Anna1111 wrote:
No - hadn't really thot of preparing for *Christmas* yet! We JUST had the Dormition!
There's WAAYYYY to much to do before Christmas!
Sept 9 is the Feast Day of St. Anna
Because Sept 8 is the Birthday of the Virgin Mary
Then the 15th is the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. And November we have Holy Archangels on the 8th, and St. John Chrysostom on the 13th, and the Advent starts on the 15th -and THEN we'll start preparing for Christmas.
(personally, I prefer to overlook Thanksgiving except for the actual giving thanks part - which, ideally, happens more than once a year. It's just a personal quirk - not a dogmatic issue)
My goodness - how can you skip ahead like that? Like those department stores that have Halloween pumpkins and Christmas trees next to the swim suits in July!
OTOH - I really don't DO much to "prepare" for Christmas except for doing Advent and buying a few things for DD & putting up our tiny Creche & tree - a 5-minute job. I might bake a few cookies or send a few cards if the mood strikes me - but I don't go all out - at all - for the superficial celebrations.
I don't DO much for any of it either!
I just like the planning. The biggest thing i do is practice Christmas music (which i really need to start this soon to do a good job by Christmas!
) and change the decor on my mantel.
I try to look for advent devotionals or Hanukkah devotionals or cutesy little tokens of a season for the mantel, or maybe on the piano. I also leave things up way too long. LOL Oh, and twinkle lights! I love twinkle lights! I think September is a good time to start with those! I like orange and purple and red twinkle lights for fall. During Hanukkah i like to put up new lights every evening! By the end of December and up to Valentine's day my kids say people probably think i belong to a cult.
I do red, white and purple lights in feb and take the other colors down. Green for March. You see? Just kind of a theme-for-the month color scheme - if i get a round tuit.
I might put some fruit and wheat around for the fall holidays - a cornucopia or something. I like the story of the Pilgrims and my mom had some cute Pilgrim candles i still remember - if i came across some i'd get them - or better yet, s and p shaker.
No. I don't have all these things and i shouldn't buy them now! Trying to pare down!
I like flat things - window clings are a fave. I put some rub-on pics on the kitchen window years ago (like 10 years) that i still enjoy! Clings are great tho' cuz you can take them on and off and even cut them up and still use them. And they're cheap and store easily.
This REALLY makes my house sound tacky!!!!!