Here we are again, can you believe it, Christmas is only 17 days away.  Where on earth did the year go?  I have to admit, I’m a little “ill prepared” for the festivities.  Normally I can start preparing for Christmas in October and at this point am pretty much done with the shopping, the crowds and yes, even the wrapping.   Not this year, Christmas seemed to creep up on me and all of a sudden jump out from behind the closet and yell “Boo, here I am!”

It’s funny, when you’re a kid, Christmas seems like it will never come. You are sitting there counting down the days till Santa visits your house.  It seemed like forever, crossing each day off on the calendar. And Christmas Eve night…that might as well have been a year because that’s what it felt like, waiting for the glimmer of the first morning light to come through that bedroom window.

Now as a parent, I find Christmas comes way too quickly.  I also miss some of that childhood excitement. I mean, don’t get me wrong I do enjoy Christmas and love that my children share in that same excitement I felt as a child, but as a parent it can be a little stressful. 

The real scenario here was…I was making it stressful.  There’s something about wanting to make everything perfect for the holidays.  That perfectionism tends to take some of the fun out of Christmas; at least I figured this out on the past weekend.

I decided to put the Christmas tree up, and again the perfectionist in me came out.  I always have that picture in my head of the “perfect Christmas tree”, the lights just so each row spaced no more than 1” apart to get the “full light” effect.  The garland hung precisely even and of course all the decorations hanging on the tree have to coordinate. 

My daughter is three, and this is really the first year she is able to get truly involved with the decorating process.  So, I started getting the decorations out, the pretty red and green tree bulbs, gently placing them on the tree…okay…step back…adjust…good…after all coordinating colours is key to the “perfect tree”.   My daughter on the other hand had other plans.  She went to the box and pulled out every colour but red and green. 

“Oh no honey, we’re putting green and red bulbs on the tree” I said. 

“Blue!” she came back with. 

“No, here take the red one and put it on the tree” I tried to sway her attention.

“The blue one” as she tossed the red one aside and I could see the start of tears.

So at that moment, I realized what an idiot I was. The first chance my daughter gets to decorate a Christmas tree and here I am dictating which colour she can and can’t use.  All in the name of perfection…how dumb was that?

I finally got a grip, and said “If you want Blue, then you go right ahead!”  She smiled and placed it on the tree.  She continued to place another 8 blue bulbs on tree, mind you all on the same branch…but  seriously it’s the most beautiful, perfect Christmas tree I think I have ever seen.

We sometimes get so swept up in making Christmas perfect that we forget, those around us aren’t looking for perfection…they simply just want to enjoy the holiday with us!  So who cares if your Christmas tree has 8 blue or green or red bulbs on one branch!   

Lesson learned!