New Thanksgiving Tradition – The Harvest Tree

My 12-year-old son, Michael, keeps telling me I need a holiday intervention (notice his absolute Grumpus expression in photos). You see – I am one of those people that starts planning for next year’s Christmas on December 26. In a perfect world, we would all hold the Christmas spirit in our hands and hearts all year through. So … I did the only thing any good mother can do … I rebelled!  🙂

Say hello to our new tradition —- the Harvest Tree!!!! Let me back track and explain…

A few year back, my MackDaddy hubby acquired his dream shed – fully wired electrically, two stories of storage, on a foundation — the works. At that point in time, all items stored anywhere else in our home were mandated to take up residence in the new shed. This included any and ALL holiday decorations.

Now, if you are unfamiliar with the weather and climate of southside Virginia, November and December here are typically rain, which means our yard becomes a bit of a swamp. Moving bins and boxes of decorations through the Virginia Dismal Swamp will absolutely CRUSH your spirit – no matter how much holiday cheer you have.

So — this year, as we were putting Halloween decorations back in their permanent residence, we also brought out the Christmas decorations  to store in the basement and avoid the inevitable swamp that is to come.

Michael P threw such a conniption fit as the Christmas decorations began entering the house the first week of November, I did what any 48-year-old  mother of 4 children would do … REBELLED. I mean – really! I bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan … if I love Happy HallowThanksMasDay (i.e., the holiday celebrated between October 31 – January 1), so be it! Thus the creation of the Harvest tree ~

We used a few fake gourd finds from the local Dollar store, discount burlap ribbon from Walmart, and our own homegrown mini-gourds to decorate our first ever Harvest tree. Despite our tweenagers fits at the idea, I absolutely LOVE it!

I have also threatened to start putting up a Halloween tree if the tweenager doesn’t bite his tongue …

Next year, I need to add a turkey as a tree topper…

What do you think? Share your own Harvest Tree photos in the comment section – join our movement!

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