The beautiful tablescape in this month's Martha Stewart Living magazine that had Joni hyperventilating.Join us at Skirted Roundtable this week as we fumble our way around the topic of holiday decorating with an emphasis on the fall season now upon us. We three are no experts as you will soon learn - it's lots of laughs as we talk about Linda's gilded walnuts and shrunken cranberries and Megan's Christmas tree named Ramona. Poor Joni is left out in cold with a few Radko dreidels. Join in the fun and leave us a comment of what you do about holiday decorating - we can use some new ideas, that's for sure!!
We all thought this was a gorgeous way to decorate a fall mantel.
Joni's big idea for fall decorating, taken straight from Martha Stewart: put yellow food coloring in apothecary jars.
Comments
I've always thought that the shelter mags (or now, blogs) should have a feature on SEASONAL decorating. I figure that since I bring in seasonal flowers in the spring and summer, I could do so for autumn and winter without the fear of having xmas overtones.
In Victoria magazine (during its first publishing run a decade ago) they featured this parlor decorated for summer by draping mosquito netting around the chandelier and slipcovering the furniture in white. So I'm thinking that for winter out come the cashmere blankets to drape across the couch, oodles of candles to compensate for the long evenings, fresh pinecones in bowls....
I wish someone with more talent than I could take this idea and expand upon it!
And by the way. Joni is correct, of course. You do not decorate for Hannuka. We go to a Hannuka party every year at our neighbors...the best atmostpheric enhancement is the brisket, which is so tender it literally melts in your mouth....
-EM
xo Lidy
Every year as the holidays approach, I decide, ONCE AGAIN, that "less" really IS "more". I ADORE SIMPLICITY then, IF I can DO it!!!~~~ Memories of a beautiful childhood, Christmas's past, family no longer here, new friends and new young family members who ARE, make me yearn to somehow "relive" those happy times, tho, and I end up spending days upon days trying to "make memories"... I am just COMPELLED it seems, to open soooo many boxes of "joy"!
We all, THANKFULLY, have our very OWN, dear, special memories in lives, and I believe they can be celebrated, at ANY time of the year, if we let our hearts lead us there. It doesn't just HAVE to be during the holidays, tho~
Like so many, I love "the season" & look forward to it all (& DESPITE allllll the work, I l-o-v-e DOING it all!), and our Jewish friends are ALWAYS invited to any & every function we host~~~ and they usually come, too!
ENJOY whatever makes your hearts, and those of your family and friends, "SING"!!!
Love and thanks,
Linda in AZ *
I was so sick of our tired Christmas decorations I now do a peacock themed tree and tabletop including silver peacock napkin holders. It makes it more fun to set up. Those same twinkly lights outside at Halloween are there at Christmas.
Frankly, I'm glad when it's all over.
I agree with the comment above re: changing out things with the seasons rather than just a "day" i.e. Christmas, Halloween etc. and making changes for Autumn and Winter with throws, pillows, slipcovers, floral arrangements etc. It's a good chance to change things around a bit and freshen up the room. Put some things away for a bit of a rest and bring some things out. Otherwise you stop 'seeing' what is in front of you.
I weep when I see the Halloween stuff at Kroger. In the urban environment I live in, Halloween decorating is not to be believed.
I do enjoy the tree competitions, for Christmas festivals.
I'm always on a quest to find homes with religious themed outdoor decorations. Alas, there are almost none.
I presume y'all have the upside down decorated trees in your neck of the wood: so wrong it's right.
I loved this discussion! I went to Michael's the other day for my daughter to get art supplies and wanted to cry/throw up at the site of all the silk mums and other hideous flowers!!! And, even more tragic were the many people in line buying them. I would LOVE for you all to comment on your feelings about these as well as your readers.
Tina Ramer
I wrote a post yesterday about not feeling fall and updated it with a link to your podcast today. So gald I listened. I don't feel so alone anymore!
Ornament exchange? C'mon that sounds like a pink elephant exchange. Plus, I can't tell you how many ornaments I've gotten over the years (I swear everyone knows I don't celebrate Christmas) and yet I get them anyway. So please please no more ornaments for me--any suggestions for not getting them??
Joni-- perhaps it is all my years working in hospitals but the jars look like specimens floating in pee -which is a hoot and a real conversation starter IMHO. By the way I totally agree with you -keep the lights up during the winter.
Gilded walnuts -are they like brass balls?? ;-)
Susan
First: I hate how commercially stuff for future holidays goes in shops literally 3 month before the actual date! It kills the waiting for such days, the mood and I am fed up with it way before the time comes for decorating.
We do some decorating for Halloween, but it usually stays only for a week, not much to begin with, but my kids love some stuff.
Some mums in pretty pots and a pumpkin or two. But it's more about autumn.
My entrance looks nice like that. I do not plant it...
Christmas is different. I like it not too xmas-y, usually no theme, like all white or the likes. We love our real tree, all our collected beautiful glas ornaments and we make it pretty German/Polish traditional. I do love to decorate with natural elements. And candles and scent is so importent to me. Anyway, it is so fun to hear all your opinions, hilarious!
Thank you all!
Megan, my mom did the same thing for me growing up & by the time I got my first apt out of college I had a tree full or ornaments that were so special to me. I remember every one of them & still get excteid explaining them to my husband (who thinks our tree looks ridiculous.) I would love one of those beautiful picture-perfect trees one year but I'm really attached to all of my childhood ornaments & plan on doing the same thing for our kids..
As for Fall... I love pupkins & gourds... all colors & all shapes. We already have a ton outside. This year we got a few bails of hay for our 2 year old to play on (they make a great bench too!) and they're all piled up with pumpkins. Stuff like that just makes me really happy. I don't break out the Halloween stuff until right before Halloween. Then the day before or so, we'll carve pupmkins. We always have a Halloween party & it's then that I break out all the really cheesy/ tacky stuff: spiderwebs, spiders, skulls, the usual... I've even black trash-bagged my entire walls & ceiling for a party... but it only stays up for the party. When my kidsw get a little older I can't wait to do a haunted walk through the wods in our backyard. ok, I'm sorry but I can't stop!! hahah
But I think I notice the beauty in my home more when things change, especially seasonally. I just love for my house to feel really appropriate: cozy & snug in the winter/ fall and open & airy in the spring/ summer, so I do a lot with accessories & switching up fabrics to get the mood I want..
Had so much fun listening to this one!!! I feel like I'm there!! :)
xoxo,
lauren
Thank you!
I do not live at Hobby Lobby and Michael's this time of year I swear!But I do have kids and they DO love twinkly lights so I added a strand of them to the hutch...and oh yeah, I am a more is mor eperson. Dang. I am just worng where everyone is concerned aren't I? But I DO try to restran myself and I have yet to add Halloween. Won't do that until just before and only a tad here and there.
I love the colors of Fall and like to use things I can have around me September through the end of November. Mums and gourds, pumpkins and leaves...
Laurie? I have yet to meet you (I am going to visit yo after this)
but I can see your smile and feel your joy in your post.
Joni? We include several Jewish friends inour festivities and they include us in theirs. We always have...we also know foks of other faiths who share our hoiday fun an dthey include us in theirs. Our kids have just always been exposed to many faith's celebrations and think of it as part of THEIR hoiliday tradition.
Okay, so now I will slink away and hide my *ver the top* almost decor...and I really DID restrain myself this year! I swear!
Fun to listen in on your debate. Joni, I wish you could do Christmas trees, I know you'd have fun with it too.
After seeing the "What NOT to strive for..." picture and reading the comments while listening, I was truly disturbed that the picture ACTUALLY came from someone's blog (copyright issues?). You took a picture from some poor lady's blog and publicly humiliate her. Truly tacky! You really couldn't find a picture from Martha's website? How about Woman's Day? Or any other dozens of magazines out there featuring Halloween/Fall decorating?
Second, so what if people want to go overboard with their decorations. I figure it's not personally affecting me or harming me physically. If it makes them happy, good for them. No damage done to me.
Third, since all three of you live in hot/mild climate places and admit to being humbug about the coming seasons because "You just aren't feeling it", do you really think you should be the best people to offer holiday decorating tips? It would make better sense to me to listen to someone who actually likes and enjoys the holidays. Call me crazy!
First, I'm in Massachusetts, so, global warming notwithstanding, I do live in a colder climate.
Second, if you'd kept listening, you would have realized that our post title was most definitely tongue-in-cheek. We were having fun with a topic and were very quick to say that we're not experts and are curmudgeons and we're the last people to be giving holiday decorating advice. That said, we did have some tips and experiences to share and we simply had fun with it. And, we acknowledged that everyone should do whatever they want if they are enjoying themselves.
That said, I was quite disappointed with this version of the round table. I felt offended by your tones of voice when you condemned basic autumnal things like the color orange, or pumpkins. For many people, decorating evokes strong emotions. I walk into a room and feel deep peace, or twinges of nostalgia, or excitement, or curiosity about the objects in the room. Seasonal decorating can add to these emotional responses.
I decorate our front yard for Halloween with a single false headstone I made myself. I put it near the sidewalk, where parents stand when their children come to the door for treats. It says, "D. Cade -- if you were dead, you'd be home now." It's spooky for the kids, and it makes the parents laugh. What's so wrong about that? Kids love Halloween, and relish all the holiday acoutrements. And the headstone comes down at midnight on Halloween.
Listening to this podcast, and reading the comments afterwards, makes me feel like the uncool girl in school. The "popular" girls (you three) express disdain for something, call it tacky, and everybody else jumps on the bandwagon, writing scathing criticism of others. Yes, some seasonal decorating is in poor taste. But to condemn all seasonal decorating goes too far. And yes, you said these were just your opinions, but your attitudes were obvious, and not benign.
You all have legions of followers and the gift of a talented eye. I hope you will consider your comments in the future, and not feel a need to put down others' choices in such an obvious manner.
Frankly, since your disdain for holiday decorating was so strong, I wish you'd not done the subject at all.
Now I have to go outside, retrieve my pumpkins, and paint them all white so I can be just as cool as y'all, and get invited to your next slumber party.
mary margaret