@Denise Happyfeet I am really enjoying your Christmas pictures of you when you were a child and I wish I had some to share with you. With nine kids to feed, etc. my dad and mom did not have money for a camera when I was growing up. The only time I remember anyone taking pictures was when my Uncle George would come visit us...and I have a few pictures he took but none of them are of Christmas time. I can tell you though that I have many Christmas pictures in my head and heart. We were poor but I can never remember being hungry or not having the things we needed. And Christmas was always special because we were all together and there was always something under the tree for each one of us...and good food to eat too. I think I always remember the turkey Moma baked most of all because with eight siblings and mom and dad that turkey was always huge and we all fought over getting the wishbone! Christmas was love back then and there was alot of love in my childhood Christmas' even if there weren't alot of pictures.
I remember using those oldtime glass wax stencils, too, @Joe Riley , and that was something that i looked forward to doing each year. We always watched for new stencils, and my mom would buy the stencil packages, and then I had fun putting them up on the windows and mirrors all over the front room and dining room. We even did that some when my kids were younger; but I think that by then, it was already going out of style. I remember mixing in a dab of watercolor paints with the glass-wax, and then I could do colored ones, and sometimes, I just took a paintbrush and painted on the decorations with water colors from the little paint kits you could buy for school. I really miss all of the decorating and beauty of celebrating Christmas now that there is just the two of us, and no reason to decorate. I am enjoying reading the threads of what everyone else is doing for Christmas.
I don't remember the stencils but I do remember the cans of spray snow that we would decorate the windows with.
Started with good intentions, got side tracked...SQUIRREL! The Tree is up, but the wife has to put the finishing touches on it. My Tree. She said to remind me of the tree I brought home one year when we lived in England .
We're not putting our 7 feet tree up this year...hubs can't be bothered to bring it down from the attic.... I'm not too unhappy because we're both working over Christmas so we won't be having visitors, so I just thought I'd decorate the mantelpiece ... I've done it in a bit of a hurry, and I may end up adding more garlands to it..but for now...this is what it looks like... Excuse the bad photo my camera hates low light indoors.. but just to give you an idea of proportions .the white porcelain teddy bear in his red coat / hat and scarf on the right is 30 inches high
@Holly Saunders that is a lovely fireplace display, and I think you will not be able stop there. @Tim Burr I bet your wife's efforts to bring Christmas into your home have just started. I would be happy with the Peanut's Christmas in your second picture for this year. I will be forcing myself tomorrow to put something up for this year, and I'll post at least a picture. Now having put that in writing, I'll do it. I'm trying real hard not to inflect my "Ba Humbug" attitude on the rest of you, so just know I'm in and out of the forum all through the daytime, and I do so enjoy watching everyone get excited about all the things associated with Christmas. @Denise Happyfeet that little nativity collection is so perfect for your new home. That looks so much like the one that Michael bought and set up for our first Christmas. I had never had a Christmas before then. I was 15 at the time. @Joe Riley, you and the wife, seem to really get into the spirit of Christmas. I'm looking forward to the many additions I know you'll be adding along the way.
I'm not get alerts from seniorsonly. I didn't know or I would have answered people. I should stop in and check more often. I'll try to do that I thought that was a good buy $1.50!!
LOVE them @Joe Riley I haven't seen many this year, stencils like these, but yours look wonderful! And what beautiful mirrors I cracked all mine, LOL!!
These are just lovely @Holly Saunders The lighting is wonderful, I'm all about lights and the different types!! Merry Christmas!!
Everyone's decorations look great! @Denise Happyfeet I love the way your window looks. My whole front wall of the living room is 3 large windows. I have hung lights some years, and not other years. I'll have to see what I have this year, after I finish going through the decorations. I had to throw out a bunch of lights last year or the year before. I have never been able to switch out fuses and get the lights re-working after they stop. I'm about to mess with my old silver fiber optic tree (just a small one, like @Denise Happyfeet's), to see if I can get it working. I have another small one on the landing to the stairs at the top, and will put my corner tree up downstairs. I don't have a fireplace, but I decorate my entertainment center as if it's a mantle.
We have a candelabra in the front large window with a crocheted tree (with red beads), and topped by a brass, fold-out Holy City (from Ace hardware). The 3 wise men are dressed in corn husk costumes.(old and fragile)
Ina...my friend, I hope we manage to encourage your Christmas spirit back a little bit, and you manage to get some Christmas cheer into your house and enjoy it with us all here as well as with your own family.. merry forthcoming Christmas sweetie..
Sounds like wonderful memories That's all folks ever had before cameras were invented anyway, and those are really enough. Those mean more to me than the pics
Sounds nice Diane It's sure has helped my moods lean toward happiers ones Lots of the people that keep their blinds closed "all the time" have them open now. I feel we are all closer, and not so alone. Everyone here is single, divorced, or widowed, so I know some are truly struggling. One man that recently lost his wife, and he decorated his window and leaves the blinds open. I thanked him and he told me he liked seeing my lights. I told him maybe we would start a new thing around here, not be afraid of opening our blinds