go another year as a giant mess.  THIER happy little mess.  I figured I'd just go with it and even got an idea to support the mayhem.

I decided every year we'd take the kids shopping so they could pick any ornament they wanted.  We put their name and year on the ornament and add it to the collection on the tree.  When they have their own place I'll give them all of their ornaments to jump-start their collection.

So with that decision I figured I should actually hang their ornaments every year. Gone our the days of having a nice looking tree.  And so I embrace the crazy tree and instead of twitching, I even smile a little when I look at it.