Simply Familiar

Like most folks, I’ve been decorating this week.

Based on what I see in blogland, my decorations probably leave a lot to be desired. They’re pretty simple, and I tend to repeat the same things year after year after year...

...after year.

Now, I admit that it’s partly because I’m a tightwad and hoarder, but it’s also because I tend to be more comfortable with the familiar. I’m not a huge fan of change. You can imagine how I relate to this ever changing world around me.

Some would call me a creature of habit.

At Christmas,

 I get to call it a lover of tradition. 

At Christmas,

I get to reach into old familiar boxes

and pull out old familiar ornaments

 and feel for a moment in time

 that some things never really change.

I like that.

I pack my Christmas decorations in a system resembling one of those Russian nesting dolls. Big boxes hold smaller ones. Small boxes hold yet smaller ones, and so on. Because I’m not always a great labeler, unpacking my decorations is a game of discovery. I never know what I’ll find when I open a lid.

These felt chrismons were made by the women in our first congregation.

A set of these little white doves was given to me

by one of my bridesmaids.

There’s even a box of misfit ornaments, too outdated to use with my more evolved tree. They are treasured with the others because they were given to me by students who have trees of their own by now. They just take up space in the Russian nest.

Of all the boxes, my favorite one of all

 is the Santa box.

Properly, these Santas don’t even belong to me; they belong to my daughters. Someday soon, they’ll walk out the door to two separate homes, but in the meantime, they stand united in a little Santa village that I set up on a side table.

My father began this collection for the girls when they were babies. Dad wasn’t much of a shopper, but he liked to tag along with the Duchess on her Christmas Shoppe adventures and search for little Santa figurines to give each grandchild just from him.

His favorites were old world Santas.

He would date each one and sign them from “Pa”.

After Dad died, the Duchess couldn’t bear to see the tradition die with him. Every year, she continues the search for Santa. Her favorites are the jolly old elves.

 It's her quiet hope that opening a Santa will bring "Pa" to mind on Christmas morning and make us smile.

It does, and we do.

Like the rest of my Christmas treasures, the Santas are of the simple variety. They’re neither vintage nor collectable. They’re not even displayed with any particular pizzazz. They wouldn’t be featured in the latest magazine or HGTV special. They’re probably not even all that noteworthy in blogland.

But they are treasures nonetheless,

and opening "Pa's" Santa box 

was this week’s simple pleasure.

*****

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