The Creamy-white Christmas Tree with Missing Items

Silvery white on a Christmas Tree

The White Tree: glass icicles, mercury glass pinecones, handmade paper doll ornaments, and blown glass.

 

Seen from outside the window.

     For at least five years, our main live tree has been an all-white tree: white lights, pearl bead garlands, creamy white bulbs (plus golden and silver) mercury glass ornaments, blown glass clip-on birds and swans, silvery pine cones, glass icicles, and an all white Nicol Sayre angel decked in vintage lace.  It has been such a pleasure to stick strictly to a narrow theme (white) while still collecting ornaments that were sentimental or special for some reason (I have gilded fruit purchased on a birthday trip to Biltmore, a Nicol Sayre fairy purchased by my sister while we vacationed in Leavenworth, Washington, etc, etc

       However, it was only after saving the main tree for last and as I began to decorate it that I realized that I am missing the majority of my white ornaments.  Whether they are still packed in a box at my parent's home (when I moved home from South Carolina, I temporarily stored items there before moving them into storage) or sitting somewhere unknown, they are not going to be enjoyed this year. 
       So, our white tree is a simple, sparser tree than previous years and I do feel a twinge of sadness that my fairy is missing, my grand white swans with their fragile blown glass necks are missing, my dozens upon dozens of antique bulbs are missing, my little bulb with the snowy Christmas scene inside is missing, my fabulous silvery reindeer with its hairy wool and folk antlers is missing... 


       But strangely, it is only a small twinge which is a little surprising and yet not at all surprising.  Somehow, with all the blessings I and my family have, how in the world could some little baubles be all that important?  Yes, I do hope they appear because they did have sentimental value as well as being beautiful, but, the joy of my two girls, a new home, so very many lovely items, and the fact that all of my family is cancer-free these days sort of eclipses any regret for something that is simply a material possession.  And I am greatly relieved because I always worry that I like "things" and "beauty" more than I should.  Now, I am simply thankful for the luxurious plenty that I have: especially family and my two little sugarplums.

The Happy Children's Tree

A Colorful Chaos: The Children's Tree

 

In our first floor hallway, Liliana and Vera Rose decorated their own happy little tree: full of animals, dolls, and toys. Most of the ornaments are felted wool, wooden, or tin. All of them are silly! We also added colorful pink, orange, and red ribbon. For the first week, the tree was chronically either undecorated (oh, the joy of taking OFF the ornaments and ribbon!) or pulled over, so finally, just prior to hosting a couple of parties, I helped them redecorate the tree and then elevated the tree to the top of an end-stand so that it would be temporarilly out of reach. Now, it still stands in all its rediculous glory, but barely so, since the artificial tree is pretty unsteady and I had first weighted it by tying a beach blanket around large books and boxes of pancake mix and flour sacks. Once I elevated it, the flour and other items somehow shifted in a not-good way so I ended up tying the tree to the stair case--so far so good!



The Children's tree next to the nutcracker garland on the stairs.

In our first floor hallway, Liliana and Vera Rose decorated their own happy little tree:  full of animals, dolls, and toys.  Most of the ornaments are felted wool, wooden, or tin.  All of them are silly!  We also added colorful pink, orange, and red ribbon.  For the first week, the tree was chronically either undecorated (oh, the joy of taking OFF the ornaments and ribbon!) or pulled over, so finally, just prior to hosting a couple of parties, I helped them redecorate the tree and then elevated the tree to the top of an end-stand so that it would be temporarilly out of reach.  Now, it still stands in all its rediculous glory, but barely so, since the artificial tree is pretty unsteady and I had first weighted it by tying a beach blanket around large books, and boxes of pancake mix and flour sacks.  Once I elevated it, the flour and other items somehow shifted in a not-good way so I ended up tying the tree to the stair case--so far so good! 

The Folk Art Christmas Tree

The Diningroom Folk Art Christmas Tree

The Diningroom Folk Art Tree

       My collection of hand-carved, hand-painted Russian folk ornaments deck the live, tabletop tree in our diningroom this year and it is one of my favorites.  Among the Russian ornaments, I also hung dried orange slices since I love the stained glass look when a white light shines behind the thin orange slice (and they are easy to make: simply slice an orange, place them on foil on top of a cookie sheet and heat oven to 200 degrees).  My twelve-days-of-christmas ornaments are also on the tree, along with wooden cranberry strands, real candles in candle clips (and no, I am not brave enough to light them!), and straw ornaments.

The Radko/Blown Glass Christmas Tree

The Blown Glass Christmas Tree

The Blown-glass Christmas tree, next to my childhood dollhouse, in the front room.

Thin tinsel strands, white lights, and vintage glass bulbs...

view from front room (the "front")

view from living room (the "back")

       Afraid of toddlers with their adventurous spirit and wandering fingers, the Radko ornament and blown glass Christmas tree was placed out in the front room, so we can see it through the window, but the girls don't have finger access to it.  I tried to put my favorites on the "back" of the tree so I could see those ornaments from the living room, but I also put my vintage bulbs on the front of the tree so a colorful bonanza of bulbs greets you from the front door.  Thin tinsel garland also decks the tree and antique toys surround its bottom.  Eventually, as I collect more blown glass ornaments (and as long as I'm attracted to the image, I don't care whether it's a dollar store ornament, a vintage find, or a pricey Radko--I love them all), I hope to make the figural blown glass ornaments the focus of my main living room tree (right now that tree is all white).

The Gold & Red Sacred Tree

The Golden Christmas Tree

 

Fontanini creche and the Golden Sacred Tree

 

      Nestled in the corner of our living room, stands our almost-gaudy, antique-gold tinsely Christmas tree.  First I added golden vintage bulbs to it and a few gold-leafed ornaments that tended to be sacred: wise men, angels, stars.  Having unearthed my red bulbs from the to-be-unpacked pile of boxes from storage (they are from previous years when I had an all-crimson Christmas tree in my bedroom), I added those for a slight zip of color.  I did add a few non-all-gold ornaments such as my large tin wise men and some of the White House ornaments, but they are mostly golden.  Since it was a tree decked in sacred images, I placed the Fontanini manger scene underneath.  Liliana and Vera Rose are allowed to play with any of the shepherds and sheep but the rest is off limits or the creche would be pure chaos all the time!

 

       Our fireplace is right next to the golden tree so I extended the golden theme by placing golden fruit (purchased in a Paris department store), a golden-filigreed Limoges bowl, gold-leafed frames that hold the original print from some of our previous Christmas cards, and a favorite gold and porcelain Mary with Christ Child ornament amongst the fir on the mantle.

The Pink Dolly Tree

Pink Bulbs and Porcelain Dolls

       One of our entry Christmas trees is an artificial tree covered in silver tinsel and snowflake garland, pale pink bulbs, topped with a porcelain-headed angel, and decked with my childhood collection of 1980's era Jan Hagara porcelain ornaments of little boys and girls holding their toys and dollies.  Once Jan Hagara changed religions and no longer celebrated Christmas, production of the ornaments stopped (at least that is the story I was told), but my fondness for the ornaments is still going strong--partly because I remember how gorgeous I thought they were as a young child!

 

Cookies, Cookies

 A Tray of Christmas Cookies

A Layered Christmas Cupcake

A Christmas Cupcake



       I hosted our chapter of The Questers (an international group devoted to the study and love of antiques, architecture, etc) for our Christmas meeting and presented a program on the history of Christmas cards, the Christmas tree, and Christmas decorations. Afterwards, we dined on the funny personal-sized cakes that lined the tables.

The Diningroom Table:  greens, an April Cornell tablecloth, nativity figures
(both ones purchased in Paris and vintage ones found at garage sales), candles & cupcakes.

      

 

       I made a batch of white cupcakes (swirled with red food coloring) and a batch of homemade chocolate cupcakes.  I then cut them lengthwise through their middles and joined layers of white cake and chocolate cake with green buttercream frosting.  I topped them with whipped and cooked Divinity frosting and a decorative Christmas pick.  So easy!
       I think my favorite part of the research was discovering that when Christmas cards really increased in popularity (during the Victorian time period), the first cards printed tended to be similar to their Valentines: sentiments for lovers, pictures of summer scenes, Spring flowers, and layers of lace!

Would you have imagined that such a summer garden scene was a Christmas card image?!?
 

       I also learned that one of the first written records of a decorated Christmas tree was in 1605 when a visitor to Strasbourg, Germany described a tree bedecked in apples (probably due to the Morality play of Adam and Eve in Eden that was the most popular of the plays performed on Dec 24th back in medieval times: since it was the middle of winter, only evergreens were green so they would attach apples to them to be the tree of forbidden fruit for the paradise play), gilded candies, paper roses (to symbolize Mary), and thin wafers (symbolizing holy communion). 

       In additional research (that I didn't use for my presentation since there is simply so much that is fascinating about Christmas history) is that St. Francis of Assisi created the first creche scene.  Fascinating stuff!

A Gloriously White Christmas Tree

Mom's Christmas Tree

in the Upstair's Sewing Room of the

Historical Museum

A Nicol Sayre snowman and mercury glass ornaments deck the tree.

An ornament I made from a wooden Springerle cookie mold.

A Feather Tree in the Native American Room

A Woodsy Christmas Tree

decked in Feathers in the Native American Room of the Historical Museum

Twigs surrounded by leaves and decorated with feathers and pine cones.

 

A Peppermint Tree for the Museum

Peppermint Land

or The Diningroom at the Historical Museum:

 

 

        Snowy white frothiness with layers of red peppermint swirls, pearl garland, and long slender icicles bedecked my tree at the local historical museum.  In the tree land of peppermint swung red striped santas, peppermint fairies with ethereal wings, handmade peppermint paper doll ornaments (click here for details of those while they were in progress), blown glass confections such as chocolate cake and plum pudding, and (of course!) a myriad of peppermint swirled bulbs.  My goal was to have the onlooker experience that age old line: "While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads" which to me, not having any experience with actual sugarplums, means revealing childhood imaginings of walking into the Candyland board game, or seeing the candy house that Hansel and Gretel admired, being ushered into the Land of Sweets by the Sugar Plum Fairy herself in the Nutcracker, or like entering into that "swirly twirly" peppermint tree land that whats-his-name discovers in the Christmas movie "Elf" (the one scene I super liked).  --All of it somehow linked to the magic of Christmas, the magic of the North Pole, and a firm aesthetic love for that bold pattern of red that so lovingly fringes a pure white peppermint or swirls around a candy cane.

       I super wanted to decorate a white artificial tree with my peppermint swirl collection for the museum open house and did find a fellow Quester who lent me one but I ended up using the six foot white tree, along with my own two foot tree, simply as a backdrop on the window seat of the diningroom to frame the nine foot live tree that was the focal point.  A six foot tree was simply too small for the huge diningroom and I'm thankful that my Mom talked me into using the large live tree.  The live tree (which of course is glorious in its realness and rich pine scent) added green to my strictly red and white collection and after the first day of decorating (while my poor, ill husband was watching our two babes--thank you!), I was miserable about the addition of green.  However, I toted two little girls, some whole-grain pretzels, and some bags of fluffy white fiber-fill type batting to the museum the next day and while the girls ate pretzels and snuck ornaments and toys from the other room's displays, I slid fluffy layers of "snow" batting amongst the tree decor and added a layer of pearl garland (in homage to the bedecked Victorian trees) and although green is still assaulting the purity of the red and white, I was better pleased overall.

 

       As Mom expertly swirled peppermint-colored cording and ribbon on the food table and I added in my peppermint teapot, I think I love it.  And once Mom and I's baked peppermint confections of cookies, cupcakes, peppermint-white chocolate popcorn, and peppermint punch are added, I know I love the room's theme.  What fun to explore the simplicity and richness of a curved red line and to think about the magic of Christmas!  I am so thankful for the beauty of a peppermint.