The full force of Christmas is bearing down upon us. Similar to many, my family has been incredibly busy during this season, although some of the reasons are not Christmas-related.

Work, life, logistics, etc.

But some of those reasons are Christmas-related! One of the things that took up at least a little bit of time was our Christmas decoration process!

And if you are a long-term reader of this blog you know that Christmas decorating in our household means one thing…

Well, lots of things, actually. But one thing that is particularly “us.”

The Martian Kings

These little guys came into our family years ago when they were thrown in a package that our relative in the Netherlands sent us–they were little decorations from “King’s Day” over there. But in our family they quickly became known as the Martian Kings and were folded into our personal Christmas mythology.

They even feature in a full-blown Christmas special, akin to A Charlie Brown Christmas or Frosty the Snowman, which you can stream at your leisure here.

Once again they advanced and roamed through our house, along with their faithful Martian Steed (or maybe Martian Camels, the legends vary).

Unfortunately, they did not know that 2024 was a dark and unforgiving place in our household, as one of them fell afoul of one of rambunctious dogs.

Now it looks like something out of some horror movie. We’re not sure yet whether we will throw him away, or repair him, or paste the little tentacle eye onto him as a bit of nightmare fuel, or maybe give him an eyepatch.

Speaking of carnage, it’s been a bit harder to keep our house nicely decorated with Christmas cheer thanks to the latest members of our family, Banksia (Banksy) and Keiko.

They are super-cute and super-fun, but they are all super-enamored with our Christmas tree.

It’s basically a big jungle gym in our living room that is cram full of toys. And they love it.

In the process of their exploring, a bunch of decorations have been knocked out. In some cases, they’ve come flying out. We haven’t bothered to put most of them back in, so there is just this pile accumulating here.

We also haven’t bothered to put our presents under the tree this year in the days leading up to Christmas, in the assumption that the cats would rip into them.

I assume we’ll put them all out there before we open them on Christmas morning. So while that will mean the cats have free access to them, that state of affairs won’t last for long.

And to cap off the pet-induced destruction, we just got home from a Christmas Eve service at our church to find that one or both dogs tore into a gift we had left on the kitchen table for a friend of ours, which consists entirely of tea. Quite nice tea, really. Nice enough, it seems to tempt my dog beyond its self control to grab the bag, pull it through the pet-flap in our back door and spread it around the back lawn.

Way to go, dog. That’s awesome.

Oh well. Christmas is obviously a lot more than presents, decorations and pets, with all their ups and downs. It’s also family and friends and love and celebration and good news for all mankind. And so we will celebrate and enjoy, even if the decorations are half out of the tree and one of our Martian Kings has lost an eye.

Here’s hoping that whatever Christmas means for you, that you these days find you safe, secure, and full of hope and cheer.

And rest! Merry Christmas!