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Why Decorate Your House for the Holidays?

What are our lives without the fond memories we have? Sometimes it seems time is passing by too quickly. At times like these, it often helps to ponder the value of our interactions with our loved ones. The festive period of CHristmas marks a time in many people’s year when they can get together with their loved ones and create precious memories to look back on in the future.

With that in mind, why not celebrate the season with your family and friends with some festive decorations? Let’s look at some reasons why decorating your house for the holidays is so important.

It Signifies a Special Time

Nothing quite says Christmas like a Christmas tree, or having the outside of your house all lit up with festive cheer. A variety of Christmas lights will welcome whoever comes by your house, and remind them that it’s that special time of year.

Celebrating the Festive Period With Lighting Goes Back Millenia

Celebrating the festive period with lighting goes back a lot further than Thomas Edison or the advent of electricity and the light bulb. Using lights to decorate goes back at least as far as Yule, the Nordic mid-winter festival. During Yule, the Norse celebrated the mid-winter seasons with lights. Celebrations included drinking the Norse god Odin’s sacrificial beer and watching the Yule log burn.

It was believed that the Yule log summoned the sun to return, whilst also driving away evil spirits. The parallels with the Christian notion that Christmas can be seen, and it could be argued that they built upon this previous tradition.

Candles Celebrate Light and Welcoming New Guests

As time went by, candles gradually took over the older Norse traditions. They were used for light and warmth in winter and also for welcoming new guests. Candles are traditionally used to welcome Mary and Joseph in Christian traditions. Candles were also used long before the tradition of the Christmas tree ever took shape and became such an everlasting symbol of Christmas.

There Are Potential Psychological Benefits

Putting up your tinsel, lighting, baubles and Chrstimas tree could have benefits for your mental health, according to Heather Garbutt, a psychotherapist and director of The Counselling & Psychotherapy Centre. Christmas decorations can remind people of fun times, community, and connection.

Adding decorations to your house can add a subtle sense of goodwill and gratitude throughout your day and affect how you interact with the world in your day-to-day life leading up to the festivities.

Decorating your house is not only an uplifting experience, it also serves to remind you and those around you that it is a special period, and to treat each other with respect and reverence. Fond memories are part of what makes life enjoyable.

Decorating your house for the festive period is also a tradition that goes back a long time. Creating special lighting has been used around winter solstice celebrations since at least the time of the Norse people. There are even psychological benefits included with early decorating, due to the associated anticipation of good times to come.