It’s coming up. You go to the stores and the aisles are full of Christmas and holiday. Certain radio stations are playing holiday music. You may have started to see holiday decor going up in local businesses and at your neighbours houses.

Whether you are a a Clark Griswold, the Grinch, Scrooge McDuck or somewhere in between. Whether you decide to decorate November 1st, December 1st, December 24th, December 26th or not at all, I would guess most have their own holiday traditions (even if that means lighting the house in black lights and watching horror movies!)

For me? Well….I’m a November 1st and I am up in the attic (ok, ok, not ME but my fiance is) pulling down all the Christmas decor. Since moving into our forever home and combining our lives, there’s a little holiday spirit in every room. Dining room, front room, basement, sunroom and every bedroom has Christmas trees (don’t kick me haha). While I am well aware of how this may seem excessive, hearing my kids (even the teenagers!) express how much they love it is all I need.

I should point out that I LOVE good deals and being frugal. Dollar stores and FB Marketplace are incredible places to snag up deals to make decor, crafts or buy things already prepared. I almost NEVER pay full retail price for items and I’ve always had a love for thrifting and second hand. I started as soon as I had children and never looked back. Side note: Does anyone else have a constant internal dialogue about seeing an item that “I could totally make into XYZ?” I don’t even have Pinterest! For good reason - I’d have a house FULL of half finished craft/decor/projects. But I still can’t help but see something and think of all the things I could make with it! (This year I made deer plaid placemats for my dining room table from items at Dollarama and they’re so cute!)

Anyyyyyyyhow, for me, I can completely recognize what the cold weather and less hours of sunlight do to me. I LOVE Winter, I really do love the snow and outside. In fact, I’m getting married in February locally because we are REALLY hoping for snow (so maybe ask the snow universe for some snow in the beginning of February, could ya?) Butttttttt, just because I love the weather, doesn’t mean I don’t feel the effects of it being dark in the late afternoon and think I should be in bed when it’s 5:30pm. (Seriously, I went to bed Sunday at 5:30pm totally thinking it was close to 8 and thinking meh, it’s ok to go to bed, only to realize it was 5:30pm!!) And so, I decorate. The house is full of warm twinkling lights and the yard begins to fill with our Christmas lawn decor.

A few years ago I bought myself a Christmas dress. It was green, with a beautiful snowy mountain theme painted onto the skirt. I loved this dress (I still love this dress!) but it sparked something inside me. I would scour marketplace, Amazon, even some crazy FB ads looking for more Christmas dresses in different themes and colours. And I started to grow my collection. Over the last few years I have collected enough to wear one through the entire month of December until Christmas day. What I started to notice was that these dresses, didn’t just make me happy when I looked in the mirror, it made others happy to see out and about in the real world. I would get stopped and comments and compliments whenever I go out. And of course, I rarely would just say “thanks” and walk away. Rather though, it would turn into a mini coversation with that person (or persons).

Just a handful of the holiday dresses so far!!

One thing about the holidays is that people defineitly get wrapped up in it; more car accidents, more not paying attention, more disagreements and more emotions. It’s a busy, stressful time for people - and you never know what someone has going on in their life.

So when I go out in my Christmas dresses, and I get people looking, laughing, engaging, complimenting and conversating with me…..well it’s such a beautiful thing to me. I love that I get to chat with people briefly, or that I made someone smile- it’s just the nicest feeling. You might say I’ve become addicted to the joy and smiles it brings to other people.

What are your holiday or anti-holiday traditions?