The Party's Over

This post is brought to you by Roxy Music's "Avalon." The first line is, "Now the party's over. I'm so tired." That's exactly how I feel right now and I haven't even been partying. It's a romantic song and the video makes me think of eccentric rich people in England, so it sort of goes with the book Blow By Blow, which I'm currently reading.

Anyway, if you feel like it, you can play the song and have a look at some of my favourite Christmas decorations that I packed away today. I go back to work tomorrow and I realized that if I didn't do it today, it wouldn't be until March that I got my act in gear.

I love stained glass. My dream would be to live in a house with cathedral ceilings and gothic stained glass windows. I bought the pear and two birds at Tracy Hardware on the Danforth near Main Street. Kelly Grunge Queen knows about this store. It's a very old hardware store, run by an elderly woman. Her daughter buys antiques and other curiosities and puts them in the front windows for sale. I found these pieces about three years ago. Duncan was still in a stroller and I used to go on these far flung walks just to get out of the house. I don't think I paid more than $8.00 for the three pieces. I had a nice chat with the proprietor. She had to get this grabby hook thing to reach the pieces down. I eventually had to climb up onto the raised display case to get down the last bird.


This decoration is my favourite. I bought it on the main street in St. Catharines at a gift store. It was on sale. When we got back to my parent's house, we just learned that my uncle had died. Now the ornament makes me think of my uncle. I agree that delight reigns in a garden.
This felt cat came from this big outlet store in Myrtle Beach called Waccamaw Pottery. When we used to go to Myrtle Beach on family vacations, Waccamaw was a huge place filled with all kinds of clay pots, etc. When we were last there a few years ago, it looked like it was closing down. They had a Christmas section and that's where I found this cat for a dollar or two.
On that last trip to Myrtle Beach, I also found a Christmas store. We were at one of those surreal shopping centres that has a dungeon and dragons-style mini golf area. We saw Pirates of the Caribbean there too, I believe. Anyway, I found Halloween Christmas decorations, which was very Tim Burton. I bought a few pieces. I love this witch's boot. It reminds me of the Wizard of Oz.
This is one of my newest favourite pieces. A very sweet boy named Zach in my class gave it to me along with this huge, scented candle. His mother is lovely and she told me the decoration is for Duncan. I love that it's a Canadian nutcracker.
Above and below: foam decorations that Duncan made at his daycare. I'll always remember my five-year-old boy and his amazing babysitter when I pull these out each year.

Another Waccamaw treasure. My sister and I both bought a goldfish. What can I say? It's nice having a fish hanging on the tree.
The tin bird came from a house and home store on the Danforth called Moss. If you live in Toronto, you probably know about it. Duncan has some non-Christmasy tin birds from Moss hanging in his room.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that Mexican folk art is one of my passions. Not surprisingly, I've amassed a few tin Christmas decorations. I even have a tin nativity set, which I forgot to photograph. I'll try to do it later because it's very special.


Here's a very old felt elf that's been around forever. I'll have to see if my mother remembers where it came from originally. It's so old that a soft sneeze could knock the pompom right off the hat. I love it.
When we were kids, we used to pose the legs in funny directions and make the elf look like he was lounging around.

I'm not sure what happened to his feet.

I bought the white elf recently and now Big Green has someone to have snuggles with. Don't you love a happy ending?

Have you started packing up Christmas yet?