I grew up in the home town of Mickey Mantle.  But I can only remember a few of my friends that had a fireplace and mantel.  We had Mantle but not mantels.

I thought about that absence of childhood mantels last week as I visited in the homes of friends and colleagues for seasonal Christmas parties.  It seemed that every home we were in this last week had Christmas stockings hanging from the mantel.  There is something very warm and homey about stockings hanging above the fireplace.  If I remember correctly, we placed our Christmas stockings under the tree in our house when I was growing up.

Today we made our family trip to pick out the Christmas tree.  And now, even as I write this post, the kids are hanging their stockings from the fireplace mantel.  On the mantel are some pictures, some nice leather-bound books, and a candle.  Above the mantel — a print of Raphael’s School of Athens.  It would be almost like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting if there was a mantle clock there to center it all.  Maybe I need to start looking at mantle clocks for potential Christmas gifts for Susan.

A clock may not be ordinarily associated with Christmas decorating, but I am sure that they are on many people’s wish list.  Tic toc you are running out of time to do your Christmas shopping so maybe you should consider one for someone you love, also.