Decorating for Christmas....Worth it???

So, anyone knowing me well enough to read this blog knows that I am a very practical person. Given that, each year I wonder if it's actually worth it to put up all the decorations for Christmas when it's just so much work to take them down and store them in a few weeks. Seriously, you have to set aside an entire afternoon just to UNdecorate! However, I decided to go all-out this year. Figured it may help me actually feel at home in my new home (isn't working yet). Plus, Julianne is at the age where she gets so excited about all this.....although I know she will make herself scarce when it comes time to take it all down.

Anyway. Yesterday's tally included TWO trips to Hobby Lobby, one trip to each Walmart and Target, and trips to a couple other stores because shoes were on sale. I ended up buying a second tree for our family room. It's full-size: 7.5 feet tall. Our other tree we've used is small because our old house is small. I put it up too, though. I went with RED on the big tree. If your Christmas tree could tell something of your personality, I wonder what this one says. Seriously, it's entirely RED.

I also decorated the banister with garland and then decorated the garland. I couldn't figure out how to hang the garland without putting holes in the wood on both the banisters and fireplace - so, I did the usual......I googled it. Once again, the love of my life (google) came through for me. Surprisingly, I already had what it suggested. I used the 3M strips that you can use to hang light pictures on the walls. It worked perfectly. I did have to get more when we ran back to the store though.

I bought new Christmas placemats and a Holiday bowl to put in the center of the table with RED ornaments in it.

So, Julianne and I started our adventure about 11am on Black Friday. The stores really weren't too bad. Target was a little crowded. Hobby Lobby wasn't bad at all. We didn't go to Walmart until the evening, and it was almost empty! It took us until almost 10 pm to get it all done, including cleaning up our mess.

So, is it worth it to do all this decorating for Christmas? Honestly, I don't know. I guess if you truly ENJOY the act of decorating, then sure. I'm not sure I actually enjoy it. I don't mind it. Maybe now that I have a good base of decorations to work with, I will be more inclined to get them out next year....adding a few decorations each year until my Holiday Ensemble is complete. I would like to find a wooden train set to go around the tree.

When I was little, my mom decorated for Christmas like nobody's business. We had a dozen old fake trees that she would take the branches off of and use them for garland to decorate table tops, chandeliers, etc. We strung popcorn every year and made paper chains. 90% of our ornaments were homemade. It was amazing. Our tree was always real. Anyway....

So...here are some pics of our hard work. I will dress the little one up one day soon and take her picture with the tree. We may include Fred, the guinea pig, in photos this year. :)