The Day After Thanksgiving

Here we are The Day After Thanksgiving - otherwise, my kids and the newspapers say, Black Friday. I have a question....where do all of these people get the energy and how did they get cleaned up after Thanksgiving so fast?  I still think it is the Day After - just like all of those other day after when the washer is whirling, the dishes are scattered and those turkeys are reduced to soup and the pumpkins are no longer so darned cute. That is where I am today- as I merrily clean on my thoughts are just barely beginning to turn to - can I say the word....Christmas.

There is a vague summoning of a need here in New England where the fall leaves are no longer beautiful but a chore to rake and pick out of bushes as we ready for those other nasties,snow and winter, to begin to note where the winterberries are growing,to see the wreaths and trees flocking in and to -I did say barely- think about the next holiday and what to do about it...decorating -wise.

There are so many options for the most basic of all winter decorations, the wreath. Boxwood is my favorite and in our cold winters it will stay green and pliable for months as will most evergreens. Here are examples of the beautifully simple green wreaths you can easily pick up along the way or make from existing evergreens which abound most everywhere.(wreath on a fence,wreath on a door and wreath in a window...3 evergreen)

Magnolia is another beautiful and enduring green which has the advantage of a leaf which is brown on the back and can be oiled to be a very glossy green which greatly contrasts to the flat brown. Magnolias are also very long lasting and are beautiful in combinations with many natural elements

Both magnolias and fir evergreens, as well as boxwoods, combine readily with many seasonal favorites as berries,pomegranits, apples,pinecones of all shapes and colors, thistles and interesting branches. I feel this is a great time to both search out local goodies and let your imagination run wild....at least in the yard.Here are some examples of using natural and found objects which combine into wreaths to grace any doorway and welcome guests into your home for the winter season.

Remember that wreaths are not just about Christmas but are more an act of bringing into the gray and barren days of our long winters a burst of color and life. Anyone who has glimpsed a living wreath through on a welcoming door in the dead of winter will know what I am talking about - hope and a sense that life is here and te green will bloom again.

This  is such an elegant statement about the season and the home- a simple wreath adorned with gold ribbon,an earthenware pot and a simple chair...beautiful and quiet.

 Here is a doorway which is very simplistic in terms of materials used but what style and imagination. Walking up to this one must smile -Happy Holidays.