I know it’s not all going to happen this year, as partially mentioned in yesterday’s advent post, but one thing that my wife and I are certainly looking forward to long term with our new house is really working to turn it into a cozy, little home for the holidays.
That’s certainly one thing that I’m rather nostalgic from my own childhood – my Mom in particular did a great job of fully embracing each of the holidays with special Hallmark decorations for the walls, but especially Christmas was much more of an all-encompassing experience from even before you stepped in the door … with lights and snowflakes filling the front windows and a wreath on the door, followed by Snoopy in a Santa hat on the wall and miniature lit Christmas trees throughout the house in addition to the main attraction out in the living room.
It’s the kind of thing that over time Sara and I want to create here in our own home, especially as we get closer to having kids ourselves. We’ve already got our own little Lego holiday village, which I’m sure will make an appearance in this year’s advent once we get a chance to build the new set we got for it! We’ve also got the lights for outside, and I’m slowly going to try to bring some indoors as well because why should they only go on the tree itself?! What else from there remains to be foreseen – perhaps some garland for the mantle we don’t have yet, or one of those DecemBear advent calendars like the one that hung on my wall at home to track our progress to presents throughout the month?
So many choices, so many options are we try not merely to copy our own childhoods, but more so to use them as examples as we build a holiday home between us of our very own. Will Christmas music kick off the moment someone opens the front door? Will Cleo come running to greet visitors wearing antlers and a shiny, red nose?! (don’t count on that last one…)
This is something that we could never fully embrace while renting one home or another, but now it’s an entirely new angle of home ownership that’s fun and exciting all on its own! 