Some Holiday Decorations in My Home
I just love how my home looks this time of year - filled with cheerful holiday decorations.
Whether I am home or away for Christmas, I always like to decorate several rooms with festive trees, wreaths, and colorful plants from the greenhouse. This year, some of my decorations include gold and silver tabletop trees glistening with ornaments and lights, coordinating wreaths on the windows, blooming orchids, and a gorgeous burgundy amaryllis with more than a dozen flowers.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here at the farm, it’s definitely looking like winter. The deciduous trees have lost most of their leaves and the shadows cast by the fencing are longer. Shadows are the longest this time of year. Since the earth is tilted away from the sun, the sun appears lower in the sky and its light hits everything at a lower angle.
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- Here is the old corn crib and the footpath heading north flanked by the bare winter lindens.
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- Here is my Chow Chow Empress Qin on my terrace outside the kitchen. Qin loves to be outside greeting anyone who comes by. The Chow Chow can tolerate cold weather thanks to their thick, dense coats.
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- Indoors, on each of the windows in my servery we hung silver wreaths. The servery is between my sitting room and my kitchen. A servery is a room from which meals are served. Whenever I entertain, I like to use the area for serving desserts and drinks.
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- On the middle island is a gorgeous amaryllis in bloom – it adds such wonderful color to the room. I forced this amaryllis and am so happy with all the flowers that came up – 16 in all.
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- Of all flowering bulbs, amaryllis are the easiest to bring to bloom. This flower originated in South Africa and comes in many beautiful varieties. The genus Amaryllis comes from the Greek word amarysso, which means “to sparkle.” Amaryllis flowers range from four to 10 inches in size and can be either single or double in form.
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- Paphiopedilum orchids are often called lady slippers or slipper orchids because of their unique pouch-like flowers. These specimens are easily grown as houseplants and look wonderful with their striking green leaves. I love to display blooms in this servery.
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- The pouch of a slipper orchid traps insects so they are forced to climb up, collect or deposit pollen, and fertilize the flower. Slipper orchids have two fertile anthers — meaning they are diandrous. This orchid is on my coffee table in my sitting room.
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- Every year, I try to vary the holiday decorations in my home. I always use lots of trees – silver or gold in every room. And I always try to display them differently from year to year.
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- This tree, with its shimmering gold ornaments and lights, looks out onto my terrace parterre.
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- Gold nut ornaments fill the branches of this tree.
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- This wreath is on an interior window of my sitting room with my enclosed porch on the other side.
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- Orchids grow on every continent except Antarctica. They are native to the tropical regions of Asia, Australia, the Himalayas, and the Philippines. The orchid forms one of the largest families in the plant kingdom, with more than 25,000 species worldwide. The size of orchids depends on the species. They can be quite small or very large. However, every orchid flower is bilaterally symmetrical, which means it can be divided into two equal parts.
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- The key to growing these orchid plants is to keep the root systems strong and healthy. These plants have no bulbs or stems to store moisture and nutrients, so it is important to maintain their roots.
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- Here’s another wreath hung on a window looking out onto my courtyard. Wreaths originated as holiday decorations in connection with Yule, which marked the winter solstice, which was celebrated by the ancient Germanic and Scandinavian peoples. The wreaths were a symbol of spring and a promise of its return.
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- On my Brown Room mantel, large silver balls atop candleholders. Decorations can be subtle and still so festive.
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- Down below, a basket ready with firewood and starters for a cozy winter’s fire.
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- Flanking the fireplace on this table is a silver tinsel tree with Jeweled Icicle ornaments, silver figurine ornaments, and snowflakes – one used as the topper.
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- I mixed the icicle ornaments with small figurine ornaments – this one of a woman praying.
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- And on the other side, another silver tinsel tree with shiny icicles and figurines. If you haven’t yet decorated your home for the holidays, there is still some time. Decorate this weekend! And have the happiest of holidays from my family to yours.
Martha Pins
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