Why Do You Decorate for Christmas? + Free Patterns

Some of you may decorate for Christmas, while others are not part of their culture, or they choose to abstain from decorating altogether. We've not decorated in the past three years with one of our dawgs

Some of you may be triggered by Christmas, as people who were once there are gone, either living their lives and passing on or exiting your life. But it begs the question, why are we decorating?

Last year, I wanted to decorate, but Daniel didn't. He didn't like the pressure of lugging out the decorations and then having to dread putting them away at the end. He mentioned, we don't have people over, so what is the point? It left a lot of thought process. I wanted to decorate for myself, not for others. Daniel wants to decorate for others to be wowed by the presentation. We had opposite points of view.

We came from a neighbourhood where the tree was proudly displayed in the front window. We challenged the odds of Christmas by having a beautiful dusty pink Christmas tree. The town would have buses drive by and view people's decorations. There was a sense of pride. Of course, some people only want to see a green tree, but then I argue, what does Yoda wearing a Santa hat have to do with Christmas?

Evaluating The Season

Daniel wants to express creativity by transforming portions of the house into a winter wonderland. While neither of us is religious, there is a sense of nostalgia without the context of what Christmas is intended to be.

My parents were involved in religion for about nine years of my childhood before being booted out of the churches. We were already doing Christmas before the religion, and after it was said and done.

As a child, there was a sense of excitement about setting up the Christmas Tree, but not having a lot of money, the decorations never went past the Christmas Tree. My parents did what they could afford, but what was lacking was made up for by family time, storytelling and singing Christmas songs.

For most of my adult life, I never observed Christmas. It came and went. People wanted to do the cards and gifts, but not participate; I didn't get involved in gift exchanges. Workplaces would have a Christmas party, and I would go for the fellowship of that. That's the true purpose of Christmas in my mind.

It circled back in 2025, with this year being so tough. Daniel and I discussed in the summer whether we were going to decorate this year. Our home is not part of a subdivision and is not visible from the highway in any detail. Decorating a tree that is visible from the windows and putting on Christmas lights on the house is really more for ourselves and not for anyone else.

Spark of Creativity

For Daniel, the decoration setup needs to be different each time. It's part of sparking creativity. I know many of us, including me, have a vision of what we like and reset it to be the same year after year. He enjoys that part of the setup the most.

Decorations can also be very clutter-minded. This means that your living space gets reduced with tree(s) in the way, and surfaces get Christma-tized. There is a sense of relief once it's over to reclaim the space.

Different religions can perceive Christmas in ways that conflict with each other.

I enjoy Christmas for the nostalgia. We both have different takes on it. What is true is that when we decorate, which isn't every year, there is a sense of excitement and pride. I used to decorate to get the kudos of the neighbours gawking at the house, but the sense has changed without neighbours here in Nova Scotia. We need to change. We must learn to decorate for our creative enjoyment, not anyone else.