A Case for the 12 Days of Christmas

Last year, I learned about the 12 days of Christmas and what they really meant. They were actually a real thing - meant to be celebrated and not just “12 days of deals” or something like that you see featured before Christmas. As I have learned more about them - I have felt they are an important thing our rushed society needs.

I am not an expert on the 12 days of Christmas and there really is not that much information on the internet about them, but I’ll share what I know and why I see them as important. If you grew up in this tradition, feel free to chime in with info. I am trying to more about how to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas.

Unlike all the promotions you have see for the 12 days of Christmas prior to the holiday, the 12 days start on December 25th and last until January 5th. Some traditions call it the twelvetide and it signifies Jesus’ birth on the 25th and the magi (wise men) coming to him on the 5th (12 days later).

Why do the 12 days make so much more sense than starting to celebrate Christmas on November 1st?

I really love Christmas and I understand why everyone wants to jump the gun, but our society has skipped Thanksgiving (which is a pretty great holiday) and then on 12/26 everything Christmas comes to a total hault, which is depressing, especially in areas where you have 4 or 5 months of winter left. I am guessing I’m not the only one that has felt this way. Go to Target on December 26th and all the Christmas things are marked down. Go a few days later and spring is being promoted. Sure, maybe you live in the South and its not that cold anyway…but are you really ready for spring?

Starting to celebrate on the 25th of December gives you 12 days to enjoy Christmas during winter instead of having to squeeze it in the fall. I hope I’m making sense because that makes a lot of sense to me.

Advent, the four weeks before Christmas are really meant for preparing for Christmas instead of celebrating as if its already here. And really that’s what I am usually doing during advent…maybe not as much in spiritual sense as much as I would like. But I am usually making preparations for the holiday

So, how can I do celebrate the 12 days of Christmas?

The main idea is - keep celebrating and enjoying Christmas! Instead of feeling like you have to celebrate it all in early December and on the 25th…keep listening to Christmas music, keep baking cookies, keep watching Christmas movies, keep enjoying time with family…

More: I have not found very much information, but this article was helpful with some ideas on how to celebrate.

Other thoughts:

• In Italy, my understanding is most presents are not exchanged until the epiphany. I just thought that was interesting. The main thing in my head is - we open almost presents on Christmas and we really could spread some out of the 12 days to extend the celebration.

• The 12 days of Christmas helps to clarify the season. It doesn’t have to be this confusing thing of - when should I take down the decorations? This gives you some direction. Take them down on January 7th.

• More on the 12 days of Christmas

What do the 12 days actually mean?

The pairings go like this (from the artofsimple.com)

• A partridge in a pear tree: Jesus

• Two turtle doves: The Old and New Testaments

• Three French hens: Faith, hope, and love

• Four calling birds: The Four Gospels

• Five gold rings: The Torah/Pentateuch, first five books of the Old Testament

• Six geese a-laying: The six days of Creation

• Seven swans a-swimming: Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit

• Eight maids a-milking: Eight Beatitudes

• Nine ladies dancing: Nine fruits of the Holy Spirit

• Ten lords a-leaping: The Ten Commandments

• Eleven pipers piping: The eleven faithful apostles

• Twelve drummers drumming: Twelve points of the Apostles Creed

One idea I saw online was you could help your kids memorize this.

SO, that’s the gist. On year two of celebrating the 12 days of Christmas, I am learning more and becoming more passionate about why this is so important and makes so much more sense than celebrating early November. I hope this will help you too.

Airbnbing Your Home

If you had told me that we would Airbnb our personal residence, I don’t know if I would have believed you. I liked the income potential, but I had a lot of reservations about opening up our home and trusting other people I didn’t know with my home and belongings.

I can share more on how we finally decided to Airbnb our home if anyone is curious…the short of it is AirBnb does support the people that rent through them and we have had mostly positive experiences with guests, but we have had even more positive interactions with Airbnb as a company.

We are now airbnbing our second home. We did this when we lived in Massachusetts and now we are in Virginia doing it again. Our plan was to rent out our basement, but the construction has taken longer than expected.

So plan B. We are renting our entire personal residence. If you would like to see the listing, here is our listing if you are curious.

So here are 10 quick things that helped up Airbnb our home.

Click the Button below to view the PDF.

If you have questions feel free to leave them in the comments or find me on instagram and send me a dm.

Updated Foyer: The Rowe House

We have made enough progress on our house that it feels like we can start making some fun additions. It’s not all just getting things to status quo livable, but I’m starting to play around with some design decisions.

Here is our foyer after we removed the fuzzy yellow wallpaper that was kind of fun, but ultimately smelled dingy after hanging on the walls for 60 years. Its not that I didn’t love the wallpaper, but it needed to go.

BEFORE

I had thought of a few options to spice up the entryway….I considered painting a pattern myself on the wall to save money, using wallpaper that I already had from an old project…but ultimately I went with this wallpaper on Amazon.

AFTER

Some details.

The walls door is Benjamin Moore Marblehead Gold. I’m really happy with the color and really happy it pays homage to the North Shore of Boston that we miss so much.

The wallpaper is linked here.

And the rug is here!

I’m glad I took this little risk and wallpapered the front foyer….now to decide on the bannister. :)

The pink bathroom update

Would I have liked to save the pink bathroom? Yes. I love the idea of the save the pink bathroom movement.

BUT, when you have missing tiles exposing subfloor and a moldy pink toilet that doesn’t always flush, I am much less pro-the pink bathroom movement.

So this is our before….

I knew I wanted gold hardware as much as possible and decided to do black as a second accent.

I initially ordered these beautiful mirrors from Target - but it felt like too much gold.

Sources:

vanity / wayfair

tile / wayfair

faucets / amazon!

shower curtain / target

faux eucalyptus / amazon

lights / amazon

mirrors / amazon

blinds / similar

stool

Laundry room refresh

I knew this little laundry room had so much potential and with it being a small space we could take a risk without spending too much money.

Here is the room before…

Before laundry room

I love Grace in Magnolia’s laundry room & used it for inspiration. I didn’t choose the same paper - mostly because Target’s is easily accessible & returnable & affordable.

Grace in magnolia’s Laundry roOm

What I learned from wallpapering this small space:

• You’ll need more than you expect (we went back to target twice!)

• This particulate pattern is very forgiving. My mom and I obsessed over lining it up just right and the pattern is so crazy it doesn’t seem to give away any flaws.

• Target’s Devine wallpaper is very affordable as far as wallpaper goes - but you pay for it in frustrations with hanging the heavy duty contact paper substance.

Sources:

• wallpaper

• Shelves are a polyurethane/stain combo in black.

• Brackets (Home Depot)

Master Bedroom update

The renovation of our home has been so consuming - I don’t want to forgot to document what is going on. I am sharing some on our instagram page, but I’m going to try to document things here too.

Here is the Master bedroom when we first saw it in February 2019 & then in June when we removed the wallpaper.

Looking back at the contrast trim, I kind of have some small regrets - should we have kept the contrast trim in the house? I guess we can always go back, but for now I need to not be in painting clothes everyday.

Sources

wall color: Benjamin Moore White eggshell (this is their base color)

trim color: BM White in semi-gloss

Rug: Flea Market FTW

Chair: Target

Mattress: Zinus

Bed Frame: Wayfair

Lamps: Amazon

Sheets: Target

Duvet: Brooklinen

Drapes: IKEA

Blinds: Amazon

Curtain Rods: Amazon

Let me know if I missed anything you are curious about!

Our bigger purchases

…the duvet cover from Brooklinen - we have loved & there info says they get softer with time.

The bed frame from Wayfair that I spent way too much time debating over…we have been happy with it.

And the Zinus mattress has also been good - I know mattresses are such a personal preference, but they have a free trial if you don’t like it.