Out with the Glitz!

  When he was pulling down the masses of Christmas decorations, Son offhandedly made the remark that he hated glitter.  This is a funny statement since just about 90% of all decorations nowadays is plastered with the stuff.  It is hard to find basic ornaments any more.  Even with the sudden interest in burlap and other natural fibers, everything is edged with a bit of glitz.  Speaking of this craze of using burlap and unbleached muslin everywhere....folks, that ain't nothin' new.  Folks have made use of oyster sacks, feed sacks and flour sacks for generations.  Your "new" idea is not so new.  But back to Son and his distaste for glitter.  He knew that each large box of Christmas decorations he was toting down the stairs probably contained at least a pound of the sparkly stuff.  "Mom, can we just go a bit plain this year?" he asked.  Alrighty, then!  Plain it would be.

  The tree went up in a hurry since this is one of those new-fangled things that comes in four pieces and already has all the lights in place. Whew!  What a breeze that was!  Usually at this time, I start unwrapping the thousand or so ornaments that  have stood the test of time and many little hands but his words rang in my head.  Hmmm, it was going to be hard to choose what ornaments would make the cut and be hung on the tree.  How could I decide which were better than the others?  Well, to make a long story short....none did.  Nary an ornament graces the branches of the tree.  Bunches of red berries and pine cones were nestled in among the limbs and then three strands of raffia in the colors of gold, red and green were simply unwound and draped on the tree.  A stuffed angel sits high on the top branches and completes the whole look.  Quilts are resting on chairs, greenery bedecks the stair rail and is held in place with some (yep!) burlap ribbon and greenery dotted with a few wooden nutcracker soldiers rounds out the decorations.  All I have left to unpack is the Nativity Scene which will be placed on the buffet in the dining room and the Little Bayou House will be fully ready for Christmas.

  This bit of simplifying things is a grand idea.  While pulling what I needed to give the house just a bit of holiday spirit, I carefully put all other decorations aside for Darling Daughter.  She and her husband have a new home to decorate so I am in hopes that they will be in need of lots of glitter!