Mrs. Fix-it

Whenever the seasons change, I sometimes feel inspired to bring some of that holiday cheer inside my home, to decorate with whatever holiday or season is nearest.

Spring, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, whatever the calendar is closest to, I find myself with the unrelenting urge to bring it inside my home. Whether it be through browsing my Southern Living or accidentally going off on those Pinterest rabbit trails (yes, I get sucked into those), the elaborate and expensive decorations can leave me feeling defeated and discouraged.

The question, “Where do I start?” can be overwhelming. I have young children, and I want them to have memories of their mom celebrating the holidays. I want them to remember that weird plate I always brought out around Christmastime or those plastic eggs I decorated the table with when it was Easter.

Although I certainly have the inspiration to create these memories inside my home, I sometimes find myself without the drive to actually follow through. I still decorate our home at Christmastime, I just find myself with a lack of motivation to carry it through the year. A simple way I discovered to bring some holiday cheer into our home was through decorating our fireplace mantle. Our mantle is in the family room, where we spend a majority of our time, so our children are sure to look at it and recognize what season we are in. Plus, the simplicity of the décor isn’t too much; I think it’s a good subtle way to bring whatever season or holiday we are in, into our home.

I don’t really have a specific set of instructions when it comes to decorating our mantle; I just do whatever I feel looks right.

For example, for Halloween, I put up some decorative pumpkins along with a couple of black crows and a “boo” sign. When Halloween is over, and we are moving on to Thanksgiving, I just remove the crows, and “boo” sign. I also have a “give thanks” sign that I’ll put up. Once we are completely past fall and moving into Christmas, I’ll pack all the fall decorations away and pull out the Christmas decorations. For spring, I’ll bring out some decorative Easter eggs, distribute them among some various glass vases and pull some flowers from my garden. I like the green colors and textures of spring, so that’s what I focus on come springtime.

So as you can see, there may not be a rhyme or reason to my method of decorating our mantle, but it comforts me to look at it whenever we are in our family room and feel accomplished although only a little effort when into decorating. Hopefully my children will look back and remember that their mom was present for them, that I played with them, and spent more time with them and less time focusing on all the little details. They will also know that we celebrated the seasons and holidays in a stress-free, fun way!

Sara Thomas is Mrs. Fix-it.

She is originally from Louisiana and is a mother of two, Ryker and Reese. Her husband, Jason, was born and raised in Texas and very proud of that. Email Sara at sara_e_thomas@hotmail.com.