simplifying christmas: halving the decorations

another key for us in simplifying Christmas was putting out fewer decorations. i realized that there's simply no reason to put out everything we own - it just breeds clutter, and then there's no place for real-life stuff. so, we pulled out our favorite ornaments, my cute little tree collection, a simple berried-stem arrangement, stockings and two wreaths, and called it good. add to that the collection of christmas cards we received, suspended from a christmas ribbon, and our house is perfectly cheery. less work, less maintenance (dusting, rearranging as cats knock things over, etc), less clean-up. decorations simplified.