It’s the time of year when you get to reconnect with loved ones—and I don’t necessarily mean Aunt Agnes and her reserve of stories you may have heard once or twice before. I mean the ones that were boxed up last January. Perhaps they come with a holiday fragrance, such as cinnamon and cardamom from a scented candle. There are ornaments you hung as a child and newer ones acquired from trips. Each piece holds a memory that captures a time, place and moment. Your Christmas decorations are valued members of your home.

Holiday ornaments are the song-and-dance sequence in a musical. They come alive with their flashy costumes, inviting cheer and applause. They are not serious. They hold sentimental value. They invite impracticality, however ethereal, like wearing your Halloween costume to the office. As a girl, I would have loved to have worn a Halloween, dance recital or any costume on occasions other than the festivity they were intended for. I always pestered Mom to retrieve the Christmas decorations from the attic well before their stage call. Yes, if I had my way, Christmas would be assembled after Halloween and remain till Valentine’s Day.

Holiday decorating is as traditional as reading ’Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. Dad made a few trips up to the attic via an old ladder, reappearing in that dark cutout with a Mayflower moving box that would be delicately handed to my mother in an awkward exchange with unorthodox uses of heads and shoulders to maneuver it.

Christmases have evolved. New family members and loved ones have added their traditions. Some are from the next generation: little girls who wish for an American Girl doll under the tree when I would have desired a Madame Alexander. Many of the decorations of my girlhood have been pared down to my first stocking and a crocheted ornament that belonged to my grandmother. There are now glass orbs and a shiny mercury glass ski gondola commemorating a trip I took last year. This ornament is so special it remains on display while the others are boxed up till they are called for again.

xo,