JEANNE BRAGG, Post Columnist
Posted: Sunday, November 29, 2009 6:54 am

And the countdown begins.

The “get stuff out of the attic” elves haven’t arrived yet to help with the Christmas decorating, but I have a hunch that their appearance is just around the corner.

Mr. Murfreesboro (Tommy, my husband) has been so great about helping me with so many meaningless tasks these days, I just know it will be no big ordeal when I decide to drag out those cumbersome Christmas trees and ask those helpful elves to show up. I just know it.

I read somewhere that people choose to decorate elaborately for the holidays when economic times are bad.

I am in that frame of mind.

I have yet to purchase any gifts and don’t plan to buy many. I haven’t even asked the children what they want yet, but I have planned how to decorate the staircase in my mind.

Last year I mentioned that I was had the “Bah-Humbug” mentality about decorating. I didn’t feel like going through the efforts.

But not this year.

Perhaps the bleak economic atmosphere makes me want to make lemons out of lemonade.

Usually, by this time, Pat and I will have exchanged Christmas cooking and decorating magazines, but I have only bought one this year ... The Southern Accents Christmas Decorating Guide. I passed it up the first time I saw it because it cost $9.99 (or something like that). The contents appealed to me. The ideas were tasteful, and you could choose between things simple or elaborate ... and there were no advertisements inside.

But when I got a note in the mail that Southern Accents would no longer be published, I decided to bite the bullet and buy that little piece fir posterity. And truthfully, I’m glad I did.

I might be motivated by one of their ideas to decorate the living room tree in all lime green, or I might recreate the pink and red one I thought of myself from two years ago that was among my favorites.

My very favorite was the red, white and blue tree I did in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attack. I realized I always have red and white ornaments on hand, so a few inexpensive flags and some blue balls and other trim from the dollar store produced a stunning transformation. I draped some white tulle (used to tie packages) as a starting point and it just made those blue balls pop out and command attention.

It was after that tree that I learned to store ornaments in a more efficient way.

In the past, I dumped everything into “living room tree” or “family tree” boxes, but now I put them in containers that say “gold,” or “crystal,” or “red balls” or “lime green.” I then I realized I never did the same thing from year to year, and if I were better organized I could be more creative.

I have stuck to my goal of not buying anything new this year, with the exception of some ribbon that could go red or pink. I’ve used an off-white from the dollar store in previous years, but it’s a little “tired.” So pink and red will be this year’s theme.

I’m not ambitious enough to put up one tree on the back porch, but the children won’t let me forget about the one in the kitchen – the one on which we hang all the photo Christmas cards. The first ones came this week.

I’m ready to hop on my projects. After all that bah-humbug last year, I’m ready to put on my rubber gloves and get to work.

I can almost hear those elves hopping up those shelves right now.

‘Til next week.