If the pine needles are dropping and the branches are nearly bare, but traditionally you like to have festive decorations around the house for New Year's eve or Twelfth Night, try John van Doorn's approach: before the ornaments are packed away, place a mass of them in a striking glass bowl.
Magnaverde has added to this post a lovely comment about a Twelfth Night party his mother hosted decades ago. The event involved numerous footed compotes filled with collected ornaments. Be sure to read it. You'll want to steal the idea.Images are from Diane Dorrans Saeks' San Francisco Style (Chronicle Books, 2004). Photography by David Duncan Livingston.
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16 comments:
This is a great idea! It does help the spirit last just a bit longer. Hope your weekend is peaceful.
Hi Stacy -- I hate to see decorations come down the day after Christmas, yet it's nice to freshen things up. Glad you like the idea too.
I love this idea Courtney. I put up Holiday decor later than most. so I like to keep the festive look for awhile.
Lovely idea! We keep the tree up for a little while ... mid January! It is so festive and cheery. Then... It's back to business and planning for the New Year!
Have a wonderful weekend!
A lovely idea. We are hosting for cocktails on Saturday and I was just waffling between tree down or up.
Of course you are posting as I am still unshowered and drinking coffee. Total and complete sloth.
Karen, Ivy -- glad the idea is a hit. Enjoy the weekend!
Patricia -- I did a little planning in advance. Don't be too impressed :)
Mrs. Blandings... I think "tree up"! :)
I agree, the Blandings tree is so special. Up for New Year's Eve, then down!!
gosh, that's a brilliant idea. beautiful too : )
courtney, i've been known to leave our tree up through february 1st! silly me. hope you had / are having a wonderful christmas! -p.p.
February! Paul, you do like to enjoy your tree :)
Thanks for asking. Yes, lovely Christmas. Hope yours was too!
My mother was a warm, funny, kind & engaging woman, but not a very organized hostess, so most of her 'entertaining' (if that's even the word) was done off-the-cuff & seldom planned in advance.
But one year, when we were preparing for a February move from the tall-ceilinged Colonial Revival house where my brothers & I had grown up to a 6Os-Modern ranch in another town--a house that wouldn't accomodate our typical big trees--my parents held a Twelfth Night open house for just about everyone they'd ever known, which was only possible because half our furniture had already gone on to the new house ahead of us, leaving plenty of room for everybody to circulate.
The tree still had its lights & tinsel and her silver-painted pinecones, but the hundreds of antique ornaments that had covered our tree over the years were now stacked in a series of footed glass compotes--my mother collected them--next to a stack of brightly colored gift boxes in several sizes, and all of our guests (some of which my pragmatic-minded mother realized we'd probably never see again) were allowed to choose an ornament from the pile as a souvenir of the night & as a token of friendship, to take home & hang on their own trees the next year. It's been nearly 5O years since that party & almost 2O years since my mother died, but those ornaments still hang on the trees of some of her old friends in our old town, and I know, because I've seen them. M.
Magnaverde -- wonderful story. Just wonderful. I would love to try something like that for a post-Christmas party. What a gracious, festive and meaningful thing to do. Must have looked striking too.
Pre-blogging I used to frequent the gardenweb home forum's and Magnaverde was a frequent contributor. I downloaded several of his pics shared on the forum into my inspiration folder at the time and copied the decorating rules as he posted them. Lovely to see a comment from him. The sentiment is wonderful too, I'm sure the family friends cherish the ornaments.
I put ornaments in a silver bowl for a little cocktail party i had last night. I used dozens of small green glass-beaded balls and pears. It looked great!
Meg, so happy to hear that!
Just lovely. Thanks for sharing! Xoxo-BLC
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