Merry Kitschy Christmas to Me! To You....

I have been such a good girl this year that Santa came early! Ok, so not really, but I finally did it...I got a new harp and brought it home on Saturday....

It's huge compared to what I was used to playing on, a beast really. Of course I did not have enough foresight to rearrange my living room furniture before I brought it home and its addition has messed up my feng shui (I don't actually practice feng shui but I do like symmetry and it bothers me when my furniture is all crammed together and disorganized). Getting it into and out of my 2 door Honda Civic, without damage, was how I imagine a wrestling match might be. I managed though and these tiny inconveniences are well worth it.

I was so limited before with the music I could successfully play but no more! It is really inspiring and I am feeling much more creative musically which in turn nourishes my other creative pursuits. I had been in sort of a creative limbo a few weeks back but this combined with some sewing successes has re-ignited my creative fire.

I would now like to take this opportunity to endorse "Kitschy" Christmas decorations and wish you all a very Merry Kitschy Christmas. If it's vintage, kitschy and Christmas I love it...the uglier and scarier the better I say. I think it totally appropriate, at Christmas, to put out things that might be considered ugly at any other time of the year. I have one small box, which I drug out last night, that contains my beloved kitschy Christmas treasures. I have collected them from the garbage of many a relative who found them too hideous to display with all their other more traditionally beautiful Christmas items. I like to think of myself as a safe house for unattractive Christmas decorations...like the island of misfit toys. In fact I find them to be so ugly they are cute. My philosophy is this: No Christmas decoration should ever be prevented from spreading the love and cheer it was created for no matter how unconventional it's looks might be. So in celebration of Kitschy Christmas ephemera, the world over, I thought I would share my most endearingly, down right ugly, kitschy, vintage Christmas decorations.

This guitar playing elf sort of reminds me of a Kewpie Doll. My mom was going to throw him away many years ago but I rescued him and with my protection & patronage enjoyed pride of place on her Christmas Tree for many years. When I moved out he had to come with me or wind up in the trash. I don't have a tree, my house is too small, so I hang him on the wall.

Much like an actual Christmas Tree this thing is a fire waiting to happen so I don't actually light the candles. It too was being threatened by my Mother (she turns into the Kitschy Christmas Grinch this time of year), but I think it originally belonged to my Grandfather's Mother, my Great-Grandma (Nana). Poor thing is all beat down and broke down but I remember it as a little girl so I put it out every year.

 
The Carolers...not that I have a favorite but if I did these would certainly be it! A decoration only a true Kitschy Christmas Connoisseur could love. These belonged to my Grandmother, my Mom's Mom, my mom remembers these being around her house growing up and she always hated them ( I wonder if she was born a Kitschy Christmas Grinch or if she was conditioned? I'll have to ask). She thought she had escaped them once she moved out...that was until I came home, from a visit to Grandma's, at 4 years old beaming with pride at my kitschy acquisition (I think I was born a Kitschy Christmas Lover). Out they came every year, I used to love setting them out, finding just the right place. When I moved out she made sure these went with me, she feels safe in her escape from them now.

How about you friends...do you like kitschy Christmas decorations like me or do you find them tacky and hideous like my Mom? Do you have a box full of them or just one that you can't get rid of because as much as you hate to admit it you actually think it's cute?