Photo courtesy of Roger’s Gardens in Corona Del Mar, CA
It’s time to put away the 67 lbs. of Halloween candy we thought it necessary to have on hand for the four Trick or Treaters that showed up. Time to toss the pumpkins into the composting bin. Time to rake up the last of the leaves.
It’s time to think about Christmas.
Oh I know Thanksgiving is in there somewhere but to be perfectly honest Thanksgiving has never been a holiday I could get totally enthused about. Yes it’s nice having the fellowship of family and friends at the same food laden table and it’s nice to have a couple of days off in order to prepare for said table and to clean up afterwards. To me it’s just not a decorating holiday. I’m rapidly getting over the Fall decorations I have up and to be honest I’m not interested in bedecking my house with pilgrims and turkeys. I’m ready to move on to more sparkly fare.
I’m not actually going to start putting out glittery snowmen or Christmas wreaths just yet. No, what I want to do is to first come up with a decorating plan and strategy. What will this year’s theme be? What mood am I going for? Does the Container Store have their holiday wrap in yet or what?
I always do two Christmas trees. Since I tend to, ahem, rush things I have a tall, slender faux tree that I set up in my entryway right after Thanksgiving (See? Those couple of days off do come in handy). This is referred to as the auxillary tree and is generally my theme tree. One year it was all silver, white and icy blue. The next it was festooned with bird ornaments. This year I’m thinking either silver, ivory and touches of tarnished gold or going with a more retro red, white and light green.
Then mid-December we put up a real tree. This tree’s look doesn’t vary from year to year. It has colored lights and brightly colored ornaments. Every year I buy a new Radko ornament and similar looking (but less expensive) to add to my collection. I like the traditional (well our tradition anyway) look of this tree. Everything all sparkly and colorful and kind of magical looking. One of my very favorite feelings is the one I have when I have it all decorated and I light a fire in the fireplace and the only light is coming from the tree itself. I cozy up on the couch and just gaze at it. I love that.
I also have mantels to decorate. We are lucky enough to have two fireplaces so I get to have twice the fun there. Last year a local decorating store was blowing out their stock of Mark Roberts Christmas Fairies and I bought six or seven of them. So they will grace my living room mantel where I want a more opulent look. I need to get garlands and sparkly lights to round it out.
For the bedroom fireplace I think I want to do a simple display of Mercury glass candlesticks and ivory colored candles.
Now for the outside. Every year we drive past a house that has every possible tree and shrub covered in white fairy lights. It’s positively breathtaking. Each year I tell Rick that the husband that lives there must love his wife very much. Rick just rolls his eyes and changes the subject. I can’t get him onboard with my Winter Wonderland theme. Two years ago I nearly killed myself trying to put lights on a large oak tree on our property. Then after Christmas I tried to take them down and they got impossibly tangled so they are still hanging there, half on and half off the tree. I’m going to have to rent a cherry picker to get them down.
Well it looks like the Container Store has the holiday wrap available online – I may just have to take a drive over to our local brick and mortar one and see how they are coming along.