SPEAKING WITHOUT USING WORDS
Welcome to Thanksgiving On The Farm!
My favorite form of expression is to use words; but sometimes I like a change. Sometimes I try to let my house silently create the words I want to say. It is like a message to the eyes. Often this message has to do with family memories or nostalgia.
Sometimes the message can be a witness to The Gospel. It can even be both things combined together to express the ups and downs and wonders of this amazing life we live out daily here on planet earth.
These acts of “the silent messages” from which I decorate our home always turn out to be fun adventures. Creating these “seasonal messages” has turned into an interesting and passionate hobby and pursuit for me in the days of my old age.
I’m looking forward to more of these moments in time, only with less stress and more time as I get older and older and approach retirement. Maybe my ideas will last that long; I hope so.
THEME DECORATING IS LIKE PAINTING WITHOUT PAINT
What I love most about it all is the fact that these silent wordless stories can be shared with everyone without having to be too obvious and obtrusive.
If others chose to listen to the message of my heart which is continually being broadcast from the scenery of my home within each and every room on any given day, they can do so. There is always a choice. They can simply ignore the messages and simply stay to enjoy the fellowship.
Should they not like any of it; they can turn and walk away. My feelings won’t be hurt one bit.
I’ve never had that to happen though.
Most of the time the messages of the rooms just work their magic without any help. To be sure; there is never a dull moment.
One favorite technique used to accomplish this vibe of quiet, hidden messages around the house (especially on holidays) is made possible through theme decorating. When you set a theme that fits a season good conversation is easy. The conversations flow naturally and cheerfully. Good conversations are how good times begin.
LOOKING AT THIS THEME
It has become traditional here in our humble little castle to do Thanksgiving themes every year. This year will be no different….or should I say; this year WILL be different; as usual!
This Thanksgiving theme is called Thanksgiving On The Farm. It is one that might especially grab the hearts of grandmother’s across the nation. That is because it has a double value. Not only do you get to talk more with your grands about your theme; you also get to play within the theme as you speak of it.
Thanksgiving on the Farm will be filled with children’s toys that reflect life on the farm. After which; you guessed it again; the kids get the toys to take home with them.
Isn’t this exactly what grandmother’s love to do?
Most of us love spending time talking to their grands in a way that will educate them about life. We love it when we can take a lot of that time just for play and imagination and then shower those sweet children with educational and appropriate toys and gifts.
Another old fashioned element of life is reintroduced with this nostalgic theme we are calling Thanksgiving on The Farm. I speak of the element of storytelling that reveals history.
Our family has come to expect the stories of God to be told around our table and at our gatherings. This presents the challenge of what story to tell with each theme. The main story for this year will be an easy decision though.
The Good Shepherd has been patiently waiting to be told. We can set him up in the green pastures we are incorporating into our decorating themes. He won’t mind a little bit of pumpkins on the side! I’m still enthralled with the Godly Play stories even after years and years of using them. The story of The Good Shepherd fits this year’s Thanksgiving Day activities perfectly.
NO YEAR IS EVER THE SAME HERE
I love surprising our guests with themed décor. Often I include themed foods to match the themed decor.
This is just plain old-fashioned fun!
The magical part is that it doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are – your home can be anything you want it to be if you use your imagination. Why look at millionaire’s homes in the pages of magazines with longing when you can make your own home into anything your heart desires (within reason.)
My imagination happens to be pretty vast; so my home has many faces. All of them make us live a bit happier through every changing season.
I’d be willing to bet that your imagination is pretty vast too.
The IN SEASON Lifestyle would love to hear about your Thanksgiving decorating ideas. Send any photos or comments to wordcastlepublications@gmail.com and/or give us your comments at the end of this post.
We LOVE hearing from our readers.
GETTING READY FOR THANKSGIVING ON THE FARM
I’m so excited to begin the start of pulling together this year’s peek into Thanksgiving On the Farm.
Actually; this particular year may be VERY different as I am planning to stray from my usual festive fall foliage and all of the typical Thanksgiving colors. I’m going bravely out into the wild with some new reds, greens, blacks, whites, and grays this Thanksgiving. The main reason; these all seem to represent the typical colors of a traditional farmhouse. We are going to be sharing a few unusual colors for the season while using the theme of Thanksgiving on the Farm.
Don’t get me wrong. We LOVE the typical fall foliage colors of this season. Within our family outings we have actually already enjoyed many wonderful days of these colors as we first stepped into this fall season. The typical purples, reds, yellows, oranges and browns were most definitely pulled out here. We had the house decorated to the hilt for the fall season at the very start of September.
Also, all through October our home was donned in yellows, reds, browns and all the vivid colors of a pretty fall foliage. These themes actually continued through all the days of fall for this particular year, and they will last right up until Turkey Day/(excuse me)/Thanksgiving.
Then; why on earth would I even attempt to change and rearrange some of these colors right before the official ending of Fall and all during the Thanksgiving activities?
Isn’t that idea a bit crazy?
No; not at all, because this particular year I want to do a “Thanksgiving on the Farm theme.”
FARMS LEND THEMSELVES TO A RED, WHITE AND GREEN COLOR SCHEME
That means John Deere Tractor greens, little red wagon reds, and possibly even red and white checkered tablecloths. Those colors will be used along with all the blacks and whites and silver colors from farm equipment and farm elements. We also can see the soft whites that come whispering to us straight from the cotton patches of the south.
Don’t worry, there will still be browns and yellows and oranges too. My imaginary farm is very industrious. There are hens laying eggs. We will be imagining crops with bountiful harvests that have cornucopias of veggies and fruits.
Turkeys definitely grow here, along with cows and pigs and horses. We want the red barn to be center stage and all of the above will showcase itself around that particular place. There will be apple orchards. Our farm will also host a thriving dairy. Of course we will have a pumpkin patch! That patch may be the residing place for a few scarecrows.
Are you getting the picture now?
I can’t wait to see how it will come together.
LAYING OUT THE EVER-GROWING VISION OF A BUSY, WORKING FARM
This beautiful farm will be right in the midst of a harvesting season. Fall will automatically be everywhere we look.
We might also have a few yellows, tans and browns from the hay fields. There will be bright vivid reds mixed with greens from the apple orchards.
Yes; as mentioned above; a big fat colorful turkey will walk around these grounds. He will also be the one to grace the table. Our vision has become a crop growing/hen-laying/turkey-strutting/apple orchard/dairy farming/horse-loving/pumpkin patch mish-mash of color.
Let’s throw in a few Christmas tree fields too. Don’t forget that left-over cotton we will still have from the earlier harvest of our cotton patches.
Of course all of this will be a completely natural setting for our pilgrims. We will keep the traditional pilgrims in the decor for this farm. They are definitely part of the story. The pilgrims were the ones to tell us how they to grow corn. They learned the skill from the native Indians.
BRINGING PAST MEMORIES FORWARD WHILE PREPARING FOR FUTURE SEASONS TO COME
But, come on, really; why would I even think of going from the sleek/classic/modern upscale designs that are now so popular and so loved and trendy (which I usually like to display,) right into a transformation to a farmhouse traditional look for our Thanksgiving feast this year?
Because; I’m probably feeling a bit nostalgic toward memories of the farm life I had as a child. Also; I’m not yet over and done with all the fun our family recently shared with the grand-kids during The Feast of Tabernacles. We all went out to visit a working farm and had a blast.
On a more philosophical note; I’m truly worried that farms and farmers are disappearing from our culture. Any way to promote them and to stir up more “farm awareness” seems to be a good thing. Recently I went shopping in a store which offered items for people in all of the career choices of the times. They had items for doctors, nurses, teachers, policemen, lawyers, preachers and librarians. So many choices were there; but not one item for a farmer!
Are we forgetting the importance of the farmer?
I can’t participate in that. So I want to do all I can to make this a viable choice for the generation to come. Much depends on it. My grandchildren will be educated in every aspect of farming that I can display for them.
HOW TO MAKE THE TRANSITIONS
Anyway; I’ve missed these things so much that I decided to make the farm the theme for both Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities for this year. Thanksgiving will be Thanksgiving On The Farm; and Christmas will give us A Country Red-bird Christmas on The Farm.
I don’t really care who thinks I’m cheesy.
So our color scheme both times will be mostly reds, whites, grays and blacks with a little green here and there.
The modern sleek look of the house will take on a more informal, casual look.
Thanksgiving colors will transition smoothly over to those winter and Christmas scenes of my imaginary redbird Christmas farmhouse too. I won’t have to change very much at all during these two holidays. I’ll just add a few decorative elements here and there that are more date-specific.
In December the red will be MORE emphasized. When that time arrives, I will want to swap out my red winged-backed chairs in place of the black modern styled ones. This is just a simple matter of moving them all from the bedroom to the living room and vice-versa – no big deal!
PLANNING THE FOOD TO MATCH THE DECOR
The menu this year will be full of country/comfort foods.
No fancy recipes; just good old fashioned country cooking.
Despite the norms of our culture; not one bit of concern will be given to how healthy these meals are.
We will post these recipes for you in a new, separate post. So, keep looking for it to arrive.
Anticipation is half the fun and maybe our menus will fit in with a few of your festivities too.
HOLIDAYS ARE DIFFERENT FROM NORMAL DAYS
I’m really tired of all the fanatics that our current culture has bread.
It is true. I actually said those words out loud and lived.
This is Thanksgiving and Christmas guys – so get over it!
You have 364 other days of the year to diet and eat healthy. That’s what we do here. We eat healthy on the “normal” days and we celebrate a bit on the holidays.
Everyone can go right back to starving and eating only greens tomorrow.
Good grief!
FAMILY HISTORY PLAYS INTO ALL OF THIS NOSTALGIA
I’m thinking a little dairy farm emphasis might be good in honor of the fact that my grandfather owned a dairy.
Oh how sweet it would be to find some of his old milk-bottles to use in the décor! I doubt that will be possible this late in the game, but we will stick to the theme. I’ll make all the dishes casual and even use mason jars to drink from.
Do you think I could find a few galvanized tin plates? We could stamp some colorful turkey designs on them for fun. I COULD use those for coasters. Maybe my granddaughter would help me do this.
Depends of how busy our daily schedule gets.
Can someone please tell me how to make time stand still for a bit?
MORE FOODIE THOUGHTS
Our food choices this year will include a lot of milk, butter, eggs, and fresh vegetables. We won’t worry about leaving out the sugar. There will be some old fashioned casseroles included for sure.
This Thanksgiving feast COULD be spread on top of a red checkered tablecloth. I’m not so sure how far to go with that thought yet. I’ve always preferred bare furniture to covered furniture.
Time will tell that story. Maybe I could use the checkered cloth on only one table?
Still undecided…..
The dining room table may even have old-fashioned red and white checkered place-mats with napkin rings. How 70’s! I’m truly not sure about that yet either.
If it blends I’ll try it – if not I’ll move on.
However, there are still a FEW things that I’ll hesitate on; simply because I’ve moved on with the modern lifestyle too far to go back.
There aren’t too many things like that though; most everything is interchangeable with the seasons.
MOVING MORE COUNTRY INTO THE MODERN
The two white sofas will be flanked with appropriate pillows which express life in the country combined with thankfulness. There MAY be some solid red or green pillows here and there. Possibly a little burlap scattered around the rooms might also be good. There may be scattered signs that speak boldly of the aspects of daily life on the farm.
The signs could say things like “farmhouse fresh,” “dairy milk,” and “good eggs.” It will be hard to find signs on farmhouse themes that don’t speak of Christmas and Christmas tree farms during the Thanksgiving season; but I’m holding off on those at least until we actually reach the Christmas season.
A SHORT PERSONAL EXPLAINATION
Are you confused at my open unashamed celebrations of The Christmas season?
I’m sure some people that I love and care for are a bit confused.
Most people who are consciously celebrating God’s Holy Day calendar and keeping a seventh day weekly Sabbath don’t usually celebrate Christmas; and I do. I didn’t do this for about eight years; then I learned some further truths which I now base my celebrations around.
So, well – in some respects I do celebrate Christmas, but not in the same way as many others.
For me, it is all about The Conception of Christ; NOT the birth of Christ.
I think Emmanuel (Christ with us) came when Jesus entered the womb of Mary (at The Incarnation.) It is my belief that this miracle happened one year around the end of December.
A lot of my concepts from scripture tie right in with the miracles of Hanukkah (which I also celebrate during the same season as Christmas.)
For us, this is a time of celebrating Christ With Us (Emmanuel) and the fact that Christ became The Light Of The World.
We are Christians, not Jews but ironically; Christmas trees and their lights seem to tell this story of the miracles of Hanukkah without using words. The miracle was that the Great Light of the World was a prophesy of the coming of Christ.
I’m not intentionally mixing Hanukkah and Christmas; it just naturally happens when you think of Emmanuel being the greatest miracle. When you remember Christ coming to earth through the womb of a virgin, and becoming The Light Of The World, and you consider the history of God’s people who became a nation called Israel; it all flows together.
That is what I celebrate at Christmas. The rest of the season is nothing but a man-proclaimed winter festival. We gather with the family and have fun, a type of winter fellowship that honors our belief that Christ was conceived in this particular month of the calendar cycle.
I’m not sure anyone else on earth has combined their beliefs about the holy days and whether or not to combine traditions with secular holidays in quite the same way that my family has.
I certainly have not found an organized religious establishment that believes the same way on ALL of these issues and subjects. The simple truth is that I must do according to what God has shown me to do. You also have the same right. We must respect one another in love.
REMEMBERING THE BASICS
Understand too that I happily participate with every religious group that proclaims the Gospel of Christ and believes that the Church is made up of those who have God’s Holy Spirit living within them. These are the basics. Most of us can agree on these few things without any problem. Also; the greatest commandment; that of LOVE is always at the front of my thoughts and actions.
I’ve already told you in other articles of this blog that I joyfully celebrate the birth of Christ. However; I do that annually during the time of The Feast of Tabernacles.
Count nine months FORWARD from late December (when I believe The Conception of Christ took place) and you will arrive right at the time of The Feast of Tabernacles. Then you would be at the proper time of the miraculous birth of Our Savior.
This time of Conception conveniently takes place around Hanukkah when God gave the Great Miracle of the light that burned for eight days.
IT IS GOOD TO RESPECT ONE ANOTHER DURING THE HOLIDAYS
Now this is my personal take on the facts surround the conception and birth of Christ. It is a great miracle I must celebrate with all of my heart in as much truth as I can see. At the same time; I respect your right to think different. We BOTH need to be sure to follow what God shows us and we will be okay, no matter what.
Later I will clear up more facts about this particular subject (for anyone who is curious) in some upcoming posts in December; so keep watching for them.
I LOVE HOW THANKSGIVING DOESN’T PLAY INTO PAGAN WAYS
I TRY to do everything in life based on scriptures and prayerful and careful study. Thankfulness is a godly trait and for that I am thankful. This makes celebrating the holiday with the rest of the world so much easier. The pagan practices so common to ALL holidays of the world do not come forth in our celebrations at all; unless you interpret things different than what we have been shown up to this point in our journey with God.
WE ARE LOVEALISTIC HERE
For example; at Christmas time we DO use Christmas trees. It is something that many seventh-day sabbath keeping, Hebraic thinking Christ followers consider to be a pagan custom. I have an article that explains why we do not consider this a pagan practice. You may read it here: THE QUESTION ABOUT TREES – PIECES OF THE PUZZLE – PART OF A SERIES OF ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS OF CHRISTMAS
We aren’t legalistic; but we DO believe in truth and obeying the commandments of God.
Love seems to be the key factor for living a godly life.
Much emphasis based on love presides in our festivities; no matter the season. Every day of our lives we attempt to live out God’s love, mercy and grace combined with truth and obedience. The balance is so delicate that only God’s guidance can truly bring it forth.
WHY GET BOGGED DOWN IN THE DETAILS?
So why am I going into so much religious detail here?
These things are all a HUGE part of what I consider to be “The IN SEASON Lifestyle.”
It is a way of living based on II Timothy 4:2.
These scriptures are the very essence of why I write the articles of this blog. The things that make this blog community have life and meaning and purpose. I wish to pass them on and the truth always seeps out; even in decorating your home.
Funny how that happens. As I said in the beginning of this article; I like to let my home speak for who I am.
This particular season; my heart is full of thankfulness to God for the bounty of love He has given us as His Presence has been among us in every family celebration.
With those clarifications in place – let’s stay focused on our Thanksgiving theme. Thanksgiving is such a HUGE part of The IN SEASON Lifestyle. It isn’t just a holiday we enjoy. Thanksgiving is a totally committed way of life.
Why rush this time with the early details of another season?
Let’s enjoy this present moment.
THOSE ANIMALS THAT LIVE ON THE FARM
My little woodsy animals which were displayed earlier for fall and used during The Feast of Tabernacles, will now be replaced by some new whimsical farm creatures and friends.
We may even hang a red barn backdrop over one empty wall in the dining room. (Maybe I’ll use that backdrop for the family portraits this year? Could be fun!)
A few of our little creatures of the woods may just move to the outskirts of this farm scene instead of living inside the main areas and focus points of the home.
APPLES
The apple themes that are already going on will stay. They do fit in with the farm’s apple orchard. Apples are so much a part of the Thanksgiving festivities. They are harvested at the very beginning of fall and our cupboards are full of abundant apple crops.
Now we will be adding some “farm action” to those apple orchards. The fall family tree may turn into an apple tree this season.
Would I go so far as to bring some real hay bales inside the living room and dining room this year?
I might.
You never know.
MY GRANDSON LOVES TRACTORS
Be on the lookout for a few John Deer tractors in this year’s theme. I’ll give these to my three-year old grandson after all of our festivities are done. He loves anything that has wheels. The tractors will contribute to the stack of Christmas presents he will receive.
I’m so into spoiling the grands. Thanksgiving seems a great season to do this. They are only young once! So; of course; we have a Barbie horse farm included in this mix of Thanksgiving farms. I suspect it will reside on the large black coffee table so she can play with it there.
As we slide into the Christmas holidays after we have feasted through Thanksgiving; I’ll already have the basic country setting that I want to set up for a Redbird Country Christmas on the Farm. Look for that in our upcoming December themes from The House Doctor Topics.
Those green John Deere tractors will transition smoothly into all the reds come December.
RED
Folks, the star color this year is going to be red!
I don’t think I’ve ever done a RED Thanksgiving.
How un-traditional can you get?
UN-TRADITIONAL IS OKAY SOMETIMES
Yes; all of this is so un-traditional for a Thanksgiving holiday.
Yet; I think I’m going to love this year’s ideas. The “harvest” parts of the farm life WILL tie right in and seem very appropriate and traditional.
In the days to come we will be sure to share our decorating results here with you, as well as the menus for a Farmhouse Thanksgiving and A Redbird Christmas On The Farm. Photos will most likely come out in our November and December Newsletters.
A FARM IS A PLACE TO ENJOY BEING THANKFUL
The most important element of Thanksgiving will NOT be omitted or overlooked. A farm of all places is a wonderful place to learn how to be thankful.
You wake up to the sun shinning on the fields. At the farm you thank God for helping your crops to grow. Then you look out for the rain and you thank God whenever it falls.
Later in the seasons you see your table filling up with food. It is so easy to notice that your pantry is not empty. Every day, like those pilgrims of so long ago; you offer up thanks to God because when you are farming you KNOW where your help comes from.
I want the children of our family, both young and old, to know this farming experience; even if it is only in a pretend farm for one day.
We will hold hands and sing the Johnny Appleseed blessing that says “The Lord’s been good to me, and so I thank The Lord for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the apple seed!”
And so He has!
BEING THANKFUL IS THE MAIN FOCUS
All of this is about being thankful.
Can’t wait to see how it all comes together!
Hope your holiday prep turns out to be fun and exciting this year.
I sincerely pray that your family is blessed with love in abundance as you gather together in thanks around your Thanksgiving table.