‘Tis the Season! As the joyous month of January approaches, homes and streets begin to sparkle with the warm glow of Christmas decorations in the icy winter. In the middle of all the seasonal cheer – when homes undergo makeovers, sweets galore, and families come together – we admittedly take Christmas decorations very seriously!
From the Christmas tree to changing the decor to all the small and out-of-proportion decoratives we hang from here and there, decorations play a great part this time of year. However, there are a few misconceptions that often cloud our understanding of the happy design tradition we’ve had for years.
Christmas Design Misconceptions: Five Tales of Tradition
Though discussions about Christmas myths are much hotter, in this blog, we’re going to address some of the misconceptions about Christmas decorations. Let’s talk about Christmas design misconceptions and leave the religious arguments to the theologians!
Christmas decorations must be red and green
As soon as we hear the word Christmas, red and green shapes form in our minds. That’s because we’ve been decorating our homes with these two colors for much longer than we imagine. But why these two colors only?
Well, some believe that it all comes from Celtic people who honored red and green since these colors symbolize the life of Jesus and help the earth survive through winter. Symbolically speaking, red stands for Jesus’s blood, and green represents the evergreen tree that suggests eternal life.
So, while it’s understandable why these two colors dominate Christmas decorations, it’s not quite clear why we stick so firmly to this tradition and rarely try other colors. Who knows if pink, purple, orange, or even brown wouldn’t make better wintery moods around our homes? After all, Christmas arrives at the onset of the cold days of winter, and we need warm colors to go with winter, not a cool one like green!
Christmas lights are only meant for the trees
As human beings, we’re so badly tradition-oriented, and no one can blame us for that except ourselves! For years, we’ve been hanging those lovely lights only from the trees. True, they do look wonderful. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have them next to the fridge, beside the bathroom mirror, or even dangling from the headboard of our beds. This hardwired belief brings us to another one of those widely-held Christmas design misconceptions.
Only the living room needs decorations
Even now, many families only decorate the living room for Christmas. It’s understandable that the living room is the place where the presents are and where everybody gathers, but it doesn’t mean other rooms cannot have their own share of Christmas festivities! If we believe that Christmas decorations create a happy atmosphere, why shouldn’t we bring happiness to other places around the house? By decorating all the rooms in the house, your home will definitely sparkle with holiday cheer and provide a cozy haven for the priceless times you and your loved ones come together. If Christmas is dear to us, it shouldn’t be so in the living room only, right?
Candles should burn to the end
You’ve probably heard this one from your grandma. Christmas candles should burn through the night so that they enlighten the path forward and bring good luck for the new year. The next time you face a misfortune or find yourself out of luck, think back clearly: Maybe it all started out in the middle of one cold Christmas night!
Apart from all the effort we put into our everyday life, no one would ever say no to a bit of luck! There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but I for one honestly don’t think candles determine my luck!
Instead of going superstitious, I recommend that the last person going to bed should snuff out all the candles to prevent any unfortunate mishap and not worry about luck getting lost on its way to your house!
Remove all decorations on the 12th day of Christmas
Speaking of lucky elements, candles are not the only ones to watch out for! The common belief is that keeping the decorations after the twelfth day of Christmas brings bad luck to the family! No one has explained the relationship between “bad luck” and the candy canes yet, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I think it all started with a mother who wanted to make her child help her tidy up and take down the decorations!
Although we all start to lose that initial interest in those decoratives after a few days, we don’t necessarily have to wait for an exact date to remove them. Some might like to keep them a bit longer, while others may want to remove them a few days after Christmas. Do as you wish, and, rest assured, the spirit of Christmas won’t strangle you in your dreams!
Concluding Notes
As human beings, we have a tendency to invent reasons for certain things we can’t understand. Clearly, some of the Christmas design misconceptions discussed above show traces of such an inventive spirit!
Personally, I never say no to change, and I believe we shouldn’t be afraid to approach such traditions differently from our elders. Also, we should learn to leave a little room for creativity in our Christmas designs and not follow our parents or neighbors regarding which rooms to design, where to hang our decorations, and what items to use in our design.
