christmas peer pressure

I’m convinced that our favorite question at this time of year creates undue stress and peer pressure. The question comes in several forms and from a variety of people in our lives. 

Did you get your tree yet? 
Are your Christmas decorations up? 
When did you decorate? 
When will you take yours down? 

I’ve caught myself asking all of these questions over the last few weeks. And perhaps even funnier is that we don’t put up a Christmas tree and I haven’t the slightest hint of Christmastime in our house yet. Well, except for one small ladder that no one would even know is a part of our Christmas tradition if they saw it right now. 

Flurie Christmas Ladder

It’s well oiled. It was part of the treatment plan last week that I mentioned in the real essential oil blog post. In fact, the wood looks rich and healthy, just one week after it seemed like it had become dried kindling for a fire. Albeit undecorated, it is our Christmas ladder standing unassumingly against our kitchen wall. 

Having the house completely undecorated this late in December is unusual for me. How about you? And why do we race against others with our Christmas decorations? Do we need to put them up first or have them up the longest? Or the other extreme, do we take them down as soon as Christmas is over to get the house clean from the holidays? What are we competing against? 

Tradition. 

We are competing against our own ideal Christmas tradition. That’s how Bryce and I started our marriage, I planned to have a picture perfect Christmas with all the classic traditions in place. It didn’t end well. Take some time and read our Christmas story. You can read it here: Our Christmas Story. You’ll find out why we will always have that ladder decorated for Christmas. 

That ladder changed our ideal Christmas. And with it, the cultural and family pressure of when, how and how long to decorate for Christmas changed. It evolved to fit our family needs. Do you love your family Christmas traditions? You should. 

Christmas traditions make Christmas meaningful by helping us remember our shared family experience. And Christmas traditions make Christmas joyful when we allow them to evolve into something greater. 

Searching for wisdom and asking for grace,

Jody