My Last Post About Christmas

We took down all of our holiday decorations earlier this week. As I sifted through all of the ornaments, garlands, lights, and random homemade ornaments, I decided it was time to rid ourselves of some of the old stuff that didn't even get used this year.

We had a pre-lit garland that no longer worked, so it was purged from the box. And we also had several ornaments that didn't even make it onto the tree this year due to being too fragile, or breakable, or too likely for the top to come out with the slightest tug from a child. Some of the light strands were inherited from my mom, who probably bought them when I was Cordy's age.

Some of our new decorations this year were big winners for us. The Home Depot sent us some unbreakable ornaments in early December, along with two sets of LCD lights in blue and white. First off, I had no idea you could even buy alternating blue-white strands of lights! I have to give kudos to my rep, Megan: when she asked what colors I liked, I told her we liked blue and white, and somehow she found exactly what I wanted.

The LCD lights were amazing - so much brighter, and they use far less energy than traditional lights. Our electricity usage for early December (we put the decorations up right after Thanksgiving) was less than it was a year ago, and I'd like to think the LCD lights helped.

The unbreakable ornaments lived up to their name: despite a few being yanked off the tree by kids or swatted off and batted around the floor by cats, they didn't break or come apart at the top. They were also even prettier than our old ones, prompting compliments from visitors.

One other item that Megan added was a package of LCD tealights. If you like having candlelight during the holidays (or any time of the year, really) but either have to keep the candles very high up for fear of small person or feline getting too close, these are a great alternative. Put them in a tealight holder made of frosted glass and you can barely tell the difference.

So big thanks to the Home Depot for coming up with some great holiday decorating ideas. We're planning to slowly convert all holiday lights to LCD lights (our local zoo converted part of their Wildlights display to LCD this year, too), and I think we'll be looking for more of the unbreakable ornaments, too.