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I am trying to come up with ideas for
Xmas decorations.
First let me give you a little background. I hate Xmas. I mean, I
REALLY hate Xmas. The reason I hated it was my Dad. Every year he
would become
drunk and abusive. Needless to say, I hate Xmas and all the bad
memories it conjures
up. However, I have a new baby. She will be 6 months old on Xmas
Day. I don't want my hatred for the season to rub off on her. I
want her to have HAPPY Xmas memories and really love the holiday.
I have been trying to come up with Xmas decorations. I want to
decorate the entire house -- inside and out. I have some Xmas
ideas. I will not be going with a nativity scene. It will focus
more on Santa, his reindeer and the elves. I have a great idea to
set up a Garden Gnome Xmas party in the back yard -- complete with a
drunken gnome I bought in South Australia. I have an idea to paint
a fireplace complete with stockings on canvas for the front porch.
Plus the usual Xmas lights and wreaths. I need to add that I am in
Australia where it will be summer when Xmas happens. However, I
also have a idea for a Winter Wonderland scene either in the front
or back yard.
Now for my dilemma... I have plenty (and expensive) ideas for
outside. But I am drawing a blank for inside. Any one have any
good ideas? I know we will have a tree inside. Perhaps some
stockings. But I am not sure what to do. All ideas will be
appreciated. |
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-I'm sorry your dad's drunken binges on Christmas destroyed the fun of the
season for you. I once dated a guy with the exact same story: hated
Christmas because *both* his parents were alcoholics and used the day as
an excuse to tie one on. I think it's very noble of you to try and set
aside your bad experience so your daughter can have positive associations
with the holiday season. Unfortunately, even if you receive all the right
advice here for choosing the perfect decorations, I'm not sure that will
entirely solve the problem. I don't say this lightly since I was closely
involved with a person who shared your intense dislike of Christmas, the
wound was so deep for him, and it was a bit of a downer to be around him
for the entire month of December, not to mention Christmas Day. What may
serve your purpose more efficiently is to seek out whatever means you can
come by: cognitive therapy, bodywork, EMDR, Gestalt, etc., to get passed
your traumatic childhood experience with your father than to overdecorate
your home as a compensation for your intense dislike of Xmas. In other
words, your daughter may grow up with the grandest decorations for the
season and still will sense your sadness/anger/depression/outrage/whatver
during that time of year unless those emotions are somehow resolved (not
stuffed). - i had the same kind of Dad you did. As an adult, I would
unplug my
telephone every year at Christmas so that he wouldn't call me at three
in the
morning and babble drunkenly. Personally, I LOVE Christmas. For me, the
ability to feel joy and have a great time with my own kids at Christmas
is
kind of a triumph over that past. I hope for you this will be the
beginning of something similar. Just be cautions about associating boozy parties with Christmas, given
your history. You might want to move away from that while it still has such
unfortunate associations. I don't know how your gnome looks, and whether
he's holding a pint or not, but could he be silly, and in Santa's
workshop, or something? |
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