By LaReeca Rucker
It’s that time of year when we’re all supposed to believe in and create a little magic in our lives and the lives of others. One way we can do that is by decorating. I’m so grateful to have my own house this year. I’m also grateful to have all of my holiday decorations nicely organized, so it only took one day to put up my tree and put most of it in place.
Since I’ll be hosting an event this year, I wanted to put a little effort into making things merry and bright. Like many people, I have a box of ornaments, some of which I’ve had for more than 20 years when I began making and collecting ornaments for my own tree. I’ll write another post a little later and show you some of my newest ornament additions.
I also have a working gas fireplace and mantle this year, so I wanted to decorate the mantle for the holidays as well. My first step with mantle decor was purchasing a roll of gold ribbon from one of the local dollar stores. I had already bought two cylinders of gold ornaments for $1 and a box of ornament hooks from another dollar store.
After stapling my ribbon along with some silver and gold garland to the mantle, I hooked the balls on the ribbon. I also had a Christmas sign that I had purchased for $1 that I used in the center of the mantle. I left the things on top that normally sit there, a collection of Mississippi-themed picture frames and pottery.
I’m still working on decorating the fireplace area. Right now, I have a lot of Christmas baubles and things I didn’t really have a place for, such as a Santa nesting doll and other small holiday gifts I’ve been given throughout the years by various people.
I also created a place to put gifts for my niece and nephews. There are four elves (one elf is mine) sitting together and three Santa and reindeer hats that they will be given as gifts. They are very little, so this will not ruin the surprise.
Outside, my lawn is not decorated like Clark Griswold or covered in holiday decor like it was for Halloween when I had a graveyard out front. The only thing I have on my front steps is a topiary. I usually keep it inside, but I decided to move it out front and cover it in white Christmas lights. You can see it and my tree through the window if you drive by. I also bought some snowman-themed LED lights for my walkway for $1 each.
Since my house kind of resembles a cute gingerbread house, I have it in my head at the moment that I would really like to have a custom-made gingerbread man. It might be kind of cool if he was running as fast as he can, but I would settle for a stationary gingerbread man.
For more stories like this, visit LaReeca Rucker’s blog, hipinthesip.com.
LaReeca Rucker is a journalism instructor for The Meek School of Journalism and New Media. She spent a decade at The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi’s largest daily newspaper, and was a USA TODAY contributor. She created OxfordStories.net, a site that sends student stories to local news organizations for publication.
