Stickers for Everyone!

I was a great sticker collector as a kid. I had multiple sticker albums, their whereabouts I wish I knew now. It would be so fun to find them, and to see how much (or how little) stickers have changed between now and then. I don’t remember them that well but I do know that I liked to organize them by fuzzy stickers and shiny stickers. I think I liked the fuzzies better, which is interesting because now I think I prefer shinies. I used to bring my sticker albums to school and would sometimes make trades with friends.

From about aged 10 through age 23, I used stickers occasionally, but definitely not regularly. Then, one day in the fall of 2007 I was in a Target in Austin and saw some Disney Princess stickers and knew I just had to buy them. Thus my love of stickers was reignited. To my delight, I discovered in the early spring of 2010 that the Sandylion sticker company had a factory store in Markham, Ontario a two minute drive (almost directly across the street) from the Seneca campus in Markham where I worked. On the day of my students’ final in April, I went to Seneca early so that I could go to the Sandylion store. Almost three years later I feel in some ways that I have barely made a dent in the stickers I bought that day. Well, that’s not totally true. I bought some Princess Tiana stickers which I used up pretty quickly and a few other Disney stickers but those ones were in sheets. I made the mistake of buying entire rolls of stickers (though to be fair that was what was for sale) and those take a long time to get through.

I’m not surprised I bought so many that day though since I am always on the look out for stickers. The Japanese make awesome stickers, which is not surprising since as I wrote about before, Tokyo has the best stationery store I have ever seen. That store had lots of cool stickers including some of a Japanese version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (which I of course bought.) In retrospect, I should have bought more stickers but it had been less than a month since I had gone to the Sandylion factory store and so I knew I really didn’t need that many more. In June 2011, I went to New York City to hang out primarily with L. and J. The first day I was there though, I spent a really fun day with N. (who was in town for the week) doing lots of things including going to this Japanese stationery/book store and buying stickers. I bought two packs of stickers – one exclusively of panda bears (really cute!) and the other a mixture of animals. Even though I am not a huge animal lover in real life, I love animal stickers. They are so cute! I have some fuzzy green frog ones I bought at the Sandylion store that I really like too.
 

In addition to animal stickers, I also like flower stickers, especially roses. Fruit stickers are really great, especially strawberry stickers. I even stuck one on my laptop. I also have lots of heart stickers which I really enjoy too. Then of course, the most ubiquitous stickers in my current collection (no more albums for me; now they stay on their sheets or rolls until I use them) are Disney Princesses. I have both sheets with only one princess – like Snow White stickers (which will include the dwarves and the prince), Ariel stickers (which always include Flounder but actually, interestingly, never include Prince Eric) – and sheets with all the princesses.  

Prince Eric

What I have come to appreciate over the past five years in which I have continually been buying and using stickers is that stickers are absolutely not just for kids. One time when I was at Central Market in Austin, the cashier’s nametag was all decorated with stickers. I told her I really liked it and she told me that she had had to decorate her nametag cause she didn’t know what else to do with her stickers! So while stickers are definitely liked by adults and kids, I think adults have a harder time finding use for their stickers. I almost exclusively use my stickers to decorate envelopes (and occasionally postcards although I’ll usually only just put one or max two) when I send letters. I like to think that the post people find my envelopes very cheerful. I love decorating envelopes and lots of people I’ve sent sticker covered mail too have told me how much they like them. Just looking through my current sticker collection always makes very cheerful. If you haven’t used stickers in a while, go buy some. I feel confident they will add some cheer to your life too.

Christmas Decoration Ennui

As a little girl I was always so so excited for Christmas. Like most kids, I remember having difficulty falling asleep on Christmas Eve and waking up super early on Christmas morning. I loved going down the stairs to the living room where my mom had laid out all my presents. Over the past maybe 10 even 15 years, I’ve gotten less and less into Christmas. I still like it in a general way – because it’s a break, because I usually go on a holiday somewhere warm (I remember when I was little always finding it so odd that the hotels we’d visit in the Caribbean would have Christmas trees. Warm tropical weather and Christmas trees just did not go together in my mind. All the Christmas carols about winter wonderlands had permanently ingrained in my mind the idea that Christmas trees belong in cold snowy environs), because Christmas lights are very pretty – and particularly I love seeing my aunt and uncle who drive to Toronto from Annapolis just before Christmas every year. My mom also makes the most delicious and amazing linzer torte (using her secret Hungarian recipe) every year. But to be honest, I don’t have any desire to participate in Christmas decorations, trees, etc. 

I actually feel guilty for not liking Christmas more because it is important to my mom, and because in a lot of ways it’s a very nice holiday. But at the same time, I feel no attachment to trees or decorations. Over the month of December, it seemed every store or restaurant I visited in Montreal had put up Christmas decorations. D. and I were eating at Burger de Ville (such good burgers! And vanilla milkshakes! If you’re in Montreal and like those things, go there! And thanks to H. for the recommendation!) recently and as we were putting on our coats to leave, I noticed with surprise that there were Christmas decorations. I remarked on this to D. and he replied along the lines of “what do you expect?/of course they do! It’s almost Christmas!” Not only was D. right, but I had to admit that the decorations were a nice touch. I think I have to accept that I am someone who has zero desire to put up Christmas decorations, yet enjoys admiring them.

To people who love Christmas what I am about to say probably sounds awful, but while I think Christmas trees are very pretty (especially with coloured lights and lots of ornaments) I don’t think I would mind if I didn’t have one. Maybe it’s just that right now I haven’t had to actually face a Christmas without a tree because my parents always get one. Hmmm, maybe I should take back my earlier statement. Maybe I would mind if we didn’t have one. When I eventually have my own house, then I will get a tree but for now, I am content with just occasionally seeing the tree and noting its prettiness without giving it much more thought. 

I’m the same with Halloween. No desire to put up decorations or dress up and I can’t remember the last time I was involved with carving a pumpkin. Although I do still distinctly remember and actually kind of like the smell and feel of pumpkin seeds being pulled out of the pumpkin. It’s not that I don’t like holidays or celebrating – I love Valentine’s Day because I love hearts, the colours pink and red, and heart shaped cookies with pink icing. I also love birthdays! I want to celebrate my own and all my friends’ birthdays every year. So I am into holidays, I’m just not into putting up decorations.

Regardless of my opinions on trees and decorations, I agree that the December holiday season is a wonderful time of year. Whether you are into Christmas decorations or not (or even celebrate Christmas), I hope you have a very happy holiday season!