The Impatient Gardener: The house where Christmas went to die

20 January 2011

The house where Christmas went to die

So let's be clear on my position on Christmas decorations: There is a time for them. And when that time is over, they need to be gone. Personally, I like to see them gone on about January 1, but I understand that a lot of people follow the 12 days of Christmas thing, so decorations stay up until January 6. I'm OK with that too.

What I'm not OK with is Christmas trees up in March. Or really, in mid-January.

So imagine my surprise when I was walking through my living room last night and realized that this is what my fireplace looks like.

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 I'm ashamed.

In my defense, Christmas was sort of a non-event for us this year. With Mr. Much More Patient flying in just for the holidays before jetting off for work again, all of the people coming in and out of the house all day and us just suffering from renovation fatigue. We didn't put up a tree. (That was a first for us. Even the year we flew home from the Caribbean on Christmas Eve, we put up a Charlie Brown tree.) In fact, the only decorations I put up were finished on about December 23.

And of course, there was another murder in our house. I guess it has become a tradition: Some people make ornaments every year, others pose for a holiday card. I kill poinsettias. You might remember last year's victim. This year's was so pathetic that it shed every petal/leaf when I picked it up to bury the body.

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Now, if I were an overachiever like the kids over at Young House Love  (seriously, they are awesome, but they put the rest of the world to shame when it comes to almost anything related to house sprucing up, organization and especially list-making), I would have taken the sad Christmas leftovers down and promptly whipped up a beautiful mantlescape worthy of a magazine. But I'm not, so instead I laid down on the couch, cowering under the blanket while I waited for the thermostat that I had just cranked up to heat the place to something beyond frozen tundra. Eh, I'll get to it soon. Honest.

8 Comments:

Blogger Remington said...

Beautiful fireplace, my friend!

January 20, 2011 at 1:47 PM  
Blogger Completely Coastal said...

My Christmas tree is still up!!! Just haven't felt like taking it down yet..., so be it, haha.

January 21, 2011 at 12:43 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I personally murdered five separate poinsettias this year, two of which are still decomposing on my kitchen counter at this very moment!

January 21, 2011 at 5:16 PM  
Blogger Tanja @ Postmodern Hostess said...

Does the fact that we're mid-kitchen renovation count as a good enough excuse for our tree still being up and our shriveled up poinsettia still being out? No, it doesn't? You're right... I have my work cut out for me tonight. :-)

January 22, 2011 at 5:56 PM  
Blogger Erin @ The Impatient Gardener said...

I think all of these are perfectly GREAT excuses! Glad to hear I'm not alone!

January 23, 2011 at 9:58 AM  
Blogger LINDA from Each Little World said...

I still have a tray of Christmas cards sitting out. But I finally got some Orrefors snowball candle holders so they just look wintry and not Christmasy. I also have a big angel/cupid candle holder which I leave out til Valentine's Day. But at the moment it looks a bit out of place.

January 25, 2011 at 9:34 AM  
Blogger T said...

I watered my Poinsetta and it still looks great! In fact, it looks fake :-(

January 25, 2011 at 10:06 AM  
Blogger Maria Killam said...

Erin I'm not sure if I knew that you were so funny! Loved this post!
xo
Maria

January 28, 2011 at 9:47 PM  

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