HOLIDAY PARAPHERNALIA

I do not abide well with little craps, knick knacks, doo-dads, bric-a-brac, too many set abouts, pretties, or small articles sitting willy nilly in every square inch of free decorating space.  To be frank, I don't understand it.  It seems to say several things; I love to dust so much that I prefer to have as many small items displayed so I will have to pick them up individually to dust every single one of the them and the surface underneath them, this is a treasure to me and I think it needs to be displayed for others to see and enjoy too, I am uncomfortable with wide open spaces and need the security of things to give me decorating boundaries and my identity.  Ok, maybe I made it a bit deeper than it really is -  except for the dusting observation:)  I suppose then the jump can usually be made that if we don't understand something sometimes then we don't have an affinity for it.  Maybe that's where my dislike of knick knacks comes from - lack of understanding their purpose.  I am a purposeful person and I can't find a category of purpose for them in my mind or world.  When I was young, not fully grown into this definable person that I probably am now, I had a few of those things in my house too.  Why even at the holidays I would pull the box(es) from the attic and "stuff" up the house (ok not much though) with holiday paraphernalia solely designed to make us celebrate more fully the Resurrection, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, Flag Day, Ascension Day, Rosh Hoshana, Ash Wednesday, Columbus Day, President's Day, Sweetest Day, St. Patricks Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Mother's & Father's Day, New Year's Day and Veteran's Day.  Ok, well maybe I didn't decorate for all those holidays - but I think my mom does.  She especially loves 4th of July where she covers not only the outside and inside of her house in I Love America decor, she even has a flag short and shirt ensemble she revives each year to celebrate being a nation:)   I think my total freedom from holiday decorations came when I was seriously ill for several years.  There was no extra energy for anything but to barely live.  It was during those years that I realized  - WHO CARES!  Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas came and went during those years many times without a tree, a pumpkin, a mum and it was sort of freeing actually.  It caused a new pattern in my life - total holiday decoration abstinence:)  When my daughter was in high school the joke was that neither of us cared about putting up a Christmas tree and some years we didn't because it's just a big pain in the ass to take all that crap down anyway.  Not surprisingly though, my mother decorates for every holiday or season with "things" splattered through the house, on the porch, hanging on the door.  Not me.  You can come to my house on any given holiday and might not even know it's Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas (ok except for music).  And, if you think I don't get the point of inside knick knack patty whackish stuff, how about those big inflatable lawn ornaments - pumpkins, the abominable snowman, frosty, baby Jesus in a large round ball meant to simulate a tree ornament tethered to Bill & Irene's front yard.  One of my friends years ago knew of my disdain of the world of lawn ornaments.  One fine day I awoke to some horrific lawn ornament she had put in my yard in the night.  I waited several days leaving it up to give her some pure delight and then crept out after dark and planted it in her yard.  One year they went to Hawaii over Christmas.  While they were gone I strung lights and holiday decorations on their property and plugged it all in the day I knew their flight landed.  I was thinking about big blow up lawn ornaments tonight while running past a house that had a big huge ghost in the front yard.  First I giggled and then I wondered if my neighbors would mind if I put my version of a lawn ornament in my front yard perched on a lawn chair - my inflatable Boy Toy Brad doll given me by friends on my birthday.  I mean it doesn't scream Halloween exactly, but it's all I got!