I go into the attic at our house precisely twice each year. One of those times I enjoy and look forward to, the other I'd just as soon skip.
We keep our Christmas decorations in the attic, and that's really just about all that's there. (There are some old curtains, a few extra bits of sheet rock, and some trophies from decades ago, but they don't count.)
I love decorating for Christmas.
I really don't like putting the stuff back up. It feels like I'm killing the Christmas Spirit.
It's as if, starting on December 26, the Spirit of Cleanliness and the Spirit of Guilt greet me each morning. "So, Tim. It's not Christmas anymore. Time to put up the ornaments and take down the lights."
The Spirit of Christmas hides behind me, cowering. "There are actually twelve days of Christmas," I say heroically. "This is only the second day."
The Spirits of Guilt and Cleanliness retreat, cursing partridges and pear trees.
But, the Spirit of Christmas and I know that this is only a temporary respite.
Sure enough and soon enough, it is January 6. The Day of Epiphany. Twelfth Night. King Day (which is what we used to call it because, in the New Orleans area, it's the first day you can buy King Cake and not be some kind of yankee weirdo.)
"It's January 6, Tim," the Spirits of Cleanliness and Guilt say. Now, they are joined by the Spirit of Timeliness. "It's not Christmas anymore."
But the Spirit of Christmas and I have prepared. The Spirit of Christmas divided into the Dickensian Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Be, and I have brought forth the Spirit that is my constant companion: the Spirit of Procrastination.
"You're outnumbered," we say. (Well, some of us say that. The Spirit of Procrastination will get around to talking later, and the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Be just points at the new calendar.)
And so, after a brief struggle, the Christmas decorations stay where they were.
Weeks go by, and more spirits get involved: the Spirits of Being Busy, Lots of Things to Do, and NFL Playoffs fight on my side, and the Spirits of Peer Pressure, Responsibility, and What Must the Neighbours Think fight against me. We usually manage to hold our own, until the Spirit of Good Heavens, It's Almost Mardi Gras joins the fray.
Sometimes, I and my squadron of spirits can still hold our own. For example, I can start putting the decorations up, putting some of them in boxes, or taking down the outside lights. But it's only a gambit, a fake charge at the enemy's right flank in order to buy more time.
When the Spirit of What's Wrong with You It's Almost Easter joins in, the battle is pretty much over. By then, the weather's usually warm enough that the Spirit of Christmas is sweating like a pig anyway in that big red coat, and is just about ready to call it a year.
So, the boxes go into the attic. And there the Spirit of Christmas rests until the day after Thanksgiving.
Then, and not before.
Actually, the whole family helps decorate after Thanksgiving, and they help put the decorations away, certainly before the 4th of July.
This work by Timothy H. Ruppel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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