JOYFULLY SINGING THE BLUES AT CHRISTMAS TIME
This year our family is celebrating the holidays with a different Christmas Theme; but I wanted to share with you the details of a year in the past when we decided to have a “Blue Christmas.”
All the “blues” turned out to be so lovely and it became for us a different and unique type of decorating theme.
I loved all of our seasonal themes that year. They each had a way of overlapping and flowing into each other. It was the same year that we had enjoyed “Thanksgiving By The Sea” at our house, so we were already in a “blue” mood from using all the colors of the ocean and the sky during the Thanksgiving season. We wanted to take those happy blues right into December.
Perhaps the pleasant experiences with all of those earlier blues helped us to decide for sure that we wanted to have a “blue” Christmas.
Not just any “blue” would do – mind you; an aqua blue; about the color of the sky and the sea if they were all mixed up together; this was the choice of all the blues we could have chosen.
A STEP OUT OF THE TRADITIONAL
It all turned out to be so pretty and festive that I thought I would make this theme a permanent part of the choices we present for one of the Christmas decorating themes we typically share each year with our readers in THE HOUSE DOCTOR column of the blog.
Are you a traditionalist who shies away from anything but red and green at Christmas time? That is okay. We can get past it.
Don’t worry – we have something for you too.
We also have a “classical” Christmas theme hiding in our collection of Christmas decor ideas and we will share that one with you later.
Since our family decided to use only blue for the upstairs sections at our house, we kept the downstairs decorated in all of the traditional colors with reds and greens galore. It gave us a balance of old and new and modern and classic.
Everyone could like something.
That way – everyone was happy!
Keep reading later this month and watch for that other more-traditional article to appear. We haven’t forgotten; and we do still appreciate that old classic, traditional look very much.
Getting back to the subject though……our main focus on this particular year is blue!
I thought only a flocked tree would work with this blue color scheme. A lot of white seemed to also be in order. This being the case; we began our decorating by choosing a lovely old-fashioned flocked tree.
I DO love this flocked tree!
Also; we needed to have a blue wreath on the front door.
This was our beginning point. The whole new “blue” mood started out right inside the front door with a simple, yet elegant blue wreath.
The blue wreath underneath the brown cross which hangs right above the entry doorway just seemed to put an exclamation point on the fact that we were celebrating the time of the Conception of Christ; and/or the gift of Christ entering the earth and becoming Our Messiah.
The cross is always above our front door; it never moves, but the blue wreath accents it well as it hangs upon the white door during this season.
As you step inside the doorway your eyes will instantly fall on our mini bar which is topped with a silver and blue beaded table runner that has two beautiful wine glasses. They seem to be setting there just waiting to make a holiday toast.
The two glasses are carefully guarded by a sweet little blue and white angel.
A FAVORITE BLUE OIL PAINTING GETS USED FOR ANOTHER SEASON
If you look to the left just as you step into the foyer and before you see the stairs; you will find the same oil painting of the ocean that we used back in the summer and also in November for our theme of Thanksgiving By The Sea.
This painting is still cheerfully emanating it’s peaceful blue and white colors just as it did earlier in the year when we decorated for summer and gave the house a cozy “beach cottage” theme.
I’ve loved having this particular painting because it is so versatile. It just seems to blend with whatever theme I decide to bring to our main living areas. The soft blues and whites give out a message of peace and tranquility as one first comes into our home.
The small portable desk positioned underneath the painting (we use this desk to store commonly used household items like paper, pencils, thumbtacks, etc.) holds a pretty silver bowl with simple straight lines which contains blue and silver ornaments that sparkle and glow as one walks into the room.
Instantly you know you’ve entered a “Blue Christmas” celebration.
The theme grabs you immediately as you step inside the front door. It is cheerful and up-beat. This blue theme has been proven to make people smile and feel at ease.
There is also something so unexpectedly festive about an Aqua Blue Christmas Theme.
DO YOU BELIEVE?
Everyone knows how much I love decorating the white sofa table that sits between our living room and foyer areas. My husband makes fun of me by saying that white sofa table changes its designs like some women change their clothes. It has a different outfit for every season.
He is right. I favor this piece of furniture. It is my habit to give it extra attention simply because it is so adaptable and so much fun to decorate in different ways. Also – it is one of the first things you see when you walk inside our house.
The story of this table is almost comical when you learn it’s history. This handy piece of furniture started out as something we tried to “make do” for a piece of bedroom furniture. Then we “made it do again” for a temporary piece in the foyer until we could find “just the right piece” of furniture to go in that spot.
Guess what? The answer was right under our nose; or I should say already behind our sofa.
When this piece of furniture started out, it was an old worn-out brown dresser. My parents bought it after it had already become very used. They gave it to us for storage when we needed more storage in the girl’s bedrooms.
On a whim; I spray-painted it an antique white. Then this piece got used in lots of places at our house before it landed in the living room. We all were just hoping it would work in that last “temporary space” in the living room until we could do better. One day we wanted to purchase a proper sofa table; then we would junk this one.
As I painted the wood antique white, the idea occurred to me to paint the original gold hardware a contrasting black color. I loved the affect that one little move brought to the piece.
When the paint dried, and I placed the re-purposed dresser behind our white sofa; I knew I didn’t need to spend any more money on a new piece of furniture.
This was confirmed further when each of our children asked to have that piece of furniture going to them whenever we wrote up our will. None of the other more expensive furniture was so loved and cherished. Just this old, now black and white dresser. It had become a part of the family now.
That old dresser had found a new life.
It fit our lifestyle like an old shoe.
The simple piece (that gives me some great extra storage space) has blended into the décor of our home very well. It has added personality to our foyer every day since the first day we got brave and moved it into the spot where it now lives forever.
Christmas is one of my favorite times to make this sofa-table shine.
I use it to greet and welcome people into our home.
This year of the Blue Christmas Theme, I donned it with a light blue table-runner and topped it with a sign that has the magic word for the Christmas season; “believe.”
The gold-lettered word is in contrast to the all the silver in the room; but I think it works well that way. The contrast is interesting.
The message to “believe” just stands out more, and you begin to get into the mood of the festivities of this room the moment you first enter the foyer.
On each side of the “believe” sign I placed two white deer. They are taking a little rest from their Christmas activities and enjoying the view of our Christmas tree while they do so.
Rest peacefully little deer.
I love that you have come to visit us this season!
MAKING THE TREE BLUE
The tree sits majestically inside the long window so that it’s lights can sparkle and shine out to the people passing by.
I love the pretty blue angel that I found for the tree-topping.
Isn’t she lovely?
The tree was chosen carefully because it needed to be flocked. We also decided to use only soft white lights.
It was set in place by the window. The trimming of the tree was done with pretty blue bows and shinny silver and blue ornaments.
Of course; before any ornaments could be put onto the tree; we placed a single white dove in a very obvious place among the branches. The white dove stands for God’s Holy Spirit at work in our lives.
According to our family’s traditions, the single white dove is always the first ornament to go onto any tree in our home. This is a family tradition passed down from my husband’s family, and we have chosen to keep it always in order to initiate and direct the focus of our tree trimming time specifically for honoring God instead of any other more-worldly and/or materialistic concepts.
The white lights stand for the purity and love of Christ Who is The Light Of The World.
The year we used the Blue Christmas Theme was a year when Hanukkah coincided with the dates of Christmas. The same thing happens again in 2021.
We successfully celebrated the miracle of the great light from a Christian perspective, and we acknowledged with our lights that Christ is the Light of the Word. Naturally, our blue decorations went well with all of the Hanukkah celebrations we observed too.
The angel on top reminded us that God is in control of everything. He always has angels looking over us and watching after us. Her beautiful blue accents were reassuring and peaceful and they added grace to all of our celebrations.
COORDINATING THE WRAPPING WITH THE BLUE THEME
The tree seemed to look even prettier when the wrapping we used on the gifts underneath it coordinated with our Blue Christmas theme.
In order to accomplish this, I decided to use plain brown paper with blue bows on all of our gifts.
The plain brown color of the wrapping paper accents the other blues in the room. It lets the shinny blue ribbons highlight the presents. The presents under the tree do not distract from the blues, and it all blends nicely and looks all cheerful and comfy together.
This year the blue and white tree held many mysterious treasures underneath its branches.
The brown papered packages with blue ribbons made the room feel warm and full of love. Of course we know the greatest gifts of all are the ones you can’t see with your eyes or touch with your hands. The symbolic, touchable and visible gifts under the tree helped us to grasp the magic of the fact that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
The greatest giver of all is Christ whom we honor.
He gave his life so that we could live with God forever.
A message of hope seems to shine out from the beauty of this tree.
On the mantle I placed some blue garland around some crystal pieces and accented them with blue and silver balls.
The simplicity of these colors together gave our spirits a Christmas lift every time we walked through the room.
DISPLAYING THE ADVENT WREATH
In the year of our “blue Christmas” the large black coffee table held a blue Advent Wreath with all white candles.
Traditionally Advent Wreaths are green with three purple and one pink candle around the wreath’s circle with a large white candle placed right in the center.
Instead of using those traditional colors; we went with blue and white.
You may be surprised to learn that it is no more against the rules to change up the colors of the Advent Wreath than it is to change up the color scheme of your Christmas Tree. The function is still the same; and the messages are always there waiting to be heard and felt inside the heart; no matter the color of the wreath or the candles.
We all loved how this pretty blue wreath helped us to celebrate Christmas that year.
All of our waiting was done in lovely shades of blue and white.
The Christ Candle still stood tall and white and lifted higher than all the other candles. It gave out the same message as the “servant” candle of our Hanukkah Menorah. Actually; the candle-holder of the Hanukkah season is not called a menorah; but the proper word is “hanukkiyah.”
Whatever the technical terminology, or the symbolism we display; we know our Christian and symbolic focus will always be to represent Jesus, Immanuel – God with us, and nothing else.
The shining light of His love was so appropriately noticed in our rooms. We celebrated and displayed things symbolic of Christ around the room on Christmas morning and all of the days leading up to that day.
The main candle sits inside a crystal bowl filled up with bright blue, silver and white balls for accents.
A TOUCH OF WHIMSY
I could not leave out just ONE little Anna Lee elf.
He was my little pretend Christmas elf; the white one, and I set him right in the middle of the black coffee table to the side of the Advent Wreath.
This little fellow is so very cute!
His presence added a little whimsy to all the seriousness of the message of the wreath.
I happen to think that God loves play as much as we grown children do.
I’m sure this one cute little elf didn’t bother Him a bit; but only added a little flavor to the recipe of the rest of the Christmas décor.
A FAVORITE CHRISTMAS BOOK FULL OF SOME OF OUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS STORIES
On the other side of the large black coffee table; I placed Ann Voshkamp’s Advent book.
Have you read it?
What an amazing publication!
I’m of the opinion that each and every home across the land should be using this book during the Advent season.
I placed a large silver star on top of the book.
It seemed the most appropriate thing to do.
Do you have any favorite books that you like to display at Christmas?
Our favorite books can add rich color and beauty to our shelves and tables when we are decorating with themes. I also have a book about St. Nicholas that I love to display. I use that book when I pull out the more traditional and/or classic decorating themes of the season.
Ann Voskamp’s book comes complete with its own tree tucked inside, and there are ornaments for each day of the month which tell a story.
All of my grand-kids got one of these books that year of our “Blue Christmas.”
MAKING USE OF PRETTY BLUE CHRISTMAS PILLOWS
Both sofas were flanked with blue and white pillows.
I found a rather large pillow with some very quaint Christmas scenes of an old village in blue and white to place inside the antique white side-chair.
Next I accented that large pillow with a smaller white one which had a silver snowflake on it.
One of my fun discoveries included some cute little owls on pillows to put on the side chairs.
SETTING A CHRISTMAS BLUE TABLE
For the dining room table at our festive meals; I used my wedding china which is white with two shades of blue and tiny little accents of burgundy.
These pretty plates sat on the dining room table on top of a mix of blue and silver chargers, each topped with a large sparkly blue snow flake.
I used some light blue cloth napkins (the same napkins that I used for Thanksgiving By The Sea.)
It was nice that so many of my previously-used “blue” items were great for this new theme. Plus; I also added some cheerful little blue napkins with black and white penguins on the kitchen table (these were paper.) 
I used a silver and white beaded table runner on the dining room table. We placed a lovely blue and beige nativity scene with Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus in the center of the table.
Of course, my family has already celebrated the birth of Christ, we did that back in the Fall at The Feast of Tabernacles. On that week we too had a sukkah (or a temporary shelter with them.) By this week in December, we know they probably stayed with relatives who lived close to the temple. There is no shelter here; but it is possible they stayed in the same sukkah both times; during the feast of Tabernacles and later at The Dedication of Lights. Sometimes the temporary shelters were used for guest rooms as well as shelters for animals.
It pleases me that the baby is larger and looks older; as I know Jesus would have actually been three months old by the time of Hanukkah on that year He was born. I look at the nativity and think of Mary and Joseph and Jesus celebrating Hanukkah together during that first year of the life of Jesus on earth. The Festival of Lights would have been commemorated by all of the Jewish people of that time, and we have evidence in the scriptures of Jesus attending after He was grown.
Two pretty silver Christmas trees with tiny blue jewels in them were placed on each side of the nativity instead of the usual candles.
Inside the dining room windows I hung blue snowflakes at the end of light-blue ribbons.
Once the dining room looked enchanting; we started decorating the kitchen.
God helped with the decorating outside; as He sent us down some snow that year!
MAKING THE KITCHEN TURN BLUE FOR CHRISTMAS
For the kitchen; my main feature was The IN SEASON Family Tree.
During this season in time, the tree has a simple white nativity set setting underneath it with a lovely blue and white beaded table runner serving as a mat and making a very pretty background.
The tree is flocked with tiny little silver, blue, red and gold stars.
The sparkling stars shine down on The Holy Family.
This was the year that I wrote and first published a little story to go along with the December tree set. You may read it here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/the-little-star/.
I put a few blue wreathes at each kitchen door.
My granddaughter says they are “Frozen” doors now.
I decorated my blue corner bar stools with winter pillows and a few festive snowmen.
For the kitchen center-piece we added a large silver reindeer that holds tea candles in his antlers on top of a mirrored surface over my black glassed kitchen tabletop.
I scattered ribbons and silver and blue balls at his feet and the kitchen really took on an atmosphere of celebration.
Having the silver reindeer in the center of the table makes all the food look so elegant. I paired his majestic stance with my dark blue baking dishes and accent bowls and mixed in some silver and white smaller serving pieces as well as a few crystal dishes.
It all looked great!
Suddenly there was a blue Christmas in the kitchen.
I’m probably the only person on this planet celebrating Christmas as The Conception of Christ and mixing in a Christian Hanukkah and Advent into the season too; but because of this, I placed my Hanukkah candelabra on top of my silver serving tray and placed an antique white plate over some pretty blue glittery flowers as accents to hold it.
It turned out so pretty!
Outside the kitchen window I placed a white table cloth over the glass-topped outdoor table on the deck, then decorated it with snowmen around the two little cherubs that never leave the table.
Over the kitchen door I hung the pretty mistletoe that my daughter gave us a few years ago. It is the only green accent we used in the room; but the main part of the decoration is a crystal; so it just seemed to fit right in.
I was so excited to have that blue theme going on that year. It filled my heart with joy and wonder.
All of this beautiful winter décor just helps to get me into a happy, festive mood and keeps me smiling all through the holidays!