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1.
Organize Christmas Cards And Letters.
A few
years ago, I came across several Christmas letters written after
Bill and I were first married. That find motivated me to locate
every Christmas letter and card mailed out since we were
married. After making two copies of each (one for Katie
and one for Hollie), I purchased three binders and page
protectors to store the letters and cards. Every holiday season,
it's like opening a present when we unpack these binders with
the Christmas decorations. What I look forward to most is giving
my daughters their collections of cards and letters as a gift when they graduate from high
school.
2. Centralize
Miscellaneous Holiday Items.
When
packing decorations away, don't forget to gather everything that
will not be needed until next Christmas. In our home, those
items include:
-
Christmas t-shirts, sweaters, and socks
-
Jewelry and hair accessories with a holiday theme
-
seasonal dishes
-
holiday gift bags and wrapping paper
-
gifts
purchased the day after Christmas that will not be needed
until next year
-
books
with a Christmas theme
Because I
can't part with Christmas photos and letters we receive from
friends and family, I rubber band them together by year and
store them with Christmas decorations. Last year's cards came in
handy this year when I was creating our Christmas cards online
and needed the ideal saying to put on the inside of the card.
3. Minimize
What You Keep Throughout The Years.
Over time,
it's been my goal to reduce the amount of ornaments and
decorations we store, keeping only those that have a special
place in our home or hearts. Specific examples of how we have
done this are found below:
-
Artwork
- Because it's not possible to keep every Christmas drawing
made by our children, every year I choose one or two drawn
by Katie and one or two drawn by Hollie and place them in
their Christmas binder with the letter and card mailed out
that year.
-
Decor
- If you haven't gotten an item out in over a year, it's
time to consider removing it from your home. It wasn't easy
for me to part with, but I recently took my own advice and
donated the garland that we used to decorate the banister in
our previous home. It wasn't a good fit for our current
house and, by giving it away, I was being a good steward of
the resources entrusted to my care.
-
Ornaments
- My favorite way to decorate our tree is with family
photos. Each year, my goal is to add more photos and remove
less meaningful ornaments from our tree. Although I make my frames by
hot gluing material around
a cardboard frame, small frames are also available in
stores.
If you
don't want to purchase or create a frame, consider cropping
around the subject of the photo and place the photo directly
on a tree branch.
4. Utilize
Keepsakes.
If an item
is worth storing, it's worth enjoying. Since many of us are too
busy to sift through keepsakes each year, a better way to see
treasured items on a regular basis is to incorporae them into
your holiday decor. Hanging on our tree, for example, are the
mittens my husband wore as a child, my daughters' first pairs of
baby shoes, and ornaments made by relatives who are no longer
living.
My
husband's mom loved to collect Beanie Babies. After she died, we
inherited many of the bears in her collection. When my daughters are
old enough that they no longer play with them, the bears will be
packed away with decorations so they don't take up space in our
home throughout the year. Instead, we can enjoy seeing them every Christmas on the
very tree that Bill's mom used to display them
in her home during the holidays.
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