Amylou, I have news I think you will like! I usually try to find a theme, a motif, a color scheme, just so it doesn’t look like my basement threw up in the living room, ALL of the Christmas stuff. This year I just didn’t feel inspired....until I stopped at the grocery store for some wine. Rosé. AKA, pink. And there were these really cute napkins at checkout, with pink.

That’s my color scheme! PINK! and soft green! and gold!

It’s a busy concert season, we had three already this weekend, one tomorrow, then two next weekend, but at least most of the weekdays are free. And the weekend concerts are a fun way to see friends who come to hear us, whom we may not see often!

I have maybe a third of my gift shopping done, no food yet (stilll hoping for my holiday miracle that one of my family will host. Not likely, but a gal can dream, and it is, after all, the season of hope!)

I love Pinkmas!

One year my mother bought a Christmas tree that had been spray painted pink. This was around 1959, I think. She bought it because she had waited too late in the season, and there was not much left to choose from. She decided to decorate it using only blue balls and silver tinsel. I liked it.

Our sister will not be visiting us this year, and so it will be just the two of us, but our sister wants to Skype on Christmas, which I guess will be okay. We have no plans and we do not decorate for Christmas, especially this year, since our kitchen will probably not be finished.

Once the kitchen is finished, it will probably lend itself to Christmas decorations, since the lower cabinets are red.

I haven't sent Christmas cards yet, and I need to do that tomorrow, especially to friends who do not have my new address.

I ordered a fruitcake to be sent to our sister, and she can take that to wherever she will be going for Christmas dinner with our other relatives. She'll have to buy some rum to add to it, however. It will be shipped to her from Corsicana, Texas, and this is the fruitcake we had as children. She had some with us when she visited us here last year.

Prep. in our place largely consists of cleaning the house and cooking for the freezer. We'll have 6 people and a baby staying for 6 days. We do very little decorating and not until just before guests arrive. I put up some real evergreens and some twinkly white lights. We'll get a real tree the weekend before. We have a £15 (ca. $19) ceiling on gifts and donate to charities instead.

Pink is THE decorator pushed color of the year. Pink santa/pink nutcrackers/trees on and on... Pink made its appearance at halloween too. I don't get it but to each their own.

X Decorating done.

X Christmas card going to print today

X Shopping done, packages arriving daily

X Baking begun.

I love working half days it's given me soooo much time for LIFE !!

I haven't seen that pink is the decorator pushed color of the year, but what I have seen all over is BROWN - ornaments, tree ribbon, wreath bows.

I have begun making my Christmas biscotti, and the couple of gifts we need are purchased. We aren't doing a full tree this year, but I have a cute tabletop tree I put in a chinoiserie style pot, and I make our mantel and coffee table festive, and hang paper star lanterns in the windows.

Pink is in? Oh well. I already have plenty of pink, or shades of it, and my dining room walls are a pink so all will be well and I probably won’t need to buy anything more than the packet of cocktail napkins. I think the photo reads darker than they are in real life.

My tree never follows the theme. Decorating is a family affair, with ”Elf” accompanying on the screen, so it becomes a bit exuberant. And stockings are likewise, the same stockings we have all had since we were kids or joined the family.

Lars, I had always heard ”horror stories” about fruitcake and never tried it, even when I was living in Dallas. But one year, when my parents couldn’t host anymore, they ordered us a Collin Street fruitcake. To my surprise and delight, it was delicious, heated up and with coffee in the morning, or warm topped with ice cream after dinner. (the latter was too rich for me but others liked it)

Well, haven't done much. We're probably having our Christmas day the day after because my son has a doctor's appointment Christmas eve. He and I conspired to get my daughter gift cards to pay for a new computer chair. Well, he gave her his part electronically. I got a regular one so she would have something to open. About an hour ago my daughter sent us a picture of her new computer chair. Oh, well.

This morning I went through a cookbook that has the seafood crepe recipe that I'm using for our dinner. Trying to figure out what to make with it. I found a parsnip and carrot with honey recipe that I'm going to try out tomorrow. Just have to get some parsley and parsnips. Probably going to roast some asparagus too.

May put the tree up this week. We'll see. I have a couple more gifts to buy.

I shipped my gifts off today. Christmas cards were mailed last week. The house is decorated. I don't put up a tree because usually I am away during at least two weeks in December. This year is an anomaly that I'm staying home, but I see no reason to buy a tree and ornaments for one year. I have lights on a faux cypress, so I do sort of have a tree.

I have all the food I need for the next two or three weeks. I've already attended two parties and one holiday dinner with friends. I'll have other friends over for champagne and nibbles next Tuesday evening, then I think I'll be finished with my social activities for the year.

I bought some citrus and whole cloves today. I think I might dehydrate some citrus slices and make a potpourri with that and some cinnamon sticks and star anise, plus some clove-studded citrus. We will see.

My color theme and motif seem to be developing themselves. A nativity that leans pink is in the dining room. The living room started with some angels that have deep pink and gold, and that turned into an Angel Living Room, on the mantel, the cabinet, and piano, nestled in greenery. A gold (battery) lantern on the hearth, lights in the greenery, I might be done by Christmas.

My sister-in-law informed me today that since the whole family is otherwise busy this Christmas and basically the month of December we will be celebrating the holiday in January "sometime". ugh. Since I'm single that means no Christmas dinner unless I cook my own (not the first time). Tried Bob Evans at Thanksgiving, not impressed. Oh well, that's what happens when the younger kids grow up and start their life journeys with new husbands/wives or SOs.

Sent out my cards in the mail yesterday and walked down the road delivering some to neighbors today. Put up the tree and other decor this afternoon. I have pared down, everything I put out now fits in one small plastic tub. lol Except the artificial tree that is. And I was SO happy when I plugged it in and saw that a string of lights in the middle was not working. .........grrrr. I'm not bothering to do anything about it. It is what it is. Still looks festive enough.

My favorite part of Christmas is the decorations. I put everything up the day after Thanksgiving. Every room has something festive in it. Much of it are decorations gifted by family and friends or belonged to my mother. The sentamentality brings me joy. I just wrote out my xmas cards. I'm down to 20. I cut out a lot--I'm kinda ruthless that way. This is our last year with gifts as a family. Nobody wants or needs more stuff. I just love putting on the Christmas tree lights and sitting quietly with xmas music and my tea. Brings me extra joy.

I found more! Went to the basement for my mittens, and saw a box of placemats: Light evergreens background, pink stars and ornaments! For the kitchen table.

I brought out the nutcracker collection at Thanksgiving because my DD2 and brand-new SIL came from out of state, and he had never seen them. Showing off. And, of course the knitted stockings that a neighbor made for the kids 35 years ago. A classic. Then DH had hand surgery last week, so he is out of commission for putting the tree together. So it's going to be a "Christmas Without Decorations" this year. I am trying to talk myself into getting out the teeny glass ornaments that go in the crystal glasses which are in the china cabinet. I really want to visit the local antique store and get myself something I have always longed for--one of those little light up ceramic trees, the uglier the better. It'll be a present to myself.

Darn, @faftris, my aunt wanted to give me her light-up ceramic tree that was handmade by a client. I wish we knew each other in real life. I would have her send it to you.

Since I am on a corner lot, my doors face two streets so they both have fresh Trader wreaths on them and the main entrance has an antique sled and a small Xmas tree in an old urn. There are icicle lights around the small front porch, green garland down the old pillars, and five giant candy canes line the flagstone path(found them in garbage night years ago) I have small Xmas garden flags at both locations.

We have not had a live tree for a few years now since I got tired of decorating it and then undecorating it. I have some small trees around and a new cat who is having fun with the ornaments. The other two never bothered them. As for cards....back in the day, I sent 60 or more and I am down to a handful and am only sending to those who send to me. I have a feeling most want to stop. My daughter and son stopped many many years ago but I did get a card from my grandson and his GF.

Got as far as putting a holly wreath on the front door this week. Brought the tree decs box out of the loft. Might get a tree on Sunday.

Went to pick up some serving pieces from Crate & Barrel today and visited Pottery Barn which is right next door. They had lots of their holiday items on sale for 30% - 50% off. I bought a huge box of holiday potpourri for $25. So, I won't be dehydrating fruit. I may still make some fresh citrus with cloves.

I really need to clean out the building materials leftover from the kitchen and flooring project from my livingroom so I can put my tree up. My daughter may come next week to help me. I just cant' seem to get motivated. Also, my dang shoulder and arm started hurting again like a week and a half ago. Made an appointment with the ortho people I saw in the Summer. They had given me a steroid injection and told me to come back in 6 weeks if it didn't work, but it did. Amazingly I called today and they had an opening for Monday! I was thinking it would be weeks.

I did go out and get a 2025 calender for myself today and a gift card for a Thai restaurant for someone. Oh, and I bought some new Holiday Toasty Peanut M & Ms. They taste okay at first but have a not-so-great aftertaste. I should've spent a few more dollars and got some Ferrero Rocher candies instead.

I bought a large live wreath at Costco around Thanksgiving. DH put it in the garage and half of the needles fell off! We've had their wreaths for several years. I remove their ornaments and use my own sparkly 'fruit' and wide ribbon.

We were only able to return it today.

Now they have no wreaths. Maybe I can still find one in town.

I took advantage of a warmer day today (40ish, sunny) and made the Xmas wreaths for the garden gates. This year I went minimalist, ha. Two of the wreaths are the basic grapevine wreaths that you buy from Michaels or such and decorate yourself. I made the two for the double garden gate out of wild grape vine from around the property years ago. Anyway, today to each one I just added sticks from the brush pile, then one swag of fresh boxwood, then two red berry picks. Done. lol

After I came in the house, about a half hour later I felt chilled. Took me a long time to warm up.

Well I am almost done. I have indeed decided against any further festiveness, as it will not be worth the effort this year. I went all out at work as I always do, and I am satisfied with that. SO does not care. All he wants is for me to pick out and order my own gifts, paid for by him. I did that yesterday. All I have to do now is put the 3 cards in the mail, distribute the gifts to those I bought for (hoping to do that tonight or tomorrow) and be done. Then I can just focus on wallowing in the season and binging the various versions of a Christmas Carol.

The gifts I chose for myself were a big wax melting kettle thing to help me make more candles a lot faster, a home gym type setup, and I went to home goods and TJ Maxx and got a pink heart shaped Dutch oven (yes, another one) and some pink bowls and various other pink delights for my kitchen. I went searching for a Paris Hilton Frying pan. I bought one at Ross not long ago simply because it was pink but I really really like it. So I will just order some more, as I did not find any in the stores. Oh, and a 20 ft tall inflatable penguin with a Santa hat on, which I suppose will make its debut next year. He is nagging me to pick out more stuff, but I told him just to wait for my birthday next month, I am all out of ideas! Maybe my gift will be him leaving me completely alone to put together the home gym without his "help" Or, even better, he does it himself and leaves me out of it! I already know that its going to be a headache, but I am really grateful to have it coming!

I arrived at work today, having finally had all my days off for the first time since August, to discover that they had pulled up the junky, torn up floor and replaced it with the same type of junky, ugly floor that they pulled up. And in that process, they had torn all the wrapping paper on the walls, moved a lot of my decor around, some of it is missing, and I found strings of lights that had nothing to do with the floor unplugged and balled up and tossed aside unceremoniously. To say I was mad is a generous understatement. I certainly realize that things must be moved around to replace a floor, but the destruction inflicted on my stuff was ridiculous. So I spent a few hours fixing things, and putting things back where they belong, and I still have to search around to see where they thought to hide some of my other Christmas stuff. To add insult to injury, it appears that someone has found my treat stash, which I keep hidden so I can dole it out throughout the month and helped themselves to it. It was either my coworkers, which I doubt, or the floor people, which is weird. They cleaned me out. Those were supposed to refill the treat buckets I sent out, and that made me mad. So I am not really feeling generous anymore this year. But none of that will hurt my Christmas cheer. I still love the season and am enjoying it the best I can. It is really flying by this year, so I am trying to soak it in and enjoy.

Christmas Cookie baking DONE. I always do a marathon weekend. I make more candies than cookies. Just a few packages left to wrap. I guess I should turn my attention to menu planning...

No cookie baking. It's not really a thing here. Besides, we all eat and waste too much at this time of year so, although I enjoy Christmas, I try to do it conscientiously. We've put a £15 cap on gifts and only give within the family. So it's mostly chocs, books and socks. They're all wrapped. I recycle the wrapping paper and make from tags from old Christmas cards. I've sent money to a local homeless charity instead. Any food that can be premade and frozen without detriment is already done. The turkey, gammon and fish are on order for collection at the farmers' market next week. Our main preparation now is cleaning the house up to guest standard. That's our marathon.

floral's note reminded me. We too have done our annual charitable giving. We split the distribution DH has to take from his IRA into money to places we've supported for many years. They are all 'local', relatively low-budget, and they all serve *people*. We like to be able to see firsthand how things are run.

I'm only sorry we didn't realize earlier that we could 'spend' non-Roth IRA distributions this way.

My local animal shelter has wish lists on both amazon and chewy. I sent 10 40 pounds bags of dog food, 480 cans of cat food, and some treats and toys that were on their chewy list. But I dont consider that a festive activity. We do that a few times a year. The people that run it are trash but that doesn't mean the animals should suffer anymore by being hungry,

Well, aren't I the Debbie Downer Scrooge McDuck? I had delayed pulling out the decorations until DH had time to hang the outside lights. That got delayed and delayed, until we both agreed that it wasn't worth it. And nobody will see the inside of our house, and neither of us care if it's decorated.

And today, my FIL is in the hospital for observation, covid positive. He is 86. So family Christmas will be postponed until January. I'm glad I didn't do the grocery shopping yet! If I worked at a job, I think I'd offer to work on Christmas.

I've scaled way back this Christmas and the last couple. Neither of my kids need anything really. I did pick up some drinks for Christmas dinner today. I also got a small amount of cash out when I paid for my groceries to put in the Salvation Army kettle that was outside when I went into the store. I picked out a bag of dog treats for Chewie to "open" on Christmas. I bought one of those tiny string of white lights to put in one of my Turkish lamps that I brought in from the garage. I'm going to clean it up, and that will be the only real decoration for Christmas. I decided against putting up my tree this year.

I'm happy to read all your festive plans. I don't know what to think about polls where a third of responders said they'd prefer to skip Christmas altogether, and another sizeable group felt obliged to participate. Or that people deep in debt will go deeper, especially parents. So much emphasis on *things*!

I'm dragging my feet, but it's getting there. I have to decorate this year as I am hosting our youngest sibling's birthday. On top of which, our oldest sibling will be in attendance. Which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but someone decided to drive over the top of him while he was on his motorcycle recently. He's on the downhill side of recovery, but we're lucky he's still here. He had on all the right gear, helmet, spine protection, armored jacket and pants, but still sustained a concussion, broken ribs, and a punctured lung. We gots some celebrating to do! Which is the only reason I am doing the whole nine yards: three trees, both front and back entrances decorated, outdoor lights... everything. I am supplying the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes. I have all the ingredients and will cook next week. We don't exchange gifts, but sister will get a birthday present. I need to get her present. I might make younger sister and oldest brother pans of coypcat cinnabon rolls for their Christmas breakfasts. I would consider that a gift ;)

https://www.jocooks.com/wprm_print/cinnabon-cinnamon-rolls

I have a work luncheon today. I have a work luncheon tomorrow. I've received gifts from bosses from both jobs. I still have a secret santa coming my way. I've already given mine out.

I guess that makes me halfway done?

Rob, your oldest sibling being with you is a big reason to celebrate!

My concert season is done till January, so I can relax. Sort of. Every year one family member is easy to buy for, and one more difficult. So far one kid has nothing, although the GF does, and they do have a joint gift (that’s a new one for us!). And they gave me a gift already that I have wanted for years: a golden light-up reindeer! He is standing watch under the lit arbor at the edge of the woods and makes me happy. The instructions explicitly stated ”assemble outdoors to avoid unnecessary clean-up”. I did it in the garage, and yes, cleaned up the glitter. Some got tracked into the house anyway, and I think I left a trail around the yard, like fairydust.

Our guest list keeps growing, one or two at a time, and who know who we will add by Christmas? In the past we had a pretty set list with real invitations, but with changes in families and lives, we are more flexible now. I kind of like it! Since we are not full to start with, it is easy to add people, and with that, expectations for the china and chairs to be matched sets, fade.

No wrapping yet. I still need to figure out DS#1’s gift. Stockings I think will be food-related and an ornament.

Got a tree today. Meanwhile the cleaning marathon continues. I absolutely hate it so I'm pacing myself.

Tree is up! No lights or decorations yet, but it smells divine. And it sure is thirsty!

seagrass_gw Cape Cod

floral_uk - your tree is quite lovely. I like organic, natural trees - haven't been able to embrace the prelit artificial ones, even though they would be easier to deal with in our retirement.

seagrass ~ the most realistic-looking artificial tree (to me) is called the Noblis Fir (not noble, nob-lis). What I love about it is that there is excellent spacing between the tiers of branches, enabling me to hang ornaments from the tips all the way to the trunk. That was the prime selling point for me, 8 years ago or so. It may be too tall for your purposes, comes at both 7 OR 8 feet tall.

And for full disclosure here, you may recall that I am the crazy eccentric who decided to keep mine up, decorated to the n-th degree, for the rest of my life -- this year is #6 and at age 78 I am still very happy about it! =)

[I do so love your "name" here -- I grew up with summers in Truro, and have memories of breeze-blown sea-grasses - also of planting some with my mother to combat erosion...)

Tree is lit and decorated! Oops, no skirt yet, but I still have to sweep up the needles. DH put the lights on, maybe for the first time? Now I see why DS and I usually do it. Lots of wires and connections visible in the daylight, whites not tucked in to the middle as I asked. But we are happy.

roxanna - it is beautiful here on the outer Cape. We are in Eastham, on the bayside, with a little bit of ocean effect snow that accumulated today.

amylou and seagrass ~ a white Christmas here for me, yay! Altho the early morning temp today was only 6 degrees, and it won't get above freezing for many days to come. I'm not going outside except to fill the bird feeder, lol.

We got 8 inches a week ago, of which some remains, with a top-up yesterday of an inch, and the same predicted for tomorrow. Looks so pretty!

Bought some mistletoe at Trader Joe's, taped it in the doorway. Done.

I will be catsitting for a couple of cats in my building. It's fun and pays nice cash. On Wednesday, I have a ticket for the opening day of A Complete Unknown, that new movie about Bob Dylan. It's playing at a really nice 1920s Moorish Revival style theater which is an easy walk from home. I'm very grateful that I get to be a non-participant in the holiday and just enjoy a peaceful day.

I love all of your plans and non-plans! We didn't do much decorating this year, our daughter and 3 grand kids just moved away to Vegas so we feel kinda depressed. Jeff did put our huge natural grapevine and lights wreath up and we put some of the 'lightshow' lights out and one snowman. No tree, we just didn't feel it this year. We do have a grand meal planned for Christmas day that we couldn't have had if all the kids were here (beef tenderloin steaks and lobster tail). We just had our roof replaced and didn't go all out with roof deco this year.

Merry Christmas to you all!

My sister went all out with the desserts we had every Christmas growing up.