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I don’t feel like putting up my Christmas decorations this year.
Yup. Don’t wanna. Don’t feel like dragging down the boxes that took me until February this year to bother putting away. Don’t wanna drag out the tree, wrestle with the ornament boxes, or hear a single jingling bell on any of the doorknobs in my house. I don’t want to bake Christmas cookies (but I’ll be happy to eat yours if you offer). You could say that I’m not “in the Christmas spirit”, but the truth is, I just feel like skipping the whole decorating thing for a little while.
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| last year’s (nearly free) Christmas mantel |
Yup. Skip it. A DIY home blogger would like to humbly confess that the idea of exhausting herself on holiday decorations just seems like too much this year. It feels akin to making my bed each morning. Why bother?
There are a lot of others that are more worthy of a break – totally sure of that. And they’re putting up Christmas decorations. And creating Christmas cards, and making hot chocolate from scratch, and homemade wreaths to deliver to the neighbors. There are probably people reading this who can take my workload and raise me three-kids-with-in-laws-in-town. Then they’ll dismantle a missile (don’t ask me why I always go there, I guess dismantle a missile just seems both awesome and difficult), and still have the house ready with table seating for twelve. And I will happily sit on my ass and hold up a spoonful of strawberry ice cream in salute. But I’m not going to dig out the decorations from guilt that someone else can handle more. I don’t want to play the I’m busier than you game.
The simplest explanation is that my brain feels completely and totally fried. I don’t feel tired; I feel behind. I’ve enjoyed so much this year, and I’m happy and grateful for all the opportunities that have come my way. But my to-do list just keeps getting longer and I still haven’t even found the time to recount some of the cooler experiences (like being in a commercial!). And now that my first year of grad school has come to an end (for you new visitors, I’m getting my MBA while working full time and renovating a house by myself – better yet, read here), I just feel like hitting the pause button until the new year. I want to simply work on my home, spend time with family and friends, and completely disconnect from the things I just don’t feel like doing.
So while you may be wondering if that means I’m going on a blog hiatus, what I’m actually doing is quite the opposite: I’m looking at my December break from school as my opportunity to really focus on things that I always feel too spent to do. I’m going to take a few days off of work and relax, #sawdusttherapy style. I’m going to finish my first workbench and make progress on my dining room. I’m going to have friends over to see how the last year of DIY has treated me (the first entire year of DIY-ing on my own). I’m going to the gym and the salon. And I’m going to watch Christmas movies in bed instead of trying to recreate the holidays around the house.
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| Merry Toolmas. |
Maybe mid-December, I’ll change my mind and you’ll at least see a tree (Uncle Knick-Knack the II) gracing the living room. But I’ve already got half of my Christmas shopping done, and I still don’t feel like making a move around the house other than caulking, priming, sawing, and using the air compressor. Perhaps, this Christmas, my holiday spirit will be the gift of completed projects and renewed energy for a productive 2013.
Or, you know, I might just watch TV for a month. There’s that.
Ha! You go girl. Everybody needs priorities, and honestly R&R and getting some things done are more important than a tree.
Good for you!! I understand that feeling so much… Im keeping things simple this year for much the same reason. My wee three foor prelit artificial tree that took me thirty minutes to completely assemble is about the extent of my decorating this year.
Do what makes you happy. Forcing yourself into putting up stuff for the holidays might change your mind… or it might make you feel even more resentful. The bad taste in your mouth could return next year when you drag everything back out again. The key to all the holidays in December is spending time with family and enjoying yourself. Get your saw dust therapy on and go out instead of inviting people over. Don't sweat it. Everyone takes a year off at some point.
Love this and your honesty. How refreshing to read that someone else feels the same way I do sometimes. As DIY home bloggers it seems a sin to skip the whole decorating for the holidays thing, but why not? Is anyone gonna notice if there's one less Christmas craft on the weekly link parties? Are the kids gonna care if the tree is perfectly decorated? Nope. You may have liberated me!!
Quite the holiday rebel, you are. Im glad you dont feel pressured to haul out the holiday bootie if you're just not feelin' it this year. Celebrating like a Christmas badass! :)
I do not blame you. I sometimes wish Christmas was an every-other-year holiday. I will be skipping my decorating this year as well, probably. I just don't have the energy for it. Celebrate Christmas however you want and don't feel guilty!
I can totally understand that attitude – do what is best for you! =) I will put up a tree in about two weeks, and before that Christmas will not really take place at our house (okay, maybe except for my Christmas car CD…. and cookie baking and present making, but that is more craft / DIY than Christmas, right?) Enjoy your time, and show us your DIY updates! =)
I love this. I really do. I love all things decoration but, man, I just gave away 90% of my fall stuff last weekend because I just knew I didn't want to do it next year. And I purged my Christmas stuff down to two bins but was falling into the trap of killing myself to make Christmas awesome for my kids and myself. But you know what? An awesome Christmas is not a perfectly decorated house, it's relaxing, spending time with your family and friends, and being you. So you don't put anything out. And if you freak out on the 21st and put out a tree, that's okay too. But it's also okay if you don't. It does not make you a humbug or a scrooge. Love your blog. I am also a single lady doing it all myself so I love reading your adventures. :)
Love this! I've recently been bitten by a crafting bug (so not me! I feel like aliens have brainwashed me) and have been making a few small Christmas decorations, but I'm not at all motivated to pull out my bucket of Christmas decor AT ALL. We live in a small apartment and have one of the little table top Charlie Brown Christmas trees, that may be the extent of our Christmas decor this year.
Good for you.. the holidays are for celebrating and relaxing- however that may be. Especially if it includes ice cream. Enjoy!!
I vote that you bake a batch of easy-break cookies that already have the snowman designs in them, and strap a santa hat to Charlie. Let her walk from room to room and whichever one she's in is “decorated”. And them you get cookies while you watch Christmas Vacation.
…which is exactly what you need.
Seriously. I'm all for making gifts this year, all about building stuff or working on projects but the thought of doing the Christmas decor stuff… eh. Course as a guy I'm less inclined to it than others even in a normal year, but this year I'm kind of wondering if I can get away with a blank tree. Call it rustic. Or minimalist. Fine, lazy, whatever. I'm with you.
Thank you. I feel all alone in blogland as everyone posts all the amazing Christmas things they plan on doing and I'm not planning on doing ANYTHING. That's right, My house will look the same Christmas day as it does every other day of the year!
Thank you for this post. I too work full-time, working on my MBA full-time and attempt work on my house as well. I have felt so guilty that I didn't want to decorate this year but just don't have it in me. I would rather spend winter vacation from school working on finishing some random house projects. I love Christmas but I am glad I am not alone in my scrooge like attitude towards decorating this year.
I felt this same way last year — I didn't put up a single decoration and it was so refreshing. I enjoyed every bit of Christmas and had more time to watch my favorite Christmas movies :) but this year I can't get enough of it! Hope you enjoy your sawdust therapy and take some time to relax!
Oh I totally get you! I too am completing and MBA nad working full time. Ok I'm not renovating a house but this year I ended up in hospital for a minor op, went to Denmark for 3-weeks on an international exchange AND got married in September. The crazies, I have them.
I'm up to my eyeballs in finishing my dissertation so when someone asked me the other day what I was doing for Christmas, I blinked and said “Sleeping. My sanity demands it.”.
If you don't want to decorate, don't! You'll only have to put it all away again in a few weeks and you could spend that time with some sawdust therapy ;)
I've had years like that. Actually this year I am trying to sell my house so I am doing very little decorating. And it is actually kind of nice. If I can finish my shopping on my couple days off next week, I can enjoy the whole month of December stress-free.
Write down the few things that are most important for you for Christmas season and focus on those alone.
I totally agree! Christmas decorations used to be fun, but this year they just feel like a chore. If we didn't have kids I probably wouldn't put out any decorations. As it is I did the bare minimal amount of decorating: pulled the wreaths out of their bags, put out some stuffed animals and a few knick-knacks, and we'll do a tree in a week or two.
And then the day after Christmas I'll be sick of it all and will put it all away.
I know where you are coming from. When i take “time off” from being a contractor I spend it working on my own home. When my place is dialed in (in a hundred years) i'll spend that energy decorating for holidays!
No point forcing it sounds like you have plenty to make your time off fun.
That is exactly what happened to me last year, I wasn't feeling like decorating! And I felt good not forcing it, this present year I am totally into it and enjoying every bit! Love your blog btw! All the best from Brazil…
That is exactly how I felt this year. Ok, so it is 5 years after you had this non-Christmas-feeling Christmas. But I was not into it, and neither was my husband. We did nothing. We barely managed gifts. It all just seemed too exhausting. I’d never really experienced it before. I think next year I’ll need to double down to make up for it. All the Christmas need to happen in 2018.
I think I go through a pattern most of the time. I still feel like I’m going to decorate this year though so that would be 2 in a row, but I think a theme also really helps. K is really into space and engineering, so I think we’re going to go with a galaxy theme this coming year. Quite a challenge for ornaments!