Honing your Holiday Decor
As a designer obsessed with creating beauty, the aftermath of ribbons, needles, flour, paper, tinsel, tape, and all the trimmings of the season can easily become a source of mayhem. Still, year after year with the scent of Thanksgiving still floating through the air, we pile into the family car in search of the perfect Christmas tree. Dusty boxes which haven't seen the light of day for eleven months emerge while the children argue about who gets to put the angel atop the tree, apple cider simmering in the distance.
Note to self: Next year it’s our son’s turn.
While switching up the decor will definitely spark an interesting conversation, I love items that can stand up to the test of time not to mention the joy that unfolds as we unearth a dusty old box and unravel the tissue paper within to reveal seasonal treasures.
This year our youngest pleaded for us to buy Christmas stockings, a tradition our family hadn't embraced as my husband and I grew up without them in our childhood homes. One look at her beaming smile as I pondered the idea was all it took for me to welcome her proposal.
Both Fig and Dove and One Kings Lane, trusted sources of mine, had several options but neither convinced me that they should author our newest addition. Neiman Marcus and Sferra Linens offered a few contenders which paired together well, though they fell short of the quintet our family required.
And then a lightbulb went off.
If year after year Anthropologie manages to pull off the perfect Christmas window, surely they would have a stocking (or five) that I’d like. Voilá!
I couldn’t locate enough coordinating stockings to round out the lot so I headed over to my local craft store in search of accessories to personalize them, my favorite being small rounds of birchwood onto which I hand-wrote initials with a calligraphy pen.
Whether your heart strings guide you toward a path of tradition, modernity or somewhere in between, follow that lead and enjoy the journey that is the spirit of the season.
It’s late…the Christmas trail I left behind in my studio can wait until morning, but the smile I saw on my daughter’s face when I pondered her idea? Hmmm, if I sign off now, I just might get another one of those!
And to all a good night.
