A Lost Christmas Tradition

Now that it's finally November, we are getting really excited about decorating for Christmas. It's tempting to go ahead and get started on the festivities, but we know it's still way too early, so we are just sitting here twiddling our thumbs, waiting for the time to arrive. I figured that to help occupy my time while I wait, I would tell you all a Christmas decorating story.

When I was growing up, part of the Christmas decor was a big clothespin reindeer. It's probably about 2 1/2 feet tall, and it sat near the front door to greet us when we got home. After my husband and I got married, we inherited the reindeer to help spread the holiday cheer in our new home. There was a catch, though. Mr. Reindeer was in need of a serious facelift. This is where a Christmas tradition was born.

Our first Christmas, we set him out and said "We will fix him up soon." Sadly for Mr. Reindeer, we never got around to fixing him up. At the end of the season, we put him away, vowing that the next holiday season, we would fix him up as soon as we got him out. How sad he must have been when we got him out the next year and he had to spend the whole season in his sad and saggy state. This happened for a few more years as well. We joked that it was a Christmas tradition to pretend that we were going to fix up the sad clothespin reindeer, and we couldn't actually fix it because that would mean we would miss out on a fun Christmas tradition. It was pretty sad, really, because we had this poor dilapidated clothespin reindeer sitting there to greet our visitors, and every time someone came in, we had to explain our peculiar Christmas tradition of not fixing it up so they wouldn't think we were weird for having it there. Well, they probably still thought we were weird, but at least they had the background story for this particular weirdness.

Last Christmas, Mr. Reindeer's day finally came. I like to think that when I got home with the bag of supplies his poor droopy little ears perked up a little with anticipation of the fun that was to come.


Here is what he looked like before. He really was in a sad state of affairs.



























As I began dismantling him, I found proof that he is indeed a boy reindeer. Not only is his nose red, his "parts" are red too!


















































After lots of work, here is Mr. Reindeer, totally refurbished.
























Sure, we lost a Christmas tradition, but he really looks smashing, don't you think?