The Christmas House

My friends, Andrea and Jimmy, are usually a quiet, charming and unassuming couple, until Christmas, when they go crazy!

First, Jimmy assembles his collection of inflatable figures on the front lawn of their beautiful Victorian shingle home, which is especially funny, since 1) it’s on a major road, b) this is a fairly stuffy neighbourhood and c) these things are HUGE.The cow reindeer figure is about 15 feet high, and moves his head back and forth.

Inside, it’s all Andrea’s work… well starting right at the front door. 

She’s been collecting ornaments and trees for years and has two main trees. The first is a confection of pinks, blues and purples on a white flocked tree.

Wired spangles reflect the lights, while picture-perfect penguins hang along side them.

Even the fireplace is decorated in these jewel tones, as are the swagged curtainsand the side table.

In the dining room, Andrea has strategically placed mirrored balls to reflect the lights. The dining table has a centerpiece of a tree decorated with smaller trees. On the sideboard, there is a veritable forest of trees of all shapes, sizes and colours. Andrea said that she found these little bottle-brush trees at Michael’s and then bleached some and dyed others.

She was delighted at the way they turned out, even matching one with a large pale turquoise ball.

Here’s another sideboard vignette.

And more trees on one of the enviably wide windowsills.

Here’s a detail that you can barely see in the image above… A wonderful mirrored star with gilded magnolia leaves. I love this!

In the sitting room, the second full-size tree is decorated in blacks, whites and reds, with a Mackenzie-Childs influence, including a number of black and white checked Christmas balls, and a black and white checked Christmas tree.

The ornaments on this tree are more traditional, if you think a sock monkey cowboy is traditional!But there really are some trad ornaments, like this glass Santa,and this irate pirate from Newport, RI, this wise old owl, and this vintage ball.When I asked how many trees she had, Andrea told me that she counted about 220, but that there may be more than that!

Thanks to Andrea and Jimmy for showing me their great house, and for sharing their Christmas spirit with everyone, both inside and out!