No matter what, every single year my husband Spencer and I will disagree on the same thing. Christmas.
Whether its the amount of decorations and when they go up, when I begin the Christmas shopping or the matching pyjamas I get us all to wear. We’re not like a normal household who disagree on what movie to watch or who is cleaning up. And it’s the decorations that are the main bone of contention between us.
You see, I love to really lean into the holidays. For the past week our house has been full of screaming witches and ghouls. Halloween decorations are pretty disgusting looking (the scarier the better) but that doesn’t stop me getting a house full.
When it comes to decorating the house Spencer and I are from different planets. Spencer says he would put them up on the day and take them down the day after – which defeats their purpose in my opinion.
Whatever the event though, I’m in. My Easter decorations are stunning and I have a collection the Easter Bunny would be proud of. I will admit purchasing my first Easter tree and adorning it with pastel baubles made me feel slightly ridiculous but decorations bring me joy and my family too (except my husband) so they’re worth it.
Everything in our storeroom at home is boxes of decorations. My Christmas ones are so shiny and pretty and I’ve been collecting them since I moved out of home at 18. My favourites are the ones I got for each child when they were born, they go high up into the tree because no matter what we lose five or six lower placed baubles a year with either dog or child-related accidents.
Each year I try to outdo myself. Kim Kardashian once had 100 Christmas trees so by the time I’m in my 70’s I’m hoping I’ll have caught up with her. So far we have two large trees we put up in the house and the kids have a small tree each to decorate their rooms. When I came home with the second big tree last year Spencer’s head started spinning. We light up the outdoor trees and put some smallish ones outside the front door too. All our Christmas trees are reusable because I like my house to be boiling hot and real trees can start looking pretty sad after a while.
This desire to decorate isn’t something I have inherited. My mum lives in Spain and last year she didn’t even bother with a tree or Christmas dinner, just went to her local instead. It’s why I go so over the top: I always wanted to have Christmas fun in my house but my mother is on Spencer’s team, team Scrooge. It’s why our presents were never wrapped – admittedly I’ve carried on that tradition. People are horrified that I don’t wrap my children’s presents but I will never be a wrapper. I find it annoying and even more annoying to watch it being torn apart.
Usually I try and hold out until after Christmas to buy decorations, which horrifies Spencer the most because it makes no sense to him. My reasoning is that after the holiday they are 70 per cent cheaper. I love a very expensive decoration that in some shops might be as much as £20 quid for one bauble. I’d never spend that much. In the January sales I stock up and proudly add them to my pile in the stockroom ready for the best Christmas ever in 12 months time.
As much as Spencer and I disagree on decorations, he would have to admit that they bring a sense of joy to our house. Possibly not the screeching Halloween witch at the front door though.
I’m thrilled to see some of the shops have decided to start Christmas before the end of Halloween, but if I start putting up decorations now I don’t think my marriage would survive it.
Vogue Williams is a TV presenter and podcaster
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