We go out and cut a tree at a local farm. I haven't got a magnolia anymore but you have inspired me and I will try and get some branches donated to do mantles. I have 5 to do so I need lots of ideas. I hope others post, particularly photos as I am not very creative.

Martha has several ideas in her latest mag. for living wreaths. There are a couple moss ones that are really beautiful. Anyone have that ability ? c

I don't have any indoor ideas as of yet, barely thinking Decorating.. :) But I did do some outdoor decorating last weekend. Needed to dramatically trim some evergreens, so I filled every pot and basket outside with the trimmings. Looks festive...natural and elegant...and my trees look better to and hopefully will not split during the many ice storms we usually see. Good post tho, anxious to see what ideas come forth!

I bought the cutest christmas soldiers made out of terra cotta pots at a garage sale for 5 dollars. One is almost as tall as me. They will go in the front yard. I weave white lights in and out of my picket fence and around the arbor entrance. Then the traditional wreath goes over the front window. Maybe a few pointsetta's in the window flower box.

In the house...dah...don't know yet.

Thanks for starting this thread, Tracy.

Great thread, Tracy! (and the reason I was over here and misplaced my cabinet thread - duh!)

I have some artificial sunflowers in clay pots on my piano. For fall, I tied raffia around the stems and added some faux veggies/fruit on the tops of the pots. I am thinking of leaving them for winter decor but changing out the faux veggies/fruit for small pinecones and nuts.

Have you checked out the Holiday decorating forum? There are some great inspirations pics on there and lots of nice folks, too. Maybe you'll come up with a theme. I find that helps a lot. I try to bring the outdoors in with real and silk/faux decorations. Michael's is your friend. ; )

Edna, those soldiers sound cute. Hope you posts pics!

Diana

Tracy ~ This is a great thread. You've gotten me to thinking about adding shells to my decorating this year. I am only doing a small tree this year as our living room is a wreck stacked with boxes, etc. while we do remodeling. I will decorate with handmade ornaments from another forum where I've done an ornie swap for the past 6 years. Now, I've got to figure out what to do with shells. Hmmmmm. Need little nudges now and then to break out of the box, great creative thread. I also look forward to seeing what people come up with.

FlowerLady

I'm so pressed for time this year that my holiday decorations are somewhat late. I did however manage to set up the outside light display this past weekend and made a start on my (now closed) front porch. Due to the fact that the porch is now enclosed, as opposed to past years, the decoration had to change a bit. At the moment I'm struggling on how to attach something to the door, since it is aluminium and glass and as such I cannot drive a nail through it. I had thought about hanging a wreath there, but haven't figured out a way to do that yet. If anyone has some tips they can share, I'm all ears.

The porch has become Timmy's room during the day when we're out working, as well as the place where I've moved all my houseplants. With a closed house during the day there was no way for them to survive indoors, so I moved them there. I have two hanging baskets as well, one featuring a solanum capsicum and a fern, the other holding a red cyclamen. I love cyclamen around the Winter time. Since our climate is so mild I can grow them outside as well, but those grown in a sun room similar to the one I now have do very well too. For those of you in colder climates you might want to consider this - a big splash of color in a fuss free plant. I'm also trying to find a Christmas cactus to go in the same basket, but have been unsucessful so far.

The dark green front door, which is now inside the room, got a fabric panel in red with golden motifs and a wreath on top. I used an artificial normal green wreath, then wired small pinecones, a bunch of fake holly and a few sprigs of dry redish grass like plants to it. I need to get a decent red bow to complete the look. I was planning to do a similar one to hang on the outside of the room's glass door, but I'm having a problem with how to attach it (see above). If I can't find a solution I may hang that wreath on the pedestrian front gate instead.

To complete the look of the porch I have hung a curtain of lights and some icicle lights. The lateral window also got two lighted stars, hung from red ribbon. Timmy's couch will get a new red polar fleece blanket (still need to get one), plus two pillows which I need to sew, phew... I bid for two lovely cushion panels on eBay, featuring robins. I thought this was appropriate, since robins are my favorite bird, we have them around the garden all Winter and this room is a transition between garden and home and features lots of plants. The robins will feel at home there :-)

The top of the stairs as we come from the front gate got a low bowl featuring a cupressus surrounded by red pansies, plus a shepperd's hook with a tipsy pot composition of succulents and a reeinder motif lantern. The red begonias nearby are still in bloom, so this area is looking reasonably colorful. I still think the cupressus needs something done to it, maybe a red bow? Don't know yet.

That's it for me for the time being. I still haven't started on the interior (next weekend hopefully). I was contemplating the idea of changing the spot of my Nativity Scene this year and do it on top of the sideboard instead of the usual chest of drawers in the hallway. I was inspired by some ideas of table top Christmas trees featured in the holidays forum Diana mentioned, especially the ones from my alter ego Martha ;-) Maybe I'll try something similar in the hallway.

Tracy, potted blooming plants are a sure way to bring the garden in for Christmas. As I said above, I love cyclamen for that purpose, as well as poinsettias. Best of all, they come in several colors, which is perfect for a coordinating color freak like me ;-) I love the look of variegated pink poinsettias, as well as the cream colored ones, a lot better than the red ones (even though these are fantastic for a bold splash of color). You could do a stunning arrangement with poinsettias and cyclamen in matching colors. Hum, I may follow my own advice here, lol!

Looking forward to see what others come up with - I know there are decorating freaks lurking out there, please come out of lurkedom!

Eduarda

Eduarda, I have clear plastic suction cups that I used to hang wreaths from glass windows. They come in a bag and are about 2" across. They have a metal hook on them to fasten the wreath. Also I have seen but never used the longer door hooks that go over the top of the door and allow you to hang the wreath and still open and close the door. I am not sure if they have these where you are but they really allow flexibility in decorating. I would love to see pics of your porch !! c

Milkweed pod poinsettias.

dem_pa

Eduarda, I'm thinking of going shopping in the next few days. Let me know if you need me to send you suction cups?

I threw my 4 hand made purple and silver wreaths out on the wall yesterday. That is about the extent so far of any decorating! I am hoping to get some flood lights in green and purple, and put up some turquoise lights. That will be about it for decorations this year. Next year I want to go "all out" we are now having contests in the neighborhood for decorations and they have a non-traditional/artistic award which would be fun to try for. The idea is just for some fun.
Instead of worrying too much about decorations I'm trying just to get the interior of the house completed. No word on counters yet so I don't think they will be in before Christmas which is VERY VERY frustrating. It will be 3 months. And they are GREEN, you'd think they would make green counters before christmas, lol.

girlgroupgirl

Eduarda, your decorating is impressive! I love a beautifully decorated house, but barely manage to get a tree up myself. I'll probably put mine up next week. As for a wreath, I may pick one up at Trader Joe's (local off-the-beaten-path grocery). And if I really decide to go for broke, I may put some evergreen garland on the mantle.

Many years all I do is put up a tree. Then I drive around famous Christmas decorating neighborhoods and go 'oooh' and 'aaah'. That is lots of fun, and I don't have to take those decorations down or put them away when the holiday is over.

Rosefolly

Ohh I am loving all of the wonderful ideas so far. Thanks everyone for sharing.

Edna, your terra cotta pot soldiers sound so cute. I'd love to see a pic. Hmmm maybe we need a thread on the gallery side for these things, too?

Diana, I love your idea to use pinecones & nuts. I think I'll need to drag Mike to the woods to scoop some up this weekend.

Rainey, you could make a little seashell tree. Glue some to a styrafoam cone and then put that in a terra cotta pot painted white or some other color. Or maybe even glue some to a wreath form. That would be so cute. I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Eduarda, your decorations sound magnificent as always. Like trailrunner said, you could try suction cups or the over-the-door hooks. Do they sell those out your way? Also, I have had success with the 3-M sticky hooks. They hold up to 1 pound (or so the package says) but I've had more weight on mine than that and they've held just fine. They remove easily without leaving any residue. I used them on our steel door back at the trailer without a problem. I'm not sure if they sell those in Portugal, either. Let me know and I can send you a few. They're inexpensive and really come in handy.

Tracy

Maybe I will decorate a table top tree with all of the seed packets I got in the swap!!! LOL
I will decorate this weekend or next. I always put a fake plain evergreen garland on top of my mantel with clear lights entwined and then fill in generously with fresh holly in and around the garland. The white lights really do something special to the holly.As it dries out I replace it with fresh.
I place 5 clear votive cups with white candles here and there(all safety rules observed) for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve.
I have clear lights entwined with my 2 big pothos on top of a bookcase these are there all year.
We always get a humongous fresh Christmas tree and we don't worry about trimming the bottom- I use the branches for decorating in vases.
On our walks we collect osage oranges, pine cones seed pods etc and incorporate them into wreaths etc.
Out front in planters I shove holly and pine branches down into the soil- and put on a bow. vouila!
BTW I cut holly fresh from the high school and I also have 2 friends with open season on their holly. If you put it in water or outside in a planter it stays fresh for a good while.
I grew up in the desert so having greens is way cool. We used to spray paint tumbleweeds gold or white and make snowmen out of them as a decoration out front. yeah no kiddin.
Mom used to use manzanita branches (or any interesting gnarly branch)fixed in a pot and spraypainted silver with ornaments hanging -always looked pretty.
One year,I had my DH cut a branch from a cedar, stick it in pot and put little clear lights primitive country decorations on it- for a tabletop tree.
Most often I change things as I go, or get an idea and rush around digging for things to use.

I love this time of year! Sue

I suppose this is a good reason to come out of my temporary lurkdom. :)

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to for decorating yet this year since we have just moved. I'm still unboxing things. We even spent part of Thanksgiving day unpacking a bit.
I used to put a garland and bows on the mantle but I have no mantle here so I'm not sure yet where to put it. Two years ago my white pine produced a bumper crop of cones so I collected lots of those and wired them to the garland. It was lovely but sadly I never got pictures. I have lots of other pine cones too. Some are larger ones that I picked up outside a Burger King and then some little 2" ones from a tree at church. I have a whole grocery bag full of those. One thing I love on my tree is dried roses. I had some lovely dark red ones that DH gave me while we were dating. Our first Christmas together I put some small white bows on them and wired them to the tree. I got a kick out of how my mother oohed and ahhed over them. I think DH needs to get me some more roses though. :) The ones I have now are starting to fall apart and need to be replaced.
I should go wander around the neighborhood this week and see if I can find any dried plants I could use for decorating. I had a vase full of poppy and nigella pods last year but I didn't get a chance to pick any this year before we moved.

Thank you all for the suggestions regarding the hanging of the wreath. I did a few searches and I came up with a gadget that may be what you are describing. Can you please look at the below link and let me know if this is what you mean? From the photo I get a bit confused - how do you close the door with that stuff on? I need to close the door, will it be possible to do it?

As for the plastic suction cups, yes, we do have them. Thank you very much to those who volunteered to send me some, but it's easy for me to get them here. I never thought about it before, duh... I wonder if they are strong enough to hold a wreath, hum? Doesn't hurt to try though as they are so inexpensive.

Edna, are your soldiers similar to the Christmas nutcracker figures that are so familiar in Germany? I would love to see a pic of them too.

Thank you all for your suggestions and please keep the ideas coming.

Eduarda

Here is a link that might be useful: Over the door hangers

Hi Eduarda , the suction cups hold all my wreaths even the very heavy outdoor ones that have wind to contend with. I have never had a problem with them . The over door hanger that you show is way more substantial than the over door wreath hanger. If you Google over door wreath hanger you will see a variety but you are right they are way more expensive. Give the suction ones a try first and then see. I am glad you can get them there . Hope this helps. c

Eduarda: You can close the door without a problem, as the metal that is used is super thin and fits right in the door jamb.

Here's a link to the wreath hangers: http://www.finehomedisplays.com/products.asp?cat=15

Of course, these are upscale version. I'm sure you could find some cheaper than this.

Tracy

Here you go Tracy- a picture of my garage sale terra cotta soliders. I have a smaller one also but I accidently broke the top hat and need to fix it. What a deal! all three for $5.

{{gwi:197841}}

Oh those are so cute Edna!! Thanks for posting this photo. What a great idea, I should put these on my list for next year to make.

Tracy

Wow Dances,what a good deal.Here's a santa i made from pots years ago.I should get some bigger pots and make a new one.
Kathi

Yesterday after work I went all the way to the only shop in Lisbon I know that sells of this stuff. Took me two subway rides and a brisk walk to get there in time before close time after work. The things I do for Christmas, LOL! Well, low and behold, I got the hangers just in time. When I got home I tried them on the porch door and they don't work :-( The door has a sort of freeze in front and it's not possible to close the door with the hanger on. I was expecting this, so I was not too disappointed. I can use the hangers in the doors inside the house, so this expands the possibilities there. For the porch door I'll have to go with the suction cup or else abandon the idea altogether. Now I need to source the suction cups (hopefully today after work). Part of my lunch hour was spent perusing a fabric shop for some red fabric for the back panel of the robins cushion - one more project for this weekend. What was I thinking, LOL?

Edna and Kathi, love your Christmas pot people. Edna, yours remind me a lot like an upscale version of the German nutcrackers that are so popular in Germany at Christmas time. See the link below.

Come on, people, surely we are not the only ones doing a lot of stuff for Christmas decorations. There are quite a few people we haven't heard of in a while - like Georgeanneffa and Mary Lu. Please come out of lurkdoom and do tell what you're doing for Christmas.

Eduarda

Here is a link that might be useful: German Nutcrackers

Eduarda, we have 3 M hooks here that would work great on your door! They are plastic but come in many sizes http://hardware.hardwarestore.com/28-447-adhesive-hooks.aspx

They can hold wreaths, and you can easily pull off the sticky stuff when you take them down. We sell them at work. Are you interested?

Now I say this, and it will be some time before I could send them if you'd like them. I broke my foot on Thursday wrestling with the christmas tree display at work so I'm probably off until I get to the orthapedist and get a better walking support put on my foot!!

Glynis

todancewithwolves and kathi_mdgd: those pot soldiers and the pot santa are just too cute!!! Are they connected at the places where the pots come together (lip to lip, and bottom to bottom)? and, if so, how?!

I'm not much of a decorator, but I like to use neat things that I collect from outdoors. I just made a new grapevine wreath. I also just collected clusters of bittersweet, blackberry lily stems in seed, pinecones, and nuts -- haven't decided what I'm doing with them all yet. I always keep lookout for anything I can use for basketmaking... I'm thinking of weaving miniature baskets for tree decorations this year. Daylily and iris leaves make wonderful small baskets, and there are some beautiful parchment-colored grasses in seed in the abandoned parking lot near work that I've got my eye on. :)

You folks are inspiration for the truly uninspired. Last weekend we were debating about putting up a tree. That's really unlike us. We love Christmas. I think the remodeling had us sugar plum tuckered out. But just tonight, I'm getting into the spirit.

To bring some of the outdoors in, I always decorate our mantel with fresh fruit and lots of it. I start by placing candles of differing heights. Then I make a bed for the fruit made from the clipped branches off the tree. Everything I can find, oranges, apples, persimmons, lemons, limes, avacados, walnuts, etc, get piled on. It's different every year and always looks festive.

Another thing I use a lot for decoration is candy. I save interesting jars and fill them with all sorts of confections you can only find this time of year. Vases are filled with candy canes and licorace whips. Glass jars filled with hard candies. And chocalates rest on little silver trays.

We are getting to decorate the front yard again for only the second time. White icycle lights will cover the fence again and we'll have another small tree on our front porch. Our coral bark japanese maple is finally big enough to get in on the act this year.

Thanks to this thread, I have my weekend cut out for me.

Fa la la la la, la la la la!

Steven

GGG ~ I am so sorry to hear that your broke your foot. I do hope you don't have too much trouble with it and that it heals nicely and soonly!

Steven ~ I'm getting more into the mood also and this thread has helped with that.

I love the flower pot Christmas figures. Very clever.

Happy decorating everyone ~ FlowerLady

GGG, OMG, how did I miss your reply previously? I'm so sorry to hear you broke your foot, I hope you're doing better today. Don't worry about the hooks, I did manage to get something similar here, but I still haven't tried it on the door.

Eduarda

Hey Folks:
It's OK. I am my own worst idiot.
But no christmas decorating much this year because I just don't have the heart to ask DH to do another thing around here!

GGG

GGG, I feel for you, a broken foot is very painful and to have it happen at this time of year can really put the damper on things. I broke my ankle a few years back just before Christmas so I've got an idea of how you're feeling. I hope you are not in too much pain and your foot mends quickly.

Annette

You all inspired me to gather materials from outside. Most weekends, we take a morning walk on the high school campus with our 2 goldens who run free while we walk through the meadows and wooded areas. It is a public school that had at one time been a private estate with a acres of grounds, and had been planted with specimen trees which are now mature and some are past their prime. Since we often pick up trash on occasion,( always clean up after our dogs btw) we felt comfortable harvesting pine cones of all sizes, sweet gum balls, some bittersweet vine, osage oranges(aka brainballs). In a couple of weeks we will cut holly and evergreens. It was fun and soon will be looking a lot like Christmas around here. And,nope, I have no idea what I will do with all of it, but it will be fun to do. Sue

Wow! You're all so clever and talented. I'm almost ashamed to post...............but I will.

ahem

Holly in a vase !!!!!!!!!

Libby

I love my birds, so I found all of the fake birds I could at Michael's and some from the $1 store last year for my tree. My 4 year old grandson helped me put them on the tree. We counted 41 when we finished. Still room for a few more so I guess I will have to hit the $1 store again this year. My SIL made me a beautiful wreath with a big fat Cardinal on it for my door last year.

Haven't had much time to get outside and look for things to bring in yet. Just thinking about it brings back memories of hunting for 'running cedar' to put on the mantle at Christmas with my family when I was very young. Ah, what a fragrance!

Love the flower pot Santas!

Betty

Party music,my pots are held together with Aleens THICK DESIGNER TACKY glue in the PINK jar/bottle.They are out together top to top,for the bottom 2 then the third one is glued bottom to bottom.If you look closely at the picture,you can see how they go.Mine are probably 8 to 10 years old.

You can also use GE silicone 2 glue to hold them together.This can be found in any hardware section of home depot,lowes etc.
Kathi

kathi_mdgd: Thank you for the info!

This morning I took a dried palm seed branch that comes out of the clump of palms that we have. It flowers, the flowers drop of making a mess, then seeds form which the squirrels love. Then this thing dries and falls off. I've thought for years that they would make great miniature Christmas trees, and this year with Tracy's thread going here I went out to see if there were any and found only one. This morning I put it in a clay flower pot, stuffed some plastic bags around it for filler and placed some beach combed coral and shells on top to hide the plastic. Now I've got to go through our shells and find ones to hang on the little tree. I'll post a picture when I'm done. It's sitting on our chopping block table in the kitchen. I'm excited about this little project since it's been in the back of my mind for years.

Happy decorating from your gardens ~ FlowerLady

Rainey, that sounds wonderful. Seashells as ornaments! The sad thing is, I just got rid of my huge collection of seashells when we moved. They had been sitting in boxes for years. So I figured if I hadn't used them by now, I never would. Now of course I could have done an entire room up in a holiday seashell theme. Too bad. Please post pics if you can! I'd love to see this.

Tracy

Tracy ~ I started hanging shells from my little nature tree this morning before heading off to work. I'm using a fine gold thread to hang them with. DH saw it and really liked it so that made me feel good. I told him I wish I had a small star fish for the top. Don't know if we can find any of those anywhere or not. He said they may not be 'politically correct' these days. I said 'What stars aren't politically correct? They're in the sky for Pete's sake!" (See how easy it is to take something other than what the person meant.) :-) He meant harvesting and selling the little creatures. DUH. Sometimes I think FL has her head in the flowers too much. There is a seashell place in the next town south of us. They might have some, maybe. Except they wouldn't have been found by us. DH did find a nice star fish in some seaweed one time not long ago. We had never found one before and this one was perfect! It's too large for my little tree though. I do have bits and pieces of sand dollars, and DH suggested that if I had one with the star in the center he might could cut it out for me. I told him I didn't think I had that, but I'll have to do a more thorough search tomorrow morning. I will post pictures when it's done.

FlowerLady