A New Year's lesson

Some people like to keep their Christmas decorations up for weeks after the event. Not me. The decorations you see in this photo -- in preparation for last week's Christmas guests -- are all gone now. 

Even our favourite part of this Christmas -- our mangy little tree -- is now in the compost. We called it Spelacchio, Italian for "baldy" or "mangy," the name given to the sad specimen of a tree that went up in Rome's central square this year. It caused quite a stir because it began losing its needles immediately. The Italians, who have a certain style, weren't impressed.

To replace the red Christmas tulips, which are now decorating the compost heap, I brought home this bouquet. The colours sang of spring.

The mangy little Christmas tree, the mantelpiece greenery, the bird and the bear on their respective little perches, the red-haloed lights – gone, all gone. Even the last of the Christmas edibles has been tossed or frozen.

I’m not a particularly prompt or meticulous housekeeper, and the Christmas trappings had only been around for a week, so I was wondering why it felt so urgent to get the house aright for Jan. 1. Then I remembered mom’s preparations for the new year when I was growing up. The house would be cleaned, we’d have baths before going to bed (no small effort in a plumbing-free house in the dead of a prairie winter), and we’d all put on fresh pyjamas.

New year; fresh clean start.  Six decades later, the lesson lingers.

Tree boughs with red balls and other decorations gave the living room a festive air a week ago.

This is one of my favourite decorations -- a seagull on some pilings, with a net to one side, a rope on the other, and a couple of tiny seashells. It tends to get hidden when put on a tree, but its intricate details -- mostly of "real" materials, intrigue me. I pack it away carefully.

Another favourite: a little bear sits on a child's wooden block with a drum. I got several of these beautifully made decorations at a craft fair many years ago.

This is my friend Linda's little knitted figure from last year; I thought the colours and shapes worked perfectly with a Christmas card from my Auntie Eve in Montreal. I will keep the card so I can pair the two up every year.

Another decoration from the craft fair. I think I have a thing about birds -- I notice they show up in my decorations a lot.

And, two more. The doll is made of some paper-like material, and the bear is of felt. Not a lot of plastics went into these figurines.

Another look at my spring bouquet. After a month of red and green, I'm ready for a change.