We love seasonal decorating around here; especially when it comes to Christmas.
So far The IN SEASON Lifestyle has shared a blue Christmas, a navy blue Christmas, a white Christmas, a redbird Christmas and a Classic/Traditional Christmas. Each year after Christmas we have featured how we transitioned back into real-life ordinary time without losing too much of the warmth of the holiday season.
This year we are going green!
GOING GREEN IN 2021
Green is a color that was very common during the 1970’s when I was just beginning to notice anything at all about decorating trends. There was so much green and gold for so long that most of us old hippy flower-children of that by-gone era never wanted to see those colors again.
Perhaps those old memories are why I’ve waited so long to approach even considering green as my theme color for Christmas. I was afraid of creating an avocado and gold nightmare and being called the Grinch from Christmas Past.
At least the deep, dark forest green color is a slight change from the avocado greens of the 70’s. However; my grown children seem to be fascinated with all the retro looks anyway.
I’m going to be brave and pick green this year.
Have you noticed that no one ever just focuses on JUST dark green?
There are greens that are used often for sure, but they are always combined with other colors. It took awhile to swallow the green-pill here; but I finally decided to make green the MAIN color for this season of our home; and I’m very happy that I made that decision now.
It all turned out to be pretty glorious, despite my hesitations.
I have used some gold and red here and there; I’ll admit.
However; the main focus has remained to be only green.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER
One decorating trick I accidently stumbled into long ago (which works well at our house) is that I keep extra sets of living room curtains of different colors and patterns for the two long windows in the living room.
That way I can change color themes whenever I want.
Drapery either adds or distracts and I want to add to the deep greens this time.
Changing those curtains to fit my color schemes really helps to pull together my visions for decorating for all of the colorful and changing seasons of life at home.
Here is a photo of the room BEFORE we went green with the curtains. You can see in the other photos that the green velvet draperies really made a difference. I noticed it a lot when I was setting up this pretty little rocker that I always put out for the youngest grand child to sit and read. The book is “It’s A Wonderful Life” and it is OLD as dirt. Everyone has gone through this book and it is good for many more years to come.
One strange character trait about myself that I’m pretty embarrassed to admit is that I would rather go without food than have the wrong color in my windows. It is one of life’s little luxuries that I never say “no” to.
To solve the blue drapes being a distraction, this year I bought some pretty green velvet drapes. It just added more fun to my ever-growing window dressing collection. I think we have five or six color changes so far.
I love how they set off the other greens that were used.
The tree is already the perfect color green, and the white flocking helps to make that stand out.
DECORATING THE TREE
I used gold and green ribbons to decorate the tree. Some might associate the gold and green with the feeling of richness. Maybe these colors will help us to temporarily forget the rising cost of inflation that seems to be sweeping the nation. I would love for those thoughts to go away.
It is Christmas and miracles DO happen. Which reminds me to remind you to keep watching the blog for all of those “glorious impossible” articles that we like to bring out at the end of December. I’m sure we will find more “glorious impossibles’ waiting under this lovely tree!
The green net-styled ribbon gave the tree an iridescent look which I was seeking. Iridescent colors help us to dream bigger dreams; and that is surely what we need to do this next year.
Do you like the old fashioned ornaments that I’ve mixed in here and there? Each one has a special meaning.
During the Thanksgiving season I set up our downstairs tree (not shown here) and asked my grands to help me decorate it with all of the traditional family ornaments we have collected over the years. I love to see if they can remember who gave whom what ornament when, and want to hear them repeat the old family stories that we tell about each ornament every year when it gets hung on the tree. One day I will pass all of these on to them.
This year I was very pre-occupied in the kitchen cooking our Thanksgiving turkey during this time that the kids were downstairs decorating the den tree and watching the Macy’s Parade. Our daughter and my husband supervised their decorating activities for me, and afterward as I was admiring the beautiful job they did; I saw that they had left the ornaments they knew would be most special to me for me to hang myself.
How sweet!
The living room tree is usually more formal. Usually I do not use any type of ornaments; only colored balls and ribbons. This year the beautiful children in my life (and the problems with UPS) changed my mind. Children have a way of making that happen often. I’m very glad they have this talent because it isn’t good to be very un-flexible and stiff and unchanging in your old age. The sure cure is to have grandchildren to remind you how to act.
At any rate, some of the ornaments I ordered for the upstairs GREEN-themed tree did not arrive in the mail as planned. I decided to put my favorite traditional ornaments on that tree too. Now we have TWO trees full of memories. I’ll have to move the pickle we hunt for to determine who opens gifts first from the downstairs tree to the upstairs tree. They just THINK they know how to find it! LOL.
So it seems that we have a little old-fashioned ornament theme going on with the upstairs green-flocked tree.
I’ve also added some Old World Santa’s that my Mother passed down to us. (You know I think of St. Nicholas when everyone else is saying Santa Clause, so I’ve renamed the figures now after the appropriate Saint so no one ever has to stop believing here. St. Nicholas WAS real. Just read your history books.)
THE ADVENT WREATH
The tree was the main thing about the whole room, but also I love how the Advent Wreath came together on my black coffee table.
I used a flocked green wreath and bought four green taper candles, then let the large candle in the center be a candle that is shaped like a Christmas tree.
By adding some shinny green balls in the middle and some pretty ribbons; the Advent Wreath turned out to be lovely.
THE STOCKINGS
We put some simple, but pretty green stockings on the mantle, trimmed in the faintest bits of gold and white then off-set the gold in the stockings and the tree with some gold and green Christmas trees scattered here and there around the room. One gold tree on the end table between the two green chairs and two light green felt trees are on the dinning room table.
A FESTIVE DINING ROOM TABLE
I have some snowmen plates I bought years ago that have a lot of green in them. They seemed to blend beautifully with my green theme, so I used them for the place settings in the dinning room. The red coasters I used the year we had a red bird Christmas (and also for Pentecost) framed all that green in a lovely way.
A simple silver dish holds some shinny green balls in the middle of the table. We placed a large green candle at each end of the table. My fancy candle holders this year are martini glasses turned upside down. Don’t you love it when you can get creative with what you already have on hand?
My Mother also passed down some dark green tea glasses which her family had collected from grocery products back in the 1950’s. If you bought flour, you got one glass each time. They must have used at least 10 sacks of flour that year, which means they would have done a LOT of Christmas baking. My Mom passed these lovely glasses on to me. I absolutely love using them whenever I get the opportunity.
They look lovely with all of this glorious green!
I’m so pleased to add these favorite glasses to our Christmas table this year.
THE DOOR SAYS WELCOME IN
There is a wreath that coordinates with our Advent wreath, which I hung on the front door. I added some green and white ribbon to spruce it up a bit, and I loved seeing all of those colors come together so nicely.
The cross stays above our front door for every season and every day. We know that is why we have been given this time for celebration; because the cross made every miracle possible.
I also put a pretty bow on the stair posts in the foyer hall and wrapped the rails around the staircase with greenery.
On the other side of the door as you enter we have a few bottles of wine and some pretty wine glasses for celebrating the season. There is another old-world Santa and another pretty gold tree.
We have scattered pretty green pillows all around the room, and added green and beige throw-rugs for warmth.
FUN IN THE KITCHEN
The kitchen has another old world Santa in the center of the table. He is surrounded by a pretty red cranberry arrangement and some candles and ribbons that match our color schemes. I will scatter cookies and candy around him on Christmas Eve adding even more color, and we will light some candles scattered here and there within this table arrangement.
The IN SEASON Family Tree is still around.
How could we go through a season without it?
It resides in the kitchen window holding the star over the creche, and it also is holding our Christmas cards as they arrive. I love the new figurines we added this year of The Holy Family, but Joseph’s head got broken when we pulled it out of the very tightly fitting packaging. I will find some superglue and repair him soon. Joseph was so important in this story, but he seems to have a hard time at our house. We lost him last year and nearly never found him! Men have so much uniqueness to add to the raising of a child. Joseph must be honored properly and I’m working on it as fast as I can. Close your eyes and imagine him standing next to Mary. He WILL be there before Christmas. (You KNOW that Jesus is 3 months old by Christmas right?)
My granddaughter loved the old nativity set we have always used. It is a bit bruised and used now because she loved it a bit too much. I’m planning on giving it to her this year. It is set up in her room at our house for now along with her pink tree, which I’m going to let her decorate on Christmas Eve.
Thanks to my good friend Virginia; who sent the first Christmas card for our tree. I hope there will be more soon. We really should not give up sending out those beautiful cards just because we can use e-mail now. I love the old-fashioned ways of communicating at Christmas.
The golden angel is watching over our wise men. She has a very important job!
The two bookshelves in my kitchen area hold my favorite books and cookbooks. They are now the residence of our Hanukkah Menorah, and our Advent calendar. I’m going to retrieve my Godly Play Holy Family set in the days to come and add them to the shelf holding the Advent calendar drawers. It did not get into the pictures here, but you will see it in our December Newsletter pics for sure.
There are lots of fun things to do in our kitchen this year!
We are reading seasonal reminders and lighting candles all through December, not to mention the delicious baking that is going on all month. Some of our gifts are going to be edible.
This cheerful snowman wreath brightens up the pantry doorway and a lovely cranberry colored wreath decorates the back door.
JUST ADD LOVE AND YOUR FAVORITE PEOPLE
So there you have our vision of a glorious green Christmas.
I can’t wait to see it all in action, and I’m very busy this week planning a special menu for Christmas Eve dinner with our Adult kids and grands, and a Christmas Eve brunch with my Mom.
If you want to know what recipes we will be using; just keep watching our MONDAY MENUS topics; and I will do my best to post. I think we found some great recipes this year. Hope I can cook them to perfection.
I’m also busy making some really unique gifts. Wish I could share here; but then I would be giving the secrets away! I’ll take pics after I give them away and post for you all to share next year.
Hope your holidays are all merry and bright and full of God’s love.
God bless you every one!