Tuesday Titter - The Christmas Series

Part Two: The Decoration Obsession passed down from packrat to packrat.

There were some advantages to slaving 75 hours a week in retail hell. For instance: I worked with some great people, once in awhile I would hear the coveted, “thank you” from a cranky old codger that was grateful someone helped him get his cigars and of course there were the clearance items.

Clearance items were fabulous and dangerous. Being the first to ticket and place merchandise on the floor was a great benefit and knowing when an item was going to hit the pinnacle of 90% off was the best. In my tenure I procured a bread maker for $12, a blender for $2.50, an outdoor swing for $11 and more Christmas fare than I will ever have space for. I also purchased many items that are either on a shelf at the local thrift store or on a shelf collecting dust.

But, this post is about Christmas decorations – which I have an abundance.

I have a small storage unit down the hall that serves mainly to house my many plastic totes of holiday décor. Most of it was collected during the retail era, but there are a few totes that contain precious items from my childhood and grandparent’s collections. I have ornaments from my childhood that are spotted with mold and chipped with age, but I will never part with them. I have handmade ceramic pieces that have yellow lines of hot glue holding them together; I will never toss them away. Most of these items I keep just to take out each year, reminisce, shed a tear and then put them back into their tissue to look at again next year. I have never understood why I do this. I obviously think they are too ugly or fragile to display. Why not just throw them away?

I think it is the packrat gene.

The packrat gene is rampant in my family. I see it with my mom who gave me a box of chipped and broken ornaments once because they belonged to her mother and she felt that I should have them. I experienced it with GrandmaB when she passed away and I was able to have free reign with choosing what holiday décor I wanted to take from her room of decorations.

Perhaps it is also the sappy gene.

I am emotionally attached to these items and would be heartbroken to not see them every year. My family tree is sappy (heehee). Now, don’t get me wrong… not everything that I have stowed away is scarred. I have a beautiful collection of beaded ornaments that were among the chipped one’s my mom’s mom, GrandmaJ, made. I proudly display those with my various corny snowmen and Santa ornaments. I have an entire tote filled with Christmas tree statues that GrandmaB collected since the 70’s. They are each wrapped in towels and tissue that smell like her. When the lid comes off that tote, I am transported instantly to Christmas on Alfred Street.

I love decorating for Christmas! My whole apartment gets made over. I move furniture, wrap pictures in holiday paper to look like presents on the wall and I have theme rooms. Theme rooms are another packrat inherited custom - a custom that is laden with cheese and sap. I love it. This year, Queenie did a fabulous job displaying our Santa stuff in the bathroom. “He sees you when your sleeping. He knows when you’re awake (at three in the morning cuz your bladder woke you up).”

Happy Holidays!