Bringing you beautiful holiday ideas and inspiration for your home!

Can you believe how time is flying by… it’s only ten days until Christmas! The shop is decked in colorful holiday decor, and spice scented candles make the store smell so warm and cozy. This is one of my favorite times of year. People seem friendlier and more pleasant during the holidays, all smiles and good cheer. This season encourages generosity and good will which makes things nicer in a world that sometimes seems harsh and unkind, so this is a welcome time! I just love all the lights and shiny ornaments, bright red poinsettas and the smells of cookies baking and fresh evergreen trees.

Evergreens were probably the first “decoration” ever used. People brought boughs into their homes during the winter, dating as long ago as the ancient Egyptians, and similar winter solstice rituals are recorded of the Druids, Romans, and Vikings. The modern traditional Christmas tree probably started about 1000 years ago in Northern Europe, and was decorated with candles, apples, nuts, star shaped pastries, berries and more… Germany gave us tinsel, made of thin strips of real silver, and thanks to Hans Greiner (1550-1609) garlands of glass beads and tin figure ornaments. After Germany’s Prince Albert married Queen Victoria, the Christmas tree tradition came into fashion in England.

Joel Poinsett, brought a red-and-green plant from Mexico in 1828, and by the turn of the century they were a universal symbol of the holiday. Christmas cards are said to have started in England in the 1800’s, hand written and festively decorated, the trend spread quickly and was commercialized. Northern Europeans considered mistletoe to have magic powers and they hung it in their homes for good luck. During the Victorian era, the English hung sprigs of mistletoe from ceilings and in doorways, and if someone stood under it they’d be kissed; uncharacteristic behavior in ultra modest Victorian society. Caroling is another English tradition, minstrels traveled performing from town to town hoping for a reward of warm food or drink, as the old Christmas song goes: Soal, a soal, a soal cake, please good missus a soal cake, an apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry, any good thing to make us all merry, one for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him who made us all.”

We have really special and unique pieces from around the world for your Christmas list…

I brought this Venetian mirror back from Provence, with no mishaps in the shipping thanks to our excellent container packer Hubert (pronounced Hew-Bairt).  It adds extra sparkle and elegance to a wreath.  The terra cotta angel is from the south of France. I found it at the world famous 

Flea Market in L’Isle-sir-la-Sorgue.  Again, thanks to Hubert’s excellent packing, it made it home in perfect condition.

 

 

This baby Jesus chalk-ware figure has glass eyes and comes from South America. It is most likely from the 1800’s. The bright colors of the vintage mercury glass ornament wreath seem more appropriate with him.

The glass swans are nestled in a tree made with crystals. I bought them new for our blue & grey kitchen.

Come on by and browse our lovely offerings!

 

 

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