Ah, Christmas – a favorite holiday for so many. The lights, the music, the (fake) snow… They all set the scene for merriment. But the beauty of the season, perhaps, lies in the diversity of ways that people celebrate during this time of year. For us, it varies.
We tend to travel a lot during the holidays; whether it’s across town or across the ocean, we’re rarely home during the last month of the year. This will be our fourth Christmas in our northern Los Angeles condo, and after years of not waking up and spending Christmas day under our own tree, we are staying put this December. The holidays are the perfect time to embrace family and the spirit of home, and now that we’ve done a small visiting tour of those that live farther away, we are taking the opportunity to focus on home.
Let’s get into the spirit, shall we?
A Christmas tree is full of memories, so putting it up each year is like going through a journal of our history. Wherever we travel, whatever we experience, we make sure to get an ornament to remember it by. And so everything that hangs from these boughs has a meaning; our newest additions include a beautiful wooden ornament from Schloss Neuschwanstein in southern Germany and a dancing hula girl from O’ahu.
Okay, so that’s the Christmas tree, but what of the rest of the house? A fully decorated home is like a holiday hug. We have a fireplace (a season staple!), but we decided to remove the mantle when we renovated our space before moving in. This presented a holiday decor dilemma, but we found the perfect spot for our Target stockings nearby – high atop the towers in our entryway. Even more perfect is something we only recently realized: our stockings match our Hogwarts houses!
Walking into a house and seeing the tree lit up is enough to make any girl giddy, but it’s the finishing touches that really make it memorable. Sohrab’s Christmas present for us arrived in early December – just in time to enjoy it throughout the month. He had suggested we look for a model train a bit ago to go around the tree, and how could I say no? I’ve always loved miniature cars and trains. Little did I know that he had already found a train that perfectly represented our nerdy side: a very impressive Hogwarts Express!
I nearly cried. Minus the nearly. You know the feeling of crying while you can’t stop grinning? Yeah, it was like that.
The scarlet train complements the evergreen tree, and once the holidays are over, it will find a home amidst the Harry Potter wall in my office. I’m over the moon.
The details on this work of art are incredible – it billows smoke, it chuffs. It recites quotes from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It’s a fan’s dream, and I’m so excited to have it join our armada of Christmas decor. Now all that’s left is to ride the real train! (Right, Sohrab?)
If this is any indication of the weeks to come, I can’t wait to spend Christmas at home.
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