Decking The Halls With Fresh Greens And Flowers

When it comes to decking the halls at our house, I prefer using fresh greens and flowers of the season. I love how they make the house smell like Christmas!

Just grouping fresh cut greens and plants in ironstone containers gives this mantel an elegant and sophisticated holiday look.

I prefer the earthiness of this mantel though, with the pomegranates, cedar garland and little Christmas trees in rustic pots.

What an interesting mantel display! An asymmetrical arrangement of potted trees and metal obelisks, but what catches my eye is the bowl of white amaryllis on the table. I love having blooming flowers on display for the holidays!

Another inspiration photo to copy, this arrangement of cranberries and white mums is so easy to do, especially at the last minute! No bulbs to deal with here, just a bag of cranberries and a bouquet of flowers. For a more formal centerpiece, I would use white roses!

It takes some planning to have bulbs like amaryllis and narcissus in bloom throughout the holiday. Planting several pots of narcissus in succession in November is recommended. I also look for blooming ones in the grocery and gardening stores.

Last year, the narcissus were magnificent in this urn, an heirloom passed down from Mr. A's mother. Also known as "paperwhites," they smell wonderful!

There were paperwhites in the dining room too, and I tucked cedar and spruce branches amongst the red transferware and green majolica plates. I'll probably end up doing this again!

Also last year, I put red poinsettias in the pine cone urns in the entry. This year though, there will be white ones!

If you like using fresh greens and flowers for your holiday decor too, Costco has beautiful wreaths for $14, and their 25 foot long cedar garlands are a deal at $17. There are also huge poinsettias plants for $15, along with amaryllis bulbs already planted in containers.

Mr. A and I fought the crowds at Costco yesterday and bought our wreath, garlands and poinsettias for the entry urns.

And so the process begins. Today, we are "decking the halls with boughs of cedar!"