I don't think holiday + Spanish colonial or Asian necessarily means disaster. Your first picture wouldn't need much to make it Christmassy. And the second seems very autumnal.

I think what you need to focus on is holiday pieces that have the same sort of influence as your regular decorating. I agree that your autumn decoration with the San Isadoro doesn't look quite right. But a wicker cornucopia with gourds would really hit the mark. In this case, I believe it is the shine of the seasonal decoration that doesn't fit. Think too, what is 'harvest' or 'Christmas' or 'Easter' or 'spring' to the people in the picture.

Your Easter tree is cute, but 'cute' wouldn't really be the way to describe your general decorating. Do you have any generic-ly decorated rooms? Bathrooms, kitchens, halls, and even porches sometimes fall in that sort of catagory. Perhaps one of those sorts of spaces is where the Easter tree belongs. Or maybe in DD's French room - the colors might go nice there.

Lynne,
I've often thought about this same thing. Sometimes certain holiday things just don't fit in the general style of my house. Still, I forge ahead anyway. I do think that duckie has some very good points.

Let's suppose you wanted to continue to display your Easter tree. Would changing the branches back to brown and planting it in a Mexican pottery pot or sculptured tin pot help to blend it in more with its surroundings?

And maybe foregoing stuffed or ceramic bunnies and yellow chicks for crudely carved wooden ducks (with soft bows tied around their necks) could add some subtle Easter flavor.

Keeping in mind some of duckie's points, I think I'm going to give more thought into trying to blend in some of my holiday items with my general decorating style. Don't know how good I'll be at it though.

I have a high tolerance for mismatched - that's really my style altho I sometimes prefer to call it eclectic so I use whatever strikes my fancy at the time even if it may not really match. I do find I'm not really attracted to plastic things or bright or pastel colors tho so don't use those very often.

I think the problem (if it is a problem) lies in the contrast between the dark colors you use for decor and the pastels of Easter or the garish bright orange of autumn. If you use colors that blend with the colors of your decor it will look good.

Here's a link with naturally dyed eggs which might work well with your scheme. I'd love to have these but can't be bothered making them for such a short season.

Here is a link that might be useful: naturally colored eggs

Good thread, Lynn. And good timing since I was having a few similar thoughts bumbling around in my head. I really like some of the suggestions the other gals made for you.
Even tho I love your Easter tree, OA's idea for it sounds like a good one that would work in your home.

As for your art work...boy do i understand the problems of temporarily storing it. I have to move several pieces for Christmas, but that is the only time I do. Small table displays (like your Asian one) are not that hard to change out, but I hate moving large pictures. I've never tried "gift wrapping" one, tho have seen photos of other folk's and it can be nice looking. Just not something I've wanted to do. What I have done, is take a print that is appropriate to the Holiday or season (you can get them enlarged to size you need at many copy places) and place them OVER the glass of your framed art. If you don't have glass, you can sometimes easily slip them inside the frame over your painting. Its almost impossible to tell you haven't really framed them! Otherwise, a garland or a swag across the top of the frame (or one of those corner swags on it) can make it a bit more holiday appropriate.

I would think Old World or Primitive, or handcrafted decor would work good for you. I can see where "cutesy" or too vivid colors wouldn't.
Which is the problem I'm having at the moment. I like cute on some Holiday stuff. But my house decor doesn't seem to work for that easily. I recently bought a corner metal shelf unit to put by my front door. My thought being it would make a neat little Holiday vignette area.
Yet looking at the regular stuff in my entry way, now I just can't see doing that afterall. (Except for Christmas when I do everything.) For the upcoming Holidays, till Thanksgiving, I usually just decorate my front porch a bit and the family-room mantel. And what I can around the bay window while keeping it "cat friendly". They love to lay there so I have to share it with them and my decorating.
Oh, and my stacked plates on the kitchen table and cloche on the bathroom counter! Those 2 are the main things, LOL.

Lately I've been thinking I'd like to use the large end table in my family-room for holiday vignettes. I just keeping having doubts that it work without looking like a fish out of water in there. Plus I'm not sure I want to put away the lamp and floral that normally is there. They won't work with ANY holiday stuff either.
So today I'm pulling out my Val stuff and trying to figure out what the heck I want to do with it.

hugs, Karen

Oh-hhhh, you ladies always come up with the BEST ideas! I like all these suggestions! The Mexican pot for the darker tree branch...great idea! lynninnm, your home & art is so, so lovely!

Those naturally colored eggs website is awesome...I think the natural dyed ones would look great in your home, lynn! I was going to suggest that you watch for "wooden eggs"...I have a natural finished basket that I put stained wooden eggs in...on my old treadle machine here in LR.

Thanks, luckygal, for that site! Great ideas! Have fun, lynn! Jeanne S.

Lynn,
I would take a cue from the beautiful place in which you live. Instead of the Easter tree you show, I'd find a branch from outside and hang beautiful Pysanky eggs from it. Like OA suggested, I would get a pottery or tin container, and then I'd put naturalistic rabbits (maybe a jackrabbit!) under it. Certainly for Easter you could use many of those wonderful colors you used in your outside remodel. For Christmas I would use lots of evergreens and seasonal boughs, plus lanterns and bells. I can also see copper-colored bead garlands weaving in and out...

I would probably leave the Asian table the way it is--because traditional Asian cultures do not have a Christian heritage, I think it is very hard to make an Easter or a Christmas decoration fit there.

I know I have had problems with the same things before I changed my style. Now I love my lodge style so much that everything I buy or save works with what I have. I still have a little trouble with spring and summer which tend to be focused on flowers, but I find that if I put a bouquet in a birch-bark basket it looks pretty good!

Good luck, you have a beautiful home and you beautifully decorate it.

- Magpie

luckygal, that site with natural dyed eggs is awesome. I love the patterns done with herbs and other 'naturals'!

Thanks for all you great suggestions. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who's ever thought about this dilemma.

Luckygal, thanks for that link. The naturally dyed eggs they're showing are lovely and would look good in my dining room. I've bookmarked that site so that I can show it to DD this evening (she's skiing in Santa Fe today with her ski club).

Party Music: I like those patterned eggs, too!

Magpie: will you show us some pics of your Lodge style? I really love that look and always enjoy seeing pics of rooms done in that style. As for using jackrabbits for Easter, why not a jackalope, perhaps I should dig out DS's old jackalope (LOL!!). Too funny!

OA, I really like your idea of using a more rustic pot and natural, instead of white, branches for my Easter tree. I need to make a new one this year anyway, since DH walked ours into a door frame last year, breaking off most of it's branches!

The only problem I foresee is my sweet 15 y/o DD. She's still enough of a kid to really balk at going natural instead of pastels for Easter. She already thinks that my Valentines decs are pretty but boring and would have my snowmen and Santas spread out all over ever flat surface of the house at Christmas ;^D

I'll have to come back for this post. Don't have time to ready it all now. What fun this will be. Punk

DH gifted me with a laptop for Christmas and, although I love it, I keep doing something to delete my messages as I'm writing them! I must be inadvertently leaning my hand someplace that does this, but I can't figure out where! After this happened three times, I decided to post half my message before it happened again!

Duckie: My kitchen is the only room that's even halfway "generic". It has an Old World hood over the cooktop and opens to our SW family room, but I designed it to be rather plain so that I could change out the decorations in there seasonally. I think you're right that it would be a good place for any "cute" decs that DD might insist on using.
{{gwi:1404908}}

Here's a pic of New Mexico's phantom "Jackalopes". They're a big joke out here(LOL!):

Ooops, my furkids are asking for breakfast. I'll be back later.
Lynn

LOL! lynninnm...I am LOL because my DH got us a laptop this summer...and I do the SAME THING sometimes! And I haven't figured out how it happens!

I think you've found a wonderful solution to please your DD! Your kitchen is gorgeous & a wonderful palette to work with the "fun" colors, shapes & textures ...i.e., snowmen, santa's, Easter eggs, etc.! Ahhh, our kids leave home all too quickly...so ENJOY (as I know you already do!)

I know if someone buys our home one day, they would come in and probably paint everything white! Lots of wood here & natural finish, which is what I love & feel comfortable in! Diversity! It's a GOOD thing, isn't it...or else as your daughter says, everything would be quite boring! LOL! TFS your beautiful home! Jeanne S.

I think we all have this problem to some extent, everybody has some good ideas on making things work. I know I saw the most adorable large brown bunnies at BL yesterday, and speckled eggs would look great also. When you have such a specific decor like southwestern ( or my pastel kitchen) it makes it harder. Luckily I have other color schemes and styles in my house, my sunroom is the most neutral and I put a lot of things in there that won't go elsewhere. Fall decor is really hard for me, it nearly all goes in the sunroom, which we use as a dining room also. I try to find things that match the room for each season, I'm keeping my eye out for a white turkey platter and pumpkins for my kitchen and I can always find Christmas decs in any color. I admire those who can ignore the clash, I can't help it, I have always been a matchy, matchy type person. DH thinks I'm bordering on OCD about this and house cleaning, even so, the older I get, the more lax I have become, I think part of it is my eyesight is not as good anymore. The one thing I cannot make match is Mardi Gras and we are gearing up for our big party, and it will have to be purple, green and gold.
Syble