December 18-26: Hanukkah!

December 21: Winter Solstice!

December 23: Festivus!

December 26-January 1: Kwanzaa!

Are you more than ready for some celebrations after the last two seasons were badly affected by Covid? Have you decorated? Or will you? Show us with plenty of pictures! Are you planning your holiday dinner and/or parties? Will you share your plans, menus, recipes, table settings, special dinnerware with us?

What is your family or friends gathering like? Are rising prices making you re-think what you will do? Will it be a small gathering or are you part of a large one? If it's at your house, do you clean madly or just shrug and say "if it's clean enough for me, it's clean enough for my guests?" Do any guests stay overnight? Any funny or frustrating stories there? Any questions or issues we can help you with?

Is it an exhausting holiday or an exciting one for you? Share, share, share1

Now, for me, I live alone (with three cats) but I am so crazy about this time of the year. It takes an enormous amount of effort to make myself wait until October 1 to bring out the autumn decorations. Then on Friday of Thanksgiving weekend I put those away and bring out the Christmas decorations. Because I am getting older and wish to simplify, I donated my tall (lipstick red) tree and its vintage ornaments two years ago. This year I have gone to simple white and green, the colors of my home. There are two tabletop flocked trees, left plain, no lights, no ornaments. I have made them a kind of forest on one end of the nine-foot case in the living room and a kind of mini-forest at the other end with what I think might be dollhouse-sized trees, some bare, some flocked, a couple of mini-fence and a few old English-style lights and town clock. That's it for what is a normally bare top. And five vintage stockings are hung from it.

The coffee table sports a unique 2.5-foot tree of leaves and sticks and a collection of five large different bells that, surprisingly, don't scare the cats when I ring them.

The wall above the small entryway table has a huge silver and white bow found on Etsy that replaces the picture normally there. On another table is a vintage paper cutout of a tree with gifts, obviously from the sixties. The end table holds a large pine-scented candle.

The den has two more table-top trees and one of those lighted birch trees, about three feet tall. And finally the master bedroom has a smallish, absolutely gorgeous sleight in white, gold and green that I hesitated to buy from Neiman Marcus (due to its $80 cost) a couple of years ago but ultimately am glad I did plus a tiny six-inch gold tree from World Market. The rest of the house is undecorated except for a few things outdoors.

I will post pictures in the next week when I can get a friend to come over and take them. In the meantime, tell us ALL about your tree(s), lights, decorations, plans, food, and much more so we can share in your joy!