LARGETONY Blog

Kelly of “Rambling along in Life…with a Stern Point of View” / Richmond, VA

A “slice of life” style blogger, Kelly runs the gamut from cozy Southern homebody to political activist to social butterfly…and back again. Unlike Playboy, you should read him for more than just the naked (half-naked anyway) pictures.

We say it every year. “It’s seems Christmas starts earlier and earlier.” Lights start going up before Halloween decorations come down. We start getting bombarded with toy and electronics ads. Tis the season! I will admit, come Thanksgiving I get excited. I love the holidays, well, to start with anyway. I begin getting the house in Christmas order Thanksgiving weekend, and slowly start dragging out the decorations.

First, the outdoor lights. You have to consider I live in the same neighborhood as one of the top Tacky Lights stops in Richmond, so I cannot just sit in the dark. I usually get these lights up by the end of the Turkey Day weekend. Then, depending on if we are having a Holiday Party or not, will figure into how fast I pull out the indoor decorations. This year, with party planned, I pulled them out the week after Turkey Day. I had only two weeks to get the house in order for the gathering.

Of course, I always have to decorate the house for Christmas, party or not. I think this is something I get from my mother (or the gay gene). She would, and still does, go overboard with the decorating. Her trees look like the really nice ones you see in magazines, and they even got bigger and nicer after she took a trip to The Biltmore Estates several years ago while they had up their decorations.

You see, my mom does this every year, even though she lives way out in the country and typically only about 10 people will stop by during any given season. Not to say she is not loved, but a lot of her siblings and my grandmother are a bit older or have at home families, so for them to make a 45 minute trip to the country does not happen often.

I am the same way though. I like having the lights up on the tree, the stockings on the mantle and some Yule tide cheer in my hand. Even though last year we did not have a lot of visitors during the season, I still went all out. This year we have decided to have our Holiday Party again, and well, the house must look good. Our co-workers, neighbors and friends will be coming by for food and beverages and fun (I hope). I get really stressed out, though I shouldn’t. I will be a wreck.

Since our last party a couple years ago, we have remodeled a bathroom, bought new furniture, ripped out radiators, painted all the rooms with color and just completely changed the house all together. So of course we have gotten a lot of RSVP’s this time around… Will we survive? Yes, but not without a bit of holiday ’spirit’ to get us through.

Another aspect of Christmas I have always loved is getting Christmas cards in the mail, and not my email. I love hanging them up in the house, giving it a more festive feel. I don’t care if they are cheap or expensive, I love getting them. When I was a kid, my parents would let me open any mail that looked like a card and hang it on the back of the front door and when we ran out of room there, we would sit them on the TV or bookcase or wherever we could find a place.

Looking back, it seemed there were hundreds of cards we would get every year, though it probably was not that many. Now, I still send out cards to as many people as I can think of. Do they appreciate them, I don’t know… but it is fun for me. And honestly, I just hope they send me one back, just so I can hang it my house. There is something warm about getting a Christmas card. E-cards are nice, but I can’t put those out for all my friends and neighbors to see if they happen to come by.

I guess I am somewhat of an old fashioned southern boy who likes the modern technologies, but still has room in his heart for some tradition, even if that means the 12 days of Christmas gets extended by a day or two or three each year… May your holidays be cheerful and bountiful!

Remember, this is the time of giving, so when sending out your Christmas cards, address one to your favorite charity, local or otherwise, and send them some Christmas cheer in the form of a donation. Every little bit helps, especially these days. I know they would appreciate it.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 12:36 am and is filed under guest star day, holiday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.