’Tis the season to be holly

Having some trouble getting into the holiday spirit, are you? Longing for the era of carolers holding little songbooks singing on your doorstep? Or snow falling softly on pine trees while merry ice skaters glide over the frozen pond with a look of pure joy on their ruddy faces?

Instead it’s all about home decorating and making our houses look like the insides of Pier One or Pottery Barn. What’s trending now? Reclaimed farm wood, initials on glasses, and faux fur throws.

Say that three times fast. Retailers want our bedrooms to all have custom-upholstered headboards adorned with studded velvet pillows strewn with snowflakes or reindeer. Free shipping.

I don’t want a merry little gift guide, do you?

The catalogs, the magazines and the emails arrive daily even though I have not subscribed. OK, I admit to buying Southern Living because I like the recipes, and Rick Bragg’s Southern Journal always makes me chuckle.

This month’s special double issue offers 232 Ways to add joy, spirit and sparkle to your life. It can happen if you make the coconut cake with rum filling and ermine frosting. It says ermine, really. Or garnish it with tree cookies, five large and 18 small. But don’t forget to decorate the tree cookies with white coarse sanding sugar and white disco dust. It says disco, really.

The Home Decorators catalog has something for everyone. You can buy cupcake stands on sale, $35 for a set of six. Can you imagine the surprise on your guests’ faces when every one of your cupcakes has its own miniature cake stand? They only come in white.

It’s next to item No. 8: A Farm Table Reclaimed Wood serving tray. Only $80. The white piped iced snowflake cookies on the tray really sell it, I think.

Gift giving and decorating are wondrous things, if we don’t let the retailers and the media manipulate our decision making.

Yesterday we began to decorate! My hubby hauled the Christmas tree out of the closet. Do you recall last year’s column? The closet idea didn’t work too well. When we tried to pry the tree out of the closet, the top two sections separated from the bottom section, and my husband’s head was trapped in the middle.

I tried to be helpful. “It’s not broken forever, is it?” I wailed.

We got it upright and into the living room, but the branches were splayed out in an unnatural shape. My husband used the dog’s bed to cushion his knees as he slid behind the tree while I sat in a chair across the room to solve the crisis.

“No, not that branch. Near your finger. To the left. Up. No, not that one.” No Edwardian carolers were singing, “Oh, Tannenbaum, oh, Tannenbaum, how lovely are your branches.”

“Christmas is not Christmas until I receive my first tin of pecans from South Alabama,” writes Fannie Flagg on the cover of Southern Living. What helps you get into the spirit?

As you shop for your favorite nut this holiday season, why not think about putting a Hallmark in someone’s empty stocking in our community? Enjoy the festivities this weekend and beyond. May your faces and your pillows be merry and bright!

Thanks for reading.