Undecorating

Decorating for Christmas is lots of fun at our house. It is really hard work and takes a few weeks but we look forward to it every year and begin the process the day after Thanksgiving. 

We always start by emptying the bins, little by little, packing away our every day items into the newly emptied bins and then finding spots for our Christmas things. Items get staged wherever there is room and then take up their month long residency in our home. The kitchen table was used over and over again as a temporary staging area. After a couple of weeks, we were done and we were able to enjoy all of our Christmas friends.

We never pack away our Christmas things until after January 6th and, usually, don't start until the weekend after January 6th. We did a little the first weekend but not too much. The second weekend was a three day weekend (January 17th-19th) and we were determined to do our best to finish the task. We spent Saturday saling and doing chores so the bulk of the work was left to Sunday and Monday. With lots of determination (and a bit of sadness), we transitioned on Sunday, full force, into undecorating mode. 

We had to say goodbye to all of our plastic snowmen...

...and to our plastic Santas.

Arrivederci, reindeer!

They didn't know they were going away until next year...

...nor did this herd on the shelf below.

Sayonara, elves

Ciao, Santa head mugs...

...and these Santa head mugs too.

We got to use the metal kitchen cabinet that we found a few weeks ago to display some of our Christmas things. Every shelf was filled...

The top of the cabinet

The top shelf

The middle shelf

The bottom shelf...but now these were all being put away.

We filled the living room shadow box with Christmas decorations...

...and the bedroom shadow box...

...and the downstairs shadow box.

We also filled all of our other small shadow boxes with Christmas things...

...every one of them...but they were now being put away too

We use our red kitchen shelf for Christmas salt and pepper shakers

Other salt and pepper shakers sit atop a thin metal cabinet in our kitchen (others are in the larger metal cabinet). Alas, they were all being put away

Mica houses sat upon Monica's dresser...

...and Rob's dresser. They were going away too.

Creepy Santas were everywhere!

Everywhere...in the month of December. Today was the day they would be packed away

We also had Christmas trees to pack away. Sharon, our mannequin, would have to turn in her hat, stocking and Christmas broach but she gets to stay all year round.

These Christmas trees would also have to be packed away

During the month of December, our stockings were hung by the fake fireplace with care.

Other stockings were hung everywhere. They were all being put back in their bins

Our felt holiday mail holders were being taken down too.

Vintage Christmas cards...hasta la vista!

All of these mail holders had to go away too

We love vintage blow molds and we have a lot...

...but they were saying farewell too!

The line of blow mold Santa cookie jars would no longer be there to greet us

And then there were hundreds of other things that also had to find there way into bins. Hundreds...

...maybe thousands!

It may have looked like a daunting task but, by the end of the day on Monday, everything was put away. The attic is now filled with holiday bins, blow molds and Christmas trees; all quietly sleeping until the day after Thanksgiving, 2015 and...

...and we don't think any of the decorations were all that sad. Santa was smiling. The reindeer were smiling. We think that all of our decorations were smiling. They did a great job the whole holiday season. They made us smile the whole month long!