Savvy Tip: Putting Christmas Away

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Happy New Year to everyone! Resolutions on my mind and confession being good for the soul, I have a confession to make: I am just now putting away my Christmas tree. Doesn’t it seem like it takes twice as long to put them away as it does to take them out?

I’d like to say that I was leaving all the decorations up until Kings Day (January 6th) and this was my plan from the start, but I can’t. We had a house full of out-of-town guests through January 4th. We tackled the outside decorations first, because we didn’t want the neighbors to know it was still Christmas at our house. And here I am . . .
Savvy Tip One:

I can’t take the credit. I think it might have been in the Martha Stewart Magazine a decade ago (I know it was before jail). I hot-glued plastic cups to pieces of cardboard, sized to fit into my storage tub. It is the perfect way to store all those little ornaments that don’t have boxes.

I labeled this storage tub “Kids”. It is full of unbreakable ornaments that they can handle when decorating the tree each year. Not having to monitor what they are touching makes tree-trimming move along much faster.

How many times have you put the last box into the attic, embraced the New Year, and spotted a forgotten decoration? (At my house there always seems to be one or two or three or four. . . that escape being packed each year!) Exhausted, my first thought is always, I wonder if I could get away with leaving it up all year long. What a great reminder it would be! The Christmas colors, the red and green, are all about Jesus, His death and the Life He now gives.

Something tells me that I am the only one who would ever see the symbolism. The neighbors would think we turned into That Family. You know them, that family that leaves their decorations out all year and is in violation of just about every HOA rule—every neighborhood has one. I suppose the best way to display our faith is to love our neighbors a little better this year.

Savvy Tip Two:

I keep a tub marked “Christmas Oops” just inside the attic door. It gives me easy access to put away my little discoveries (It’s also handy for new purchases made throughout the year)—always with a little smile on my face as I remember Christ. We never really put Christmas away at our house.