Christmastime is here

I decorated the weekend before Thanksgiving. That's actually a bit late for me but before then I felt kind of "meh" and like it was too early. But now I'm in the mood for Christmas stuff (I have my Pandora Christmas music channel going, and the little goofy plug-into-the-USB-port-of-my-computer fiber optic minitree lit up).

Decorating at home was pretty standard.

The tree:



(And you can faintly see my Nativity set on the piano).

I can't remember if I bought this ornament last year or this year. But it's Rudolph! If you pull the little snowflake hanging under him, his legs move like he's flying:



You can also see the Fisher-Price Farm ornament (which is like the F-P Farm set I had as a kid; the modern one is way different) and a snowman and part of Snoopy on a snowmobile. And Hello Kitty.

I always had a fondness for Rudolph as a kid but I admit now that I look at it, something strikes me: the reindeer are (mostly) only willing to like and welcome Rudolph into their midst AFTER learning of what he can do for them. (I confess that bothers me a bit now, seeing as I have, throughout my life, suffered from the "maybe they'll like me if I do stuff for them" mentality). And even Santa - as one of my friends in college pointed out (and yeah, we sat around one person's tv in her dorm room and watched the Christmas specials) - even Santa comes off as a bit of a jerk with his, "What a shame, and he had a nice takeoff too" Nooooo! Santa is supposed to be more accepting of people's differences!

Then again: Clarice is a "brick" and she's pretty much the only reindeer who likes Rudolph for who he is. (And Hermey the elf likes him, and the crazy prospector guy....)

And unlike the end of Dumbo (which is, in some ways, a similar storyline), Rudolph doesn't exact even mild revenge on his tormentors. I suppose in a way you would say Rudolph is the bigger person for that, for not stooping to their level, but you know? I kind of want to see the snooty reindeer pay a little bit for how they treated Rudolph..

I probably overthink these things.

Anyway. I also decorated the mantel for Christmas, after not having done much with it for months:



Here's a close-up. One way in which I'm kind of a neo-Victorian is that I like the "clutter" school of holiday decorating, where you put out ALL THE STUFF (and this is not even all the stuff I have!) and group things together and have lots of things to look at.



But the thing is, a lot of these things have good memories associated with them. The Santa figures were table favors from CWF Christmas dinners of years past. And the dalahast was a little gift from my sister-in-law, as part of her "bridesmaid gift" to me when I was one of her bridesmaids. And the "books" are actually a Christmas card a Ravelry friend (who works at one of the British libraries!) sent to me, and I loved it so much I kept it and decided I wanted to put it out this year.

(And if you look VERY closely, you can see Big Mac and Fluttershy on the Tour Eiffel. Yes, I still think they are the "fandom 'ship" that makes the most sense to me.)

And all of these things, they make me smile, because they remind me of friends or good times or happy memories.  And really, that's a big part of Christmas for me - gathering up all the good stuff and putting it out and reminding myself to look at it and think about it and be happy for both good times in the past and (hopefully) good times to come. And for good friends near and far.