I called a client on my way to her house to hang some art. As we were getting off the phone, she said, “And please ignore the tacky midwestern Christmas decorations!”
Oh, my friend. Have no fear. I will never, EVER judge you for your tacky Christmas decorations. (Which weren’t, in fact, very tacky at all. Disappointing.)
People assume that because I’m a designer, my Christmas decorations are carefully chosen, color-coordinated, and tasteful.
Alas, this is not the case.
You know the lovely Maria Killam of Colour Me Happy? She has the most beautiful raspberry, gold and silver ornaments on her tree. It – and all of her holiday decorations – looks perfect in her house.
Here, in stark contrast, is our tree.
I’m not complaining – I love it, in fact – but I can’t be accused to being a slave to style when it comes to decorating for Christmas.
If I were, we wouldn’t have this lovely Venus flytrap ornament that one of the girls made. (I’m not convinced it IS an ornament, actually, but I threw it at the tree and it found a place to land, so…)
Or the laminated paper ornaments my husband made when he was a lad.
Or the Santa Claus made out of – that’s right! – a crab shell.
Or the red feather angel at the top of the tree.
She takes the cake, doesn’t she? Every year we alternate between her (which, as urban legend has it, my parents bought at the corner liquor store upon realizing that we had nothing for the top of the tree; my brother and I must have been 2 and 3 or so) and the sad looking felt Christmas tree puppet below it. His pom-pom nose fell off a few years ago, but still he performs his holiday duties with aplomb. He just can’t smell very well.
Someday, I fantasize, I’ll have multiple Christmas trees.
I’ll have a beautiful, tasteful, color-coordinated tree in the living room, and then the hokey but happy trees in the family room and – hey, why not? – in the bedrooms.
But for now, we’ll limit ourselves to one tree, likely lopsided, its needle-shedding branches laden with ornaments of all different colors, sizes, styles, and varying degrees of disrepair.
It’s just how we do Christmas.
Annie Elliott – aka bossy color – is an interior decorator and design blogger in Washington, D.C. She’s also the creator of the “bossy basic,” a one-time service that jump-starts the interior design process in your home.