The snow is falling, the air is chilly and the Christmas ladder has been put up! Yes indeed...the Christmas season is upon us!
Oh what a great time of year! Especially if you're like me and you love the cold (hey, it was a bad snowstorm when I was born, it was meant to be!) or just love getting the house all decorated for the season.
In the Mr. Jay household, we hold a few different traditions that perhaps are pretty common to most other families, but also some that you may have never heard of. I'll talk about what goes on at my house for the holiday season, and then I'd like you to share your own quirky or mundane holiday traditions! = )
Each year at around this time, the cobwebs are dusted off the crawlspace door and the excavation of the storage boxes begins. Tote after tote comes out of the little door, almost like those clown cars with 50 clowns coming out of the tiniest car you can imagine...it's a sight to behold indeed.
The first order of business is setting up the porcelain village, since this is what I remember most about the holidays as a child. I'd spend lots of time with my grandmother Moose when I was a kid; and I'd always remember coming over to her house around Christmas time and being awestruck by the elaborate Christmas villages she would set up through her house. She'd have the tree set up in the center of town, the little ice rink out on the side and the little porcelain people running around in the faux snow. It was really what made the holiday for me, and I'll always remember it. She left me all of her porcelain pieces, and each year they go up just like she had them when I was little, so that she can enjoy watching the town come alive no matter where she is. I do make additions to the town each year though, and there is in fact a little porcelain Home Depot store in the village now!
Once that is set up, we move on to putting up the wreaths and other decorations around the house. Nothing too overboard, but enough that you can get into the festive Christmas mood when you walk through the door. = )
After everything else is up, we move on to the pièce de résistance, the Christmas ladder! Yes...you heard correct. We don't put up the traditional pre-lit christmas tree or go out to the store to pick up a freshly cut tree...we bring out the ladder and light it up!
It's a tradition my family started years ago when we were doing a remodel on the house. The place was a complete construction zone and there were tarps everywhere and walls half-built up, so the tree looked so out of place up in the living room. My grandparents decided it would be a funny joke to put up a ladder instead, to sort of finish off the "renovation" look. And there it stood, the first ever Christmas ladder. But what started off as a joke, slowly became a tradition and to this day, the ladder still stands!
So now that I've shared some of my holiday season traditions, share some of yours with us. I'd love to hear if anyone else does something quirky like my Christmas ladder. Post up pictures or comment below so the rest of the community can take a look = )
Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas to all you Just Ask Mr. Jay fans out there!~
