My simple Halloween Decorations (that's Georgie the cat in the picture as well)

I love Halloween. Some of my best memories as a child come from dressing up and trick or treating around the neighborhood. My brothers and I would eat endless amounts of sweets and scare ourselves silly with spooky stories. It was a simple holiday yet rich in quality. Fall was in full swing and the autumn colors were at their most vibrant. The weather was just right – not too cold and not too hot. Halloween was the perfect combination of scariness, creativity, and fun.

I don’t remember spending weeks preparing for Halloween or spending tons of money on costumes or parties. Halloween was all about make believe and celebrating that part of ourselves that was adventurous and daring. It was the perfect escape from our day to day lives. I would usually dress up as a gypsy and wear one of my long maxi dresses and adorn myself with numerous necklaces, bracelets and rings. It was the one night I could wear tons of my mother’s blue and green eye shadow and actually go out. Our church would have a carnival the week of Halloween as well and I could wear my homemade costume in public one more time. Creativity and spontaneity were the name of the game and “anything goes” was the rule.

As an adult I still look forward to Halloween and the romantic cozy mood it creates. I especially love the pumpkins and all the treats associated with them. Once Halloween is here, I know it’s going to be a fast but fun ride through the remainder of the fall season. Before I know it, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s make their appearance and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season is in full swing. Halloween is the calm before the storm. It’s the prelude to non-stop busyness and planning.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all these holidays but they can at times get complicated and hectic. With Halloween, the day just shows up and we enjoy it. We may have planned a little bit in the weeks ahead by thinking about our costumes and stocking up on candy. Sometimes a party is planned or scary movies or lined up but that’s about it. I’ll admit Halloween has become much more commercialized in the previous years but it’s still fairly low key compared to the other holidays. I think its simplicity is why it’s so popular. There’s little pressure to have the perfect Halloween and we all do what makes us happiest.

My husband and I watch scary movies every Halloween and hand out candy to the neighborhood trick or treaters. Our living room is illuminated with all kinds of candles to create that spooky eerie feeling we love to scare ourselves with. I make brownies and we eat sweet tarts and smarties. Sometimes we’ll have friends over and sometimes we’ll spend the evening alone. I’m too big to go trick or treating now but I still do so in spirit. I love knowing that some young girl out there is all dressed up in her mother’s make-up and jewelry and creating memories that will last a lifetime. She will grow up to be big one day and another young girl will take her place. The wheels of life keep turning. Long live Halloween!

Some of my old fashioned Christmas gift wrapping creations

As I mentioned in my last post, I have drastically cut back on the gift giving the last couple of holiday seasons. I still give small gifts like candy, wine, coffee, etc… And of course there is the white elephant gift exchange my family will be having on Christmas day. Now that my gift giving has been simplified, I have more time to focus on gift wrapping. I love gift wrapping. It’s so creative and fun. When I was a child, I wanted to be a professional gift wrapper when I grew up. Maybe if I had followed that aspiration, I would still be employed, huh??  My mother used to let me wrap all the Christmas presents each year. She would masquerade my gifts in boxes so I couldn’t see the contents. And, I never peeped! Really, I never did!

Gift wrapping can get expensive and of course those gift bags (which I always reuse) are a bit hard on the pocketbook as well. So for those of you who love the art of gift wrapping but don’t want to spend an arm and a leg, allow me to introduce to you the roll of brown wrapping paper. Yes, it’s that dull paper you use when you send gifts through the U.S. Mail. But it has oh so much potential for creativity and it brings an old fashioned flavor to the festivities. I love the presentation of brown paper wrapping so much that I now use it to wrap birthday, wedding, and shower gifts. I then personalize them with occasion appropriate ribbons and accessories.

Here are some tips on how beautifully wrap your Christmas gifts using brown paper:

• You can buy a roll of brown paper at your local discount or hardware store. Another option is to cut up brown paper grocery bags.
• Keep a small collection of bows, ribbons, and yarn odds n ends.  I recycle what is given to me on gifts I receive. If I happen to buy something that is tied up with a colorful piece of material, I add that to my collection as well.
• Wrap your gift in brown paper and then add a fancy bow or tie a ribbon around the package.
• Brown paper with just a pretty bow can be quite beautiful by itself, but sometimes I like to get more creative. Cutting out pictures from magazines or newspapers and pasting them on top of the gift is one option. Another option is some type of live or artificial greenery.
• You also might want to add a small accessory like a candy cane or snowflake cut-out to the gift.
• If you have a knack for drawing, use colored markers to add pictures or holiday greetings.
• Cut up old holiday cards or old holiday shopping gift bags and use them as gift tags.

Old fashioned brown paper gift wrapping is simple, frugal, and elegant. It stands out and the recipient is usually thrilled that you went to such effort to create a special package just for them.

Christmas in Birmingham

I love the Christmas season. It’s always been one of my favorite times of the year. The festivities and hoopla of the holidays make winter’s arrival a bit easier to bear. By the time the New Year has arrived, I’m ready for a break and I actually look forward to the colder and lower key days that lie ahead. Each year David and I visit family. This year my family is up on the rotation schedule, so by this time next week, we will be in Birmingham, AL. I hope it’s cold but not too cold! J  My parents always have the outside of the house decorated with white lights and of course a beautiful tree inside. The foyer table hosts a beautiful nativity scene to remind us of the true meaning of the season. There will be scrumptious calorie-laden food and plenty of good drinks. Yes, we will all probably gain a pound or two (or ten) but who cares because January is the perfect month to work off the excessive holiday pounds, right?

In addition to all the traditions we participate in each year such as Christmas dinner, church candlelight services and friends dropping by on Christmas day night, we started a new tradition two years ago. Instead of everyone exchanging gifts in the traditional way, we now play the white elephant gift exchange game.  We set a $5.00 limit and we all end up with something silly, useless, and tacky! But oh what fun we have. I love this new tradition for many reasons. The main one being I no longer have to spend the holiday season in the malls spending money I really don’t have on a gift that’s probably not wanted or needed. It also takes a lot of pressure off of me to find that perfect gift.

It seems like so many of us today have a surplus of material goods and one more bath and body set, no matter how well intentioned the giver, is probably not going to mean that much. David and I have never really exchanged Christmas gifts so the holiday shopping gets easier and easier each year. Even my friends and I have changed the way we give gifts to each other. A box of candy or bottle of wine is just as nice. Some friends and I skip the gift giving all together and use the money to go out to a nice restaurant. I now have more money in my budget to give to a favorite charity which to me is an important part of the holiday season-helping those in need.

As the Christmas season becomes less and less material for me each year, I’m realizing I love the holidays more than ever. I feel much less stressed and I enjoy those around me much more. I’m not completely against gift giving, but I do think Americans have gotten out of balance over the years with the incessant gift giving. Yes, I know this is the time of the year the corporations, government, and Wall Street urge us to go into massive debt so we can still be paying off gifts we can’t remember in April, but consumer debt only enslaves us and benefits very few in the long run.

Christmas is a time to celebrate the life of a man whose main message was love and peace. It’s a time to enjoy family and friends, eat yummy food, listen to good music, and hopefully get a little rest and relaxation. It’s not about spending money you don’t have or money you should be saving. All around, I get a sense that many people are downsizing this year. I’m sure a large part of it is the economy, but I also think some of us are becoming more conscious of the things that really matter in life. We’re beginning to get our financial houses in order and simplify our lives so we can enjoy the blessings we already have without always striving for more. I hope the downsizing of the holidays is a permanent trend. We may all have a few less gifts to open each year but we will be richer in so many more ways.