This Christmas tree needs a feather boa, don’t you think?

My holiday decorating day-dreaming has fixated on feathers since a tree decked in buff-colored feather-y ornaments, white paper stars and beeswax pinecones graced the cover of Country Living magazine in 2013. (I save every issue.)

Below that tree, gift boxes wrapped in forest and fern designs with silky teale and pale green ribbon. Mmmmm…

That lovely, natural look had me swooning. Rustic, elegant and unexpected. Inspiring.

My quirky mind — no-doubt brainwashed by all the pretty pictures in magazines and on social media — starts the holiday prep in earnest by envisioning how it will look.

Provided I don’t burn out my time and budget reaching for magazine perfection, the spark for my holiday spirit is welcome. Reaching for that vision is a form of self-care, the necessary prep for hosting.

I love to host, and often make notes on what worked and what didn’t and the timeline for next year as soon as Thanksgiving and Christmas are over. (Actually, I’m kind of always thinking of the next holiday, how it will look and what needs to be done by when. Must have learned something about crushing the monkey mind last year!)

I’ve learned I need to get this done to move onto planning the menus, shop for gifts, wrap the gifts, cook and bake.

Where do you start?

My stepfather starts by making cookies, using his mother’s recipes. Russian tea cakes. Jam thumbprints. Snickerdoodles. Boxes upon boxes of cookies.

I’d guess musicians start by dreaming of what music they will play or sing this year.

My spark is visual. The colors. The materials: Pine and birch. Winterberry and bronze. Feathers and crisp paper.

The lights. The runner for our Thanksgiving table. (Teale velour this year with tea lights, white pumpkins, and tiny metallic pumpkins in bronze, copper and gold.)

Craving ways to use what’s in the garden, I dried loads of hydrangea for wreaths and centerpieces this year.

How about my grandfather’s handmade pinecone wreath? Where should that go this year? What color ribbon? Should I still get a balsam wreath?

I’m too thrifty and stubborn to simply order those feather-y ornaments at $13 a pop (and that was in 2013!) Nor do I get a dozen balsam wreaths so there is one in every window, like all the fancy magazine pictures. Nope.

And I always prefer artisan-made, natural, handmade, vintage, thrifted, re-purposed to the mass market. This year, I caved and ordered some teale fabric and those little metallic pumpkins from Amazon in October so I could mentally move on from table decorations and focus on the rest of the Thanksgiving prep!

This image shows:

– a white pumpkin from a local grower,

– a white taper candle in a clear glass holder from the thrift store,

– a white tealight in clear glass holder

– a teale velour table runner (Amazon)

–  a tiny metallic pumpkin (Amazon)

– a pumpkin decorated in copper rosettes bought on clearance (90% off!) last night from a craft store, while I was looking around for a feather-y tree garland!

– our 12-foot Amish wedding table, naturally aged by years of service, dark drink rings and a little dark stain, from my friend’s vintage shop

– a black vintage chair from my friend’s vintage shop

– a hand-me-down dark brown dining chair

– the Christmas tree, lit and awaiting attention!

From Feather-Foraging to Feel-Good Gatherings

My stash includes wild turkey feathers and a fantail a friend who hunts gave me. And I bought half a yard of teale and bronze feather trim this fall.

Both are too dark.

Maybe this is the year for the wheat-colored and bronze-y feathers on the tree?! We’ll see.

Because — the real focus must shift to how the holidays feel around here for all of us. And I can’t wear myself out searching for feathers!

When our family and friends visit through the holidays, will they feel warm and welcome and comfortable the second they walk through the door? That’s my plan. Even if it’s a little zany right before a meal and I’m delegating and reminding? Are the water glasses full? Let’s light the candles!

It felt so good to hear our family chatting around our Thanksgiving table during dinner, then see the little kids running around and laughing on a scavenger hunt my mom planned for them. Everyone seemed comfortable.

My mom was sick over Easter, so I was thrilled she could and my stepdad could come for Thanksgiving.

I love the teamwork of prepping a holiday meal: My husband roasts the turkey and makes the mashed potatoes, my mom cooks the brussels sprouts and makes the mushroom gravy. I make the pies, the stuffing and dress the table.

Twinkle Lights Chase Away the Blues

It feels so good to have the Christmas tree here already with the lights strung. A patch of blues often hits me after Thanksgiving and I fall behind on prepping for Christmas. Read Kicking the Holiday Blues.

Once the tree is up, I feel so much better. My goal this year was to have the tree up and lit by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend.

So I was thrilled that the sweet young couple that bought Tuckaway Tree Farm near McAlevy’s Fort is selling trees and hosted a tree-tagging event in mid-November. It helped me plan ahead.

I had to push myself a little, since it was so rainy and gloomy out. And that’s exactly the point. These short, dark days can dampen spirits for a lot of us.

For centuries, people across many cultures have used evergreens to help them push through the darkest time of year, and remind them of the green growth to come.

We crave the beautiful. We crave the natural. We crave the light.

According to History.com: Martin Luther, is believed to have first added lighted candles to an evergreen tree. The 16th century Protestant reformer was struck by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens while walking hone one winter evening, composing a sermon. He erected a tree in the main room of his home and wired its branches with lighted candles to share the scene for his family.

The truth is … this tree is perfectly beautiful right now, just with lights.

That’s enough. That’s plenty.

(And I’m still going to look around for some feathers, at the right price, of course. Not too much longer. Just a couple more places…)

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