As I work toward minimizing my stuff and simplifying my life - I could have guessed that Christmas would be a wrinkle. I do love the season and the color and the lights. Many of my decorations have been gifted to me by friends and family. Many represent certain stages in my life. Newly married, new babies, trips. kids’ colleges, etc. I like to change up my Christmas decor from year to year. So there might be things I haven’t used recently, but I struggle to rule out the use of them in the future - you know, Just when I throw it away…I might want it. I have created a situation where letting go of decor was not nearly as easy for me as I had found it in the fall - I talk about that here. Even though I had to climb over boxes of stuff from my mom and dad’s to get to the Christmas boxes - multiple times, I still couldn’t recreate the feeling of letting it go. Even as I think about my kids having to clean things up and get rid of things, the Christmas situation was difficult.

In preparation for the holiday season, I had been reading Welcome Home by Myquillyn Smith. I have followed her on instagram for sometime - found her because of other influencers I follow. I was drawn to her peaceful demeanor and down to earth, but lovely and elegant approach to decorating her home. I was late to the party with her book. I sure didn’t think when I was teaching full time and adjuncting part time that I would have time to really approach my home and revisioning how I see it. She is as lovely and approachable in her book as she is in the socials. Her approach is a seasonal one. She advocates, for example, preparing your house for the season first with color, smell, food, etc. and then just accenting with holiday decor with a focus on three places. She advocates for versatile pieces over the variety of things available each season She talks of giving up the totes and totes filled to the brim (unless of course you want to do it that way). I was very motivated by her. In the fall, as noted in an earlier post, I definitely reduced my number of orange and black totes. But gosh, Christmas - not as much.

I like to think I remember sifting through my Christmas things a couple of years ago. I tell myself I’ve already reduced what I have. I argue that it is perfectly sane to add some things from my mom’s collection to mine - really so vintage and so cute.

So I guess I am square in the what I am keeping portion of this experiment. I am NOT giving up on simplifying and letting go. I may even reduce Christmas when I put it away since I won’t be feeling the pressure of time as I did when decorating. (Nobody who has read a single word I’ve written would be surprised that I don’t start cleaning up until epiphany…)