House I grew up in

We all have wonderful sweet memories of Christmastime at our mothers house, or grandmothers and traditions that follow us into adult hood. My Gege does stockings in addtion to gifts, ever year she swears its the last...but us adult grown grandchildren always want it to continue. 

I dont decorate for Christmas, I know it sounds awful but you got to know about the house i grew up in. I have a phobia of anything resembling a Christmas decoration! The day after thanksgiving my mother would make us clean the house top to bottom and when we got older she sat while we cleaned, then she would make my father drag out box after box of decorations. We would spend our entire thanksgiving break decorating for Christmas.; as children this was fun but when we got older we grew to resent it. Why? I honestly don't know, but my mothers house would resemble a hallmark store on crack...NO LIE! Its every ware!! 

To each their own but for me and my brother instead of grow up and having a ton of Christmas decor in our own homes, we almost have none. We will even ignore our mothers call to help her decorate, I know we will miss it some day and shame on us but its the honest truth and she knows it. 

I guess maybe we need some counseling to unlock this mystery of why we have phobias about Christmas but we do our own decorating and have our own traditions with our family's and we don't get stressed out about having a clean house before putting up decorations and then the dreaded task of taking them down. My husband isn't one for clutter so us not having a ton of nick nacks around in December makes him happy, we still hit all the Christmas parades, plays and parks. Drink hot coco, read the Christmas story and we have the Elf on the Shelf too. We still believe in the spirit and meaning behind Christmas...we just don't have the clutter. 

We also don't put a lot of emphasis on Santa either, sure he comes and occasionally we visit him at the mall (not ever year), same with writing to Santa.  We personally just don't believe in anything that takes away from the reason for the season. Only reason we do Santa and Elf is because we were pressured by my mother too...when i say pressured she threw a fit and wouldn't stop until we gave in. I know I know stand your ground! I also have to pick my battles too, we choose to do Santa but do him in our way. 

This year we visited Santa, wrote him a letter but I don't think the word Santa has been spoken in my house for over two weeks. We do a birthday cake for Jesus and give to Kids in need, I want my child to know the reason for the season not what was created to take the spot light off Jesus birth.

Ok off my soap box and back to getting ready for the day. 

I don't mean to offend anyone, if your house looks like the hallmark store no judgement! To each his own and we are all different with different traditions..I still love you! If Santa is a huge thing for you, no judgement I still love you!