I have a confession: our Christmas decorations almost didn’t make it out of their boxes this year. Shameful for a Filipino, I know! Marlon and I are spending Christmas back home as we always do, so we won’t be here to enjoy the lights and decorations. Plus, we’re supposed to be packing up for our big move, which takes place as soon as we get back. So it seemed impractical to decorate the house.
In the end I couldn’t stand it. I needed to have something—anything!—to make the house feel a little more festive. We agreed on the bare minimum to make packing up easier. So out came our glass jar of pre-loved Christmas ornaments, which I first wrote about on MangoJuiced last year…
… and a string of rice LED lights, which I left massed haphazardly around the glass lamp on our steel cabinet. I kind of like the bareness of it.
The paper star lanterns, our parol substitute, went up in the windows…
and more rice lights were stuffed down our big vintage glass jar on the floor. I am not sure if this jar is going to make it to the new house, so I might as well enjoy it while I can.
And that’s about it. No Christmas tree, no wreaths, no centerpieces. It’s not much, but our minimalist Christmas decor should be enough to sustain me until Christmas in Manila… which is always maximalist anyway, so it balances out. I vow to make up for this next year!
Is it Christmas in your household yet? When do you put up your Christmas decorations?
