Some years the Christmas decorations get to stick around until after the new year. Sometimes others are addressing their valentines while I'm just starting to pack up the Santas and trees.

This is not one of those years. Operation Just Put It All Away got started yesterday as I began gathering up all the shelf sitters, pictures and other assorted holiday cheer that adorned most rooms of the house.

All that's left is the tree and that will probably be today's project.

There was also a time that I would decorate a tree in every room. There was a gingerbread tree in the kitchen, Victorian ornaments on the bedroom tree and even the bathrooms had small three foot trees on the counters. My favorite was always the tree of vintage ornaments from the forties through the sixties.

This was not the year for any of this either. It was a constant struggle just to have the one tree. This is because my adorable house panther thanked me profusely almost daily for giving him such a magnificent play thing in the middle of the living room.

And no, the sprays and oranges, tin foil and other assorted fear tactics don't deter him from attacking and eating the tree. He's his own man and isn't about to cower to the scent of citrus.

Sigh.

My house badly needs cleaned and to go through the annual decluttering and I was happy beyond words to begin the process yesterday. There was an exception though.

The vintage tree is my favorite. It's always the first to go up and the last to come down. Since that wasn't possible again this year, I compromised by filling a couple of snifters and even a domed cake plate with some of my favorite vintage pieces for the kitchen counter.

A small shelf hosted a number of plastic Santas, houses and snowmen.

I was a little sad to say so long to these pieces for another year. A few come from my parents but most were accumulated piece by piece at antique malls and flea markets in my travels near and far. There's already a small army of Santas but I'll continue to buy whenever the price is right or I find something I don't have.

They bring me joy.

Since I believe it's healthy to always have something to look forward to, I'll look forward to unpacking them again next year. Maybe by then my cat won't be such a tree loving heathen.