December 26:
Boxing Up Your Christmas

In England and Canada, Boxing Day is December 26 and is a national holiday, but in the United States, boxing day is any day when you box up your Christmas ornaments and decorations and store them away until next year.

Unless care is taken so that they don't jostle around, some of those precious ornaments may be found damaged or broken when you open up the box a year later - especially those egg- shell thin Christmas tree ornaments. You may even have fragile glass ornaments that have been handed down from a previous generation, and it would be a great pity to lose any of those.

The best way to ensure their safety is to keep the original box, particularly those with different slots or dividers. But if you don't have the original box, wrapping the ornaments in tissue paper or bubble wrap and putting them into a suitable box is the next best thing.

Many retail stores offer slotted boxes specifically designed to hold ornaments and decorations, and others designed for wreaths. Plastic rolls are available to hold those persnickety strings of lights that get tangled so easily; you just roll up your lights like twine. If you can't find a plastic roll, a length of cardboard will do just as well - but only wrap one strand of lights per piece of cardboard or plastic roll!

Where you store the decorations is important too. The main floor is the ideal place for them, but most of us just don't have the closet space. An attic isn't a good place because it can get very hot, and some plastic ornaments and decorations, such as wreaths, may melt together. A basement can also be unsafe if it floods or is damp. But if that is the only place you have for storage, keep the ornaments and decorations in a Rubbermaid container...also put everything in plastic bags so they don't start to smell like mildew.

The same thing would apply to boxes stored in a garage.While you are purchasing items to store your ornaments and decorations, you might consider a plastic Christmas tree bag, so that when it comes to taking your tree down and carrying it out of the house, the needles aren't scattered all over the place.

An old sheet put over the tree works well too!

Have a happy boxing day!