Christmas Surprise? or Shock?

One of the reasons I'm not always overjoyed about traveling in November, especially with a long trip as we just did, is that we return to "Holiday" preparations. I had hurriedly taken down the Halloween things before we left and then we come back and ....it's Thanksgiving!  I had put some fall things out but one of the things that was neglected at that point was getting the house really cleaned and straightened.

Our periodic cleaner had to cancel because of Hurricane Sandy and somehow there ended up being a lot of seasonal things out and about. Packing for three weeks without laundry facilities was a challenge. In any case, everything got put on hold or ignored including any thoughts of Thanksgiving when we got back and I took to my bed. Well, I'm now upright again, and of course on Black Friday our neighbors had their Christmas lights out. Sigh...

I do, however, like to get the Christmas supplies down out of the small attic storage we have and decide what goes up and what doesn't. Each year my desire for lots of any Christmas decorations diminishes a bit. I liked the cartoon recently that talked about Tier 1 decorations, Tier 2 decorations, and then Tier 3 - the tree items that really can't be identified or recognized.  Each year, my desire to put up and tree, decorate it, and then most importantly TAKE DOWN the tree withers.  From fresh cut trees, to a scrawny plastic tree of lights while we renovated, to a skinny tree that really does fit best but can still look....a bit lame. Even the trees have evolved in 10+ years, including the tree that drowned when the cellar flooded.

But yesterday, I bit the bullet and asked my husband to bring the plastic bins down and put them on our bed. That way I knew I'd have to deal with them and they'd be at a reasonable height to explore.  But what a surprise shock I had when on top of one of the bins was a Nazi flag!

This flag has been in my family since my father returned from WWII. I don't want to get rid of it because it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears from a lot of men to get that flag and all like it from flying in Germany. But over the years, it's always been...what do I do with it? The other war bits my father brought back have disappeared over time but the flag remains. I know it shall remain but ...no longer on top of the Christmas decorations!

Any suggestions for its storage location would be greatly appreciated. Out of sight perhaps but not out of mind.