Until we meet again…

I always feel a little sad when it’s time to pack away the Christmas decorations.  The holiday season puts me in an entirely different mood than any other time of the year.  2022 was no exception.  In fact, I was watching holiday movies, starting in September.  No, I didn’t pull out the  decorations that early.  But the movie scenes brimming with holiday magic and innocent story plots created a calm and warmth within me.  It felt almost therapeutic although, I know, my family found it to be a bit silly during the end of summer.

But most of my holiday decorations remind me of special times and they fill me with such happiness whenever I look at them.  I can tell you what each one represents.  My late grandmother painted the Santa platter.  My mother had an identical one she painted. I remember they would serve Christmas cookies (that I helped bake) on them during the holidays.  My mother gave me the little tree with the wooden star on top many years ago.  There is something so special about it that I always smile and feel comforted whenever I look at it.

These ornaments all have a story behind them.  If only they could talk…

My father passed away this past October.  He was going through a difficult time in September, which is when the holiday movies started to appear on my laptop.  I didn’t see my father at the hospital until he was unresponsive to the world around him.  Watching holiday movies helped ease what I knew to be the inevitable.  I needed something that had no drama, no politics - nothing but festive fluff to keep me from the unpleasant feelings that we’re lurking around the corner.

So with the loss of those so dear to my heart, I can remember them in little ways.  My mother painted the two angel ornaments with blue and pink roses.  I still have the box she wrapped them in and the little note she wrote on top.  Whenever I hang them on my tree, I think of her.  This past December, I hung them next to my father’s ornament, a gift I sent to my siblings for their trees.  Most of the teacup and teapot ornaments are from a tea room my family and I loved to visit near my hometown.  One holiday my husband joined us.  It was the December he proposed.

But the thing about Christmas is that it returns every year.  Once all of the bins filled with my past are pulled out of storage, I can recount those wonderful memories again right after Thanksgiving.  So until we meet again, I can always find a holiday movie to tide me over.