OK, so NOW I will start decorating for Christmas. Mostly I want light and a balance of peace and pattern as far as the eye can see.
I think I planned the table first. I have pined after new salad plates for ages, as I’m rough on our red and white Cornishware. Many chips tell the story; Replacements Ltd. to the rescue. Does everyone know about them? They sell used-but-excellent-condition tableware, and now I’m the proud new owner of 6 red Fiestaware and 6 different mostly red, approximately holiday-themed, salad plates. Great customer service, by the way.
Festive ‘R Us! (yes, that’s a rug in the background. expeditious for photos on a Saturday morning, innit?) The cream dinner plates with a gold band were my parents’ Lenox wedding china.
Given resultant brouhaha of these eating surfaces, I’m thinking plain white linen tablecloth and napkins, a simple cedar swag (that I will make myself by foraging in my backyard and then cackling as I try to twist floral wire) ornamented with green raffia and fairy lights on copper wire, accompanied by as many inexpensive crackly gold glass votives as I can nestle in there without starting a fire.
My Christmas tree will look like this, or this, or this, as it always has and always does.
Oh and I bought a new tree skirt.
Big enough for a 6-7 footer, peaceful, and, extra bonus points, not yet covered with the sap of a small brave pine far from home. I have no doubt those marks will come in time. If you have Christmas decor you’re especially happy about, please feel free to share as more than once people tell me that the commenters here are treasure and I agree.
By the way, if a garland of enormous fake poinsettia flowers somehow appears above our study door, lit with yet more fairy lights, well, peace comes in many forms. May it some day soon prevail on earth.
Have a wonderful weekend.
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18 Responses
As someone who sometimes doesn’t get the dishes out until the day of the dinner I think knocking off what your table will look like early on is probably a good way to have a nicer looking table. I like your dishes very much.
I’m always buying paper napkins and dessert plates, I should look right now and see where the Christmas ones I know I have are hiding.
Well, there are all kinds of preparing. I say that locating those paper plates is just as beautiful and useful as laying china out on a floor;) Thank you!
“By the way, if a garland of enormous fake poinsettia flowers somehow appears above our study door, lit with yet more fairy lights, well, peace comes in many forms.”
Where the heck is this garland of faux poinsettias of which you speak? I have looked and looked. Moreover who, pray, did NOT have the same Lenox gold band dishes on their then-registry? I know I did.
Do you already have your linen tablecloth and napkins? I see lots available online, though I’ll never shop Amazon again. Ever.
Big fan of @sferralinens though, myself.
Cheers Lisa! zozo
So, I have made the same mistake as when I originally posted about this over-the-top garland. I bought it at Pier One, and apparently it’s supposed to be amaryllis! I suspect a solid majority of wedding china receivers got this pattern;). And yes, I have a linen tablecloth and napkins that I bought 25 years ago at Neiman Marcus and I have no idea who made them! Cheers back at you, Flo! I bet your house is gorgeous all decked out, and every day too, and I salute you for avoiding Amazon.
I love that merry medley of tableware! Generally, I give some casual thought to how the table will look and it is different each year. Am going native wildlife this year, and more muted shades which reminds me: buy more candles. My tree won’t go up for a good while but in the night we had lots of snow, so I know that everything will look glorious outside and a lot of people in the village have now put up their lights and trees are appearing. A festive stomp calls.
Our tree from the farm is up and once again our marriage survived the process of getting it straight in its stand. This is always a major accomplishment! It’s partially decorated by the 6 yo grandson and maybe the 14 yo will finish trimming the tree…or not. The candles are in the windows and the lights are on the boxwoods outside. Everything will eventually get done. At least the Christmas cards are in the mail! The older I get the less holiday decorating I want to do. I’m happy to enjoy someone else’s holiday decorations. Your salad plates are lovely. Have a happy Christmas, Lisa!
I love your mixture of plates. And I’ve been having a “thing” for red and white, long before Christmas season.
Beautiful tree skirt too.
Thank you! And how is it that our color urges so often line up?!?!?!
LOVE the plates…especially the center one, which strongly resembles the 18th C. “Famille Rose” china my grandmother collected.
I will also note that Truman Capote once described poinsettias as “the Robert Goulet of Botany.”
I’m all about Christmas lights these days, really… I buy Frasier Fir boughs instead of a real tree, plunk them in vases full of water, and burn pine-y smelling candles in an effort to capture whatever scent Frasiers still have (not much). (Lafco’s eucalyptus candle is outstanding).
Our Christmas trees used to smell wonderful when I was a kid. Not any more. Even Balsams, which are not sold in Western Pennsylvania, don’t really have much of a scent. For that, you need to go to the Maine woods in July…
The Robert Goulet of Botany LOLOLOLOL! The china is a discontinued Noritake pattern called “Nanking,” so nothing so special as your grandmother’s collection which must have been something to see. I love the idea of branches all about, and candles. Funny you mention it, we got our tree today and it has no scent. What happened?
Or to Manhattan, NY a day or two after Thanksgiving when the Maine trees arrive in Manhattan Valley and the Upper West Side to be supported by the skeleton wood structures newly built on the sidewalks. Some of the same tree keepers and/or growers are there every year.
Start sniffing as you walk by or between the bound trees and those freed and in stands. If it’s nighttime, stroll a little longer and look up at the tall buildings with lighted trees in the windows and strung across the balcony railings. Happy Hannukah and Merry Christmas to you all!
I love Replacements Ltd. and I think they are an excellent company. All the used items they sell are in perfect condition–unless they say otherwise. And yes, their customer service is very very good. I have purchased quite a lot from them over the years and have always been happy.
I do love your tree skirt–very elegant!
I am not an obsessive tablescape planner, but I always find it fun.
Ah, I was wondering if you knew of them, and am glad to hear you vouch for the quality! I agree, tables are fun. But I don’t have the obsessive gene for tables capes either, I think, if it’s a fun impulse/project I will dive in but otherwise not so much.
I have two items coming from Replacements right now. They have been shipped. One is a glass berry bowl to replace one in a set of six that got broken. It’s the Bee design from La Roche. They are only sold in sets, so Replacements is a huge help. The other item is a glass butter dish (round) in the same pattern. The sites that sell it new are sold out. I added it to my order to make the shipping charge worthwhile.
I love your Christmas plates and tree skirt! So cheerful. I’ve been feeling so bad since this summer and haven’t been commenting much. The holiday spirit was seeming pretty elusive, too, but maybe I’m ready to think about decorating after reading your post. Thanks for the brightness, as always. I hope you’re having a lovely weekend!
I’m so sorry you’ve been feeling bad. It’s been such a hard time for so long, too. And I hope your brightness grows, and grows, and grows.
I love the mix of plates! Planning early is good. I hoping to get a tree up this year, and am excited about it after having to miss a couple of years. Probably won’t be til mid December though due travel
Have had recent very good experience with Replacements filling out my daughter’s every day dishes prior to her wedding which, though not til spring, has allowed me to give myself permission to “dial back” re all the decor I usually pull out this time of year. But the last live tree we will enjoy after a 40-year run, the usually dense Fraser fir, is, as mentioned, not nearly as fragrant and now more expensive than ever. Its slow decline of holiday bang for the buck has coincided with my increase in discomfort at crawling under it to ensure it has water over that same 40-year period. Guessing these two lines intersect on a graph somewhere around the turn of the century. LOL.
That said, the tree will be beautiful regardless due to the hundred plus unique ornaments lovingly placed on its branches. The oldest of these treasures were gifted 41 years ago this very week at an ornament shower given us by dear family and friends who are fondly remembered throughout the season. And that I must say is a gift that never fails to keep on giving.
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