Christmas Spirit

Halloween found me dressing-up this year. I can't say I was terribly pleased with the idea, but when your boss says dress-up, well you kind of have to dress-up.

I pondered for days trying to dream up a "good" costume. I don't own anything costumey and I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Also, because I wasn't too enamored with the whole dress-up idea, I wanted my costume to be humorous, not your typical, run-of-the-mill costume. I finally settled on concocting a stereotypical spinster, librarian costume (since I'm a librarian, you know). However, when my sisters were up visiting over the weekend, we stopped in at Target and there in the dollar section was my inspiration--a remarkably hideous, red felt covered headband with five green felt Christmas trees standing up from it (not unlike the Statue of Liberty style headpiece). A pair of socks, a t-shirt, and a felt Christmas tree pail later, I was ready to construct The Spirit of Christmas.

My co-workers aren't particularly filled with a sense of humor and the creative humorousness of my costume seemed largely lost on most of them; however, I did get a few comments from patrons, including a 10-year-old boy telling me he liked my costume, a guy effusively telling me "awesome costume", and a woman asking me where I'd bought my Santa t-shirt. So, all in all, I'd say it was a pretty good costume.

In the spirit of sharing, I'll leave you with these two photos of me modeling my Christmas Spirit, complete with a crazed Christmas Spirit smile. (If you can't tell, the back of my t-shirt says BELIEVE and beneath that is the smiling face of Santa. Socks became handmits and a deconstructed, felt Christmas pail became leg patches, both thanks to my sister Margaret's handicraft spirit.)

The creation of this costume even put me in the Christmas spirit. All week I've been wanting to listen to Christmas music. And I've been brainstorming Christmas gift ideas. Are you in the Christmas spirit?!