Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

December 9, 2008

Most years, Christmas rushes up on me and, before I know it, it’s almost here before I’ve even had a chance to get ready. So there I am, hauling out the stockings, the ornaments, and decorating the tree on the 22nd of December. Did I mention the cookies? Just about when I’ve dug through the kitchen drawer containing culinary miscellanea to lay my hands on the Christmas cookie cutters, the Big Day has come and gone.

This year, my house is awash in Christmas magic, and it’s not even the 10th of the month! The tree is up and decorated. I’ve bought and wrapped my presents (it was easier because there are so few this year). In celebration of the new paperback, 10th anniversary edition of my Christmas book, “Christmas on Jane Street,” my house is adorned with nutcrackers — one that’s mine and several borrowed from my friend Cathy Stevens. Big shiny nutcrackers preside over Henry’s room, the foyer, and the grand soldierman rules from his perch on the mantel.

How did this happen? Did I stumble onto a block of free time? Quite simple, actually. Last year, I said yes. Yes to an invitation from Betty Wright, head of the Mount Airy Restoration Foundation, whose group saves old historic homes. When Betty asked me to put my recently “greenovated” Sunflower house on the twenty-third Christmas Holiday House Tour (which is also the foundation’s major fundraiser of the year), I could hardly refuse.

So last week I was sweating, while I was scrubbing, polishing, vacuuming and mopping. Putting away clutter and hauling out shiny things. Cathy gave outstanding advice (you need a wreath on the door and three pointsettias — two for your front-porch planters and one for the coffee table). She overcame her sinus infection and brought over some extra things to add to the display. My directionally challenged sister Jane magnanimously made the drive from Great Falls, Virginia, to help out. Jane proved to be indispensible. She not only helped vacuum and sweep, made signs and directed traffic, but she set up a post at the front door to sell tickets and give an overview of the home for each of the 500 plus visitors who streamed through the house. And there was Mother, who lasted the entire two-day stretch in her post in the bedroom wing — explaining about hemp window treatments and the vintage tablecloth that serves as my bedspread — with nary a complaint.

We told the story of the Sunflower House and its green remodel — concepts that you can stick with not just during the holidays but throughout the year: NCFI’s closed cell spray foam insulation in the igloo-like attic that saves energy and creates comfort, the local salt and pepper granite from the North Carolina Granite Corporation (our local granite quarry), and the amazing dual-flush commodes made by Caroma. People sparked to my mother’s 1960s novelty skirt, repurposed as kitchen curtains, and liked to answer trivia questions, such as, what’s the one element in the hall bathroom that is original to the 1956 house? (Answer: the cast iron bathtub!) Many visitors remarked about the loveliness of our Charlie Brown tree, waxing nostalgic about the days when they cut their misshapen trees from a country field rather than buying a picture-perfect, pruned farm-grown tree. Others loved hearing Henry play “Jingle Bells” on the piano, which he did to welcome each new party into the house.

Now that the house is decorated, I can turn my attention to the meaning of it all, with the special urgency of simple living this year in our time of economic crisis. I can also look forward to meeting more folk this coming Friday when I sign copies of my Christmas book, “Christmas on Jane Street,” from 3 to 4 p.m. at Pages Bookstore in Mount Airy. The book — written about and with Vermont Christmas tree salesman Billy Romp — was published 10 years ago by William Morrow, and is now out in paperback from HarperCollins. USA Today called the book, “a cross between ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and ‘A Christmas Carol.’ “ This year, I can actually enjoy those accolades, in addition to admiring the hand-painted tin can Santa that dangles from the tree.