My Yellow Brick Road to finding Joy in Holiday Decor

Remember when Dorothy was flying around in her house and was seeing all of the wild and confusing things out her window until finally she was dropped in this vivid and colorful world that was like nothing she had ever experienced before? That is exactly how I felt when I came out of the black and white world I was living in to not just embrace the Holiday decor magic but to truly delight in each and every detail. If we met 20 years ago you would know that I hated holidays. I hated birthdays, all of the Hallmark holidays and I really hated Christmas. Growing up I had a complicated relationship with holidays. Sometimes, depending on what family member I was with I got to celebrate; and sometimes they were forgotten entirely. When you are very young it’s just your version of normal. You don’t fully understand that Anthony just celebrated his 11th birthday and had an epic He-Man themed party with balloons and cake and presents. You don’t fully understand that you weren’t invited because the other kids think you are weird. You don’t fully understand yet how sad that makes you or that it will harden your heart as you grow. As we all remember from the new 2019 version of The Grinch this is exactly what happens to poor Mr. Grinch, who eventually realizes holiday’s look different for some people as he watched sadly all of the celebrations with no celebrations himself. So, I guess you could call me a Grinch. I was a stones throw from moving all the way up to mount crumpet. When I met my now husband he informed me that he had not one, not two, but three Christmas Trees growing up. He described annual holiday parties, the epic Birthday Parties (his happened to coincide with Halloween so it was EXTRA…well…EXTRA). When we moved in together I told him we couldn’t possibly have a Christmas Tree because I came to the relationship with two cats and they would certainly destroy the trees. I painted a picture in which the cats would leap full force into the tree knocking it down, getting tangled in the lights and dragging ornaments through the house. As a result there would be pine needles everywhere (of course he could only conceptualize a real tree – one that you had to go cut yourself and drag it back on a sleigh. I think there was hot chocolate and lunch involved – everything my Grinch heart didn’t want to digest) there would be broken pieces of ornaments scattered down the hall, the cats could be injured, maybe somehow because of the way the tree fell onto the lights the whole house would just burn to the ground. So no, we could simply not have a Christmas Tree. It was all very dramatic. The holiday magic didn’t end there. Halloween wasn’t just Halloween it was also a Birthday so there was dress up and presents and cake all at once. We had to do something romantic for Valentines day. We had to get sparklers and watch fireworks for the Fourth of July. If it was a holiday he was into it – and there I was Grinching it away. I advised we didn’t really have to buy each other presents for occasions because honestly can’t we just go buy what we want as adults? I think I cut off poor valentines day in year two describing it as a teenage holiday that we were simply too mature for now. Fourth of July fireworks were too annoying with all the traffic. Clearly if holidays were every day I don’t know that our relationship could have made it – him still as excited as a 5 year old and me – the Grinch. When we bought our first house we had a room that had double doors that could close the dreaded Christmas Tree in when we weren’t home. This was his reasoning that we could now have a Tree because all of the mayhem I described early on in the relationship would now be thwarted by the doors keeping the trees safe from the cats destruction. He also now knew the cats much better and I think decided that in all reality they were a little too lazy to cause the kind of Christmas Tree carnage I had detailed years earlier. So, we went to select decorations together and eventually to a magical Christmas Tree Farm he had discovered where we could cut our own tree. That first year I went through the motions. Fine. I would have a tree but I wasn’t going to like it. It was a waste of my time and my energy to decorate this thing just to take it back down! Year two I decided we should also decorate the staircase opposite the room with the doors (which were never closed because the cats were indeed too lazy to give the tree their time or attention) and if we were doing that our dining table should have something too. Each year I found a little more joy in the tradition until eventually one year we had two Christmas Trees. Then. Finally. Three. My husband was like the whole Who Village gently nudging me along to double my heart size. Now all of those sad memories from childhood have been replaced by new ones. I now look at holidays and occasions as a way to not only help myself find joy but to give joy to others. I have planned and decorated for bridal showers, baby showers, adult birthdays, children’s birthdays, New Years bashes, football parties – the list goes on and on. Those little details that I used to see as a waste of time are now often the things people will comment on the most and those are the special pockets where memories are made. And as Glinda the Good Witch said to Dorothy “you’ve always had the power my dear you just had to learn it for yourself”. I have learned that I did indeed have the power to change my entire line of thinking, feeling and living. I do believe ‘there’s no place like home’ and making those picture perfect holiday memories come to life is through every special touch is now a place of joy.