Christmas Mix of Past and Present

By Barbara Nicholson Bell

My home is an Arts & Crafts bungalow, located in the Northeast, and built in 1920. It's a later design than most of the Craftsman style homes that are common in my town, and may even be called "transitional" as it sits among many English-style cottages, gambrels, Queen Anne victorians, and American four-squares. Nonetheless, I am charmed by its brick fireplace, natural oak woodwork, built-ins and small but efficient floorplan.

Decorating for the holidays is always a challenge I love to face. This year's Christmas decorating has been rather greater a challenge than usual, however! This year, I must combine my own holiday decorations of 30 years' collecting with those of my husband's we brought from Alaska, and those I inherited from my mother who passed away last spring.

My mother, also an antiques dealer, went crazy at Christmas. Her home was a neighborhood delight this time of year, with a table-top tree in every room (including the teddy bears' room in the attic), and Victorian heirloom ornaments, several sets of ornate china and silver, and laces, velvets and damasks covering the furniture. My sisters and I divided the best of the decorations among us before the home was sold.

The ornaments brought from Alaska are more recent acquisitions, but are reproductions of several eras: blown glass balls and teardrops, velvet and gold-trimmed drums and drummers, papier-maché globes and hearts, and miniature wooden toys.

How to combine several "new" collections with my own, became the dilemma. I could cover an entire tree with just my collection of heart ornaments. There are also the wooden fruits, the gold musical instruments, the dated ornaments commemorating special occasions, and the faded, bent mementos of Christmases when my children were babies.

I sat among the boxes lamenting to my husband that this was an impossible task, especially as our tree this year is smaller than usual. But with a look around the room at its style, colors and structure, I realized it already held the clue: soft green walls, slightly darker green upholstery with gold and black colors in the accents, and spots of red in the art work, books, etc. Christmas-y!

Now I attacked the boxes with a mission: only gold-colored tiny lights, gold garlands (beads, wired stars, etc.) and gold or gold and red ornaments. Each collection revealed several gold ornaments, and many gold/red or plain red ones.

Now the tree holds ornaments as old as 75 years and others bought this year. There are red wooden hearts and red velvet soldiers, golden pears and apples and golden violins, trumpets and harps with red ribbons. Clear glass orbs and icicles reflect the lights. Papier-maché balls that look like they've been wrapped in vintage wrapping paper mix with red rocking horses and gilded lacy hearts. The tree glows, but doesn't look "flashy".

My Nutcrackers now fill three shelves of the oak cabinet that used to stand in my mother's kitchen. Her collection of Santas mix with mine, each on a different tabletop. Fresh red poinsettias in gold foil pots fill a metal garden plantstand by the window. Velvet stockings in jewel colors hang from the fireplace mantle, where an oil painting of strawberries, that was in my mother's home, sits in a gilt frame.

Now the only problem is, I have enough left over to decorate at least 3 more trees, and at least one more house. Next year, I can try something entirely different!

I thought some of you might be interested in articles I've written in previous years for the Christmas season. Enjoy!

• Last Minute Holiday Gifts for the Collector (Dec. 8,1998)
• Louis Prang, Father of the American Christmas Card (Nov. 16, 1999)
• Collectible Christmas Plates (Nov. 30,1999)
• Old-Fashioned Christmas Collectibles (Dec. 17,1999)

About the Author:

I have been a writer all my life, a collector of various interesting and old things, a traveler and an artist. More importantly, I've been a mother to four fine sons and grandmother to one very smart young lady. In these capacities and a few miscellaneous others, I've pursued a number of careers. I formerly wrote for Suite101.com on the topics Antiques & Collectibles and Design How-To (formerly, Interior Decorating for Beginners) as well as managing the Arts & Crafts section and several courses and newsletters to do with gardening, the home, and family. My articles have been gathered in two Best of Suite e-books entitled Antiques & Collectibles: The Design Periods, and The Collector's Encyclopedia, vols I & II.

Another stage in my life begins as Editor for Suite101's Home and Garden section. I can now legitimately focus on my passions for interior decorating, gardening and writing all at once!

Recently I was assigned the Health section as well. As the health of my family and myself are of utmost importance to me, I feel honored to have this responsibility. Meanwhile, if other avenues of self-expression present themselves to me, I may follow them as well. Some other very important interests include my husband Russ, Paris (and everything French), and golf.

Article courtesy of Suite101.com.