Christmas Decorations

I have been very pleased with my attempts at decorating my front room this year. They have turned out better than I hoped. I have a go at things and have a clear picture in my mind's eye as to how I would like things to be but sometimes things go wrong and not quite how I really want them, but hey thats all part of the learning curve. Next time round because have made before they usually come even better.

Unusually this year I have not bought or made any Christmas decorations at all. I usually make some or buy some new ones. Unfortunately for my family I am a bit nuts about Christmas - but then for me it is the most important festival I celebrate during the year as it is about family and extended family and all my efforts throughtout the year usually culminate in the Christmas celebrations. I feel very much the seasons but feel disconnected from the land yet these customs and traditions give us all something to look forward to and give some shape and form and reason to who we are whether it be the Easter Celebrations, or Christmas or Yule. We create our own traditions and customs and we all at the end of the day learn off each other.

During the year I make lots of preserves and freeze stuff and bottle things throughout the year - a portion of whatever I make is usually put up for the Christmas celebrations so that the Chef has the maximum choice of what she wants to cook over this period. I am all for seasonal cooking but during the winter months I like to bring a touch of spring or summer back onto the menu whether that be in the form of eldeflower syrup from which elderflower water ice and elderflower ice cream can be served with meringues with a gooseberry and elderflower compote. Very Yummy.

Anyway, I am getting side-tracked back to the decorations. We had quite a performance locating my Christmas Decorations which are in storage with other items. We obtained as many of the decorations that we could we collected them on the first real day of bad snow and ice and had to make three or four collections as other half did not have much room in the van and the roads were treacherous. Silly as it is I was rather put out as I have a lovely collection of German wooden decorations i.e. nutcrackers, which have music boxes in them as well as wooden candle powered moving nativity decorations of different sizes which look wonderful on the table in the dark. They are powered by the candles. I couldn't locate them - I got stressed as I always have them out - and OH and I ended up having words in the process. In the end I had to do without them, but then again the decorations I did get out held some surprises as I hadn't remembered that I had bought them.

My fascination with Christmas decoration started as a child as a great deal was made of decorating our tree with each precious decoration wrapped up in tissue paper and then reverently bought out each year, then re- wrapped for use in the following year and so on. But it was always the Christmas Fairy/Angel that caught my attention.

Since having my own home I have gone on to collect precious ornaments, such as my Thomas Pacconi Glass Christmas decorations and my china angels, but equally my home made spice balls wooden cut shapes and hand beaded decorations all have their place in my heart and on my tree.

As a little girl I always wanted a Musical Christmas water globe and never acquired one. However I now have quite a collection of these fascinating ornaments which all started with me telling my step-son that it is something that I always wanted and had never acquired.Subsequently he bought me one out of his first wage packet for my Christmas present. That ornament is much cherished. I love music boxes. I just wish I had the house to show all the decorations off to their full potential and all together. But hey, one day as my dear father used to say. Everything has a time and a reason and a season and I am so lucky compared to most. I count my blessings.

I enclose some photos for you to peek at.

My Christmas Angel on top of my tree

My fireplace - please excuse the Gas Fire it doesn't work and is an eyesore and rather ugly.



My tree





Some of my decorations including my hand beaded baubles and other hand made decorations.





Some of my Thomas Pacconi glass baubles


Some of my Music Box Decorations
One of my collection of china winged angel christmas decorations


Some of my Snow Globes


One of my book cases.

Won't be long before they will all have to come down and then after being so colourful it takes some sign to adjust to the lack of decorations. Will probably do this forthcoming Saturday so that OH can take them and put them back into storage.

Catch you all again soon.