Growing up, my mom always decorated our house in Valparaiso for every holiday.

Early on, I recall it was very simple … themed cardboard images on the wall each holiday and specialty items in a variety of places. I recall making ornaments with pins and sparkles. And or course there was an Easter egg tree that she created, carefully draining the egg yokes and painting the shells.

As years progressed and they retired into a house in Syracuse, I recall the decorations became more involved. Rich floral elements graced the cupboards in the fall; red, white, and blue items appeared on side tables and in bathrooms in the summertime; and a fabulous Santa and Nutcracker collection began to decorate the mantle when Christmas came along.

No matter when I visited them, the house reflected the character of the season.

Recently, my parents moved from their home into a retirement community — an apartment that would never support the amount of decorations they had assembled over the years. We cleaned out the attic, which featured more bins than I could count of decorations — items that brought joy to my mom and to everyone who visited their home. Their last Christmas in the Carmel house, my son Jarod and traveled down after Thanksgiving to handle the decorating for them. I recall the joy both of us felt as we opened boxes and found the items that helped create that festive feeling for us personally. Jarod like the stuffed Santas, animals, and snowmen that my mom always placed on the stairs. And I enjoyed finding her special Boyd’s Bear to their shelves.

If you think about it, our calendar year offers many festive holidays. And, like my mom, I decorate for many of them. Perhaps not to the extent that she did. But each holiday is reflected in my home. And I know my kids enjoy the decorations as much as I enjoy placing them around the house.

But, when Christmas comes along, well for some reason, decorations seem to multiply.

Yesterday I visited a craft fair. Even though it’s November and only weeks until Thanksgiving, the fair was dominated by Christmas/Winter decor. Why is it that the December holidays bring out the interior designer in all of us while the holidays throughout the rest of the year are relegated to a limited selection? What is it about Christmas — which again is only a one-month celebration — that creates the need to transform our home with sparkles, red and green tchotchkes, and well-dressed snowmen?

Well, I don’t know. But I do know that I bring out the tinsel! Decorating my home creates a sense of “homeyness” that people feel. And while I typically decorate on “the First” for any of the holiday months, I brought out the Hallowe’en decor early when I knew my college daughter Paige would be coming home. I mailed a package to Jarod when he was in college — and did the same for Paige this year — sending along a selection of fall decorations for their dorm rooms. And I now shop for festive items to help my grown-up kids bring that feeling to their own spaces.

With my parents aging and all the complications that has brought, perhaps my love of decorating is a way of paying tribute to them — to the loving home and the feelings it fostered for me when I arrived during one of those special seasons that brought out the interior designer in my mom. Perhaps it was something I learned from them that just “stuck” and made me want to bring whatever that feeling was into own space. All I know is that starting that first December 1st at Albion College, I rose early to surprise my flat-mate Nina with Christmas tinsel, tunes, and socks hanging on our bunkbeds. Socks that my mom had sewn for each of us.

When they moved out of their most recent home in Carmel, my brother and I packed up boxes of decorations to share with each of the grandkids — hopeful they too can find that feeling my mom and dad created for us all over the years. I brought home many of my mom’s seasonal Boyd’s bears. Right now, the Pilgrim and Native American Boyd’s are featured near the grandfather clock that once belonged to my own grandparents. When Christmas arrives, there will be different bears to place in that special spot. It brings my mom into my home, I guess.

Whatever the reason, I’m sure my mom attended Craft Fairs to find special pieces to make the Holidays — every one of them — special. I know my parents shopped for Santas and Nutcrackers and built quite a collection. I know my dad liked to buy special Santas for my mom each Christmas. I now have a few of their decorations to add to the collection that my husband and I have built … like my dad, I think he enjoys the festive feelings these decorations add to our home. And, my kids both have their own Pipka Santa from the extensive Carmichael Collection.

Yes, there are more bins with Christmas items than any other holiday. Even more now that I have additional items from my parents’ attic. But, as I open the bins each holiday and place the items special to me — and now, the ones that were special to my parents — it brings them and their loving energy into my home. It creates that Holiday Feeling that makes me smile.

Whether it’s Dingy Bat at Hallowe’en, construction paper creations from my kids, or a Santa once displayed at my parents’ home and finding its place to mine, Holiday decorations create a warm, peaceful, grateful, happy feeling for me and whoever steps through my front door.

Perhaps that’s the reason Craft Fairs are so prevalent this time of year most of all. Maybe that’s why we shop and decorate. We all seek to find those special items to capture that magical feeling from childhood. And once we find it, we seek to create it in our own homes to offer the people dearest to us that same sense of warmth, peace, gratitude, and happiness.