Every season and holiday brings an opportunity to start or add to a collection. I do not know if the citizens of other countries decorate the inside and outside their homes, and their offices the way US residents do, but we certainly do. Especially between October and February, with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the New Year, European and Chinese. Each celebration brings special ornaments and decorations, treasured and brought out each year, or, for those just starting their life away from their parents’ home, a new beginning. Even if you can resist, and only add a few items each year, the decorations become a collection whether you are a collector in other areas of your life or not.
Seasonal decorations are frequently saved and used year after year.
Indoor decorations may consist of banners and hanging ornaments decorate the upper parts of the room. Window clings that benefit from the light passing through during the day, and electric lights to shine through windows out into the night add to the atmosphere of the season. Tables and mantles are covered with arrangements of ornaments and figures appropriate to the celebration. Table cloths, napkins and special tableware are pulled out of storage for the feast that is usually part of these occasions. Door coverings or decorations welcome the visitors that come to help celebrate.
Chinese New Year decorations feature red and gold for luck and prosperity.
Porches and the eves of the house are decorated with the symbols of the holiday. Silhouettes of wood, painted and with strings of lights, are a popular form of yard decoration, and they are relatively flat and easy to store when the time comes. There are “twig” deer, reindeer and sleighs that incorporate lights, and some of the deer even move. These require considerable storage space when not on display. Halloween decorations need to have lights in or on them because so much of the holiday occurs after dark and outside. Besides, have you ever smelled burnt pumpkin? Try a largish candle in a smallish jack-o-lantern some time. That’s why there are pumpkin lights now, and they put out light in a sequence of colors instead of just whitish/yellow.
Nice pumpkin.
While many of the holiday markers have been around for a long time, one of the newest is the inflatable yard decoration. These enormous beings are filled with air, either once at the beginning of the season (with occasional refills) or by a compressor that runs all the time. The advantage of air-filled figures is that displays pack down much smaller when not in use. The previous generation of 3-D yard decorations were made of rigid plastic, which made them hard to store eleven months out of the year, and still required electricity to light them when in use. With time the plastic became brittle and the paint flaked off, so pristine older versions are very few and far between. If some time-related problem occurs with the new inflatable figures, having some of these that are cared for, or not even used, may become a treasure in the future.
Old fashioned hard plastic figures used to be all that was available for outdoor decoration.
The decorations of special occasions become linked to special memories and so become family treasures. Many a fight has started when some of the family decorations were given to one child. But if you collect for a while, there should be enough for each member of the next generation to have a share of the family memories. This may be a good reason for adding new items over time, so there is enough to go around when new households are set up.
The new colored LED lights really expand the lighting possibilities.
Enjoy your holidays, the family they bring together, and decorate, even if it is just for yourself.
* * * Use outdoor string lights inside as well as outside. * * *
* * * Add wind spinners to your yard for day light movement and flash. * * *
The images on this post are from Stock Xchnge.
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