Christmas is Red, Green and White - not to mention Golden and Silver

Christmas Tree with Twinkle Lights

So much of our Christmas sensibilities in terms of colour seem to emanate from an Arts and Crafts influenced reinterpretation of Mediaeval church colours. Red and green interspersed with gold and silver and a little white for contrast are just such a classic, classy combination.

I fell in love with old-fashioned trees the year I spent in Chicago and have been adding to my collection ever since. Every year, as I take out the decorations, I remember fondly all my American and international friends who gifted me with trinkets, including a young man from Chile who, using a jig, sawed out a map of Chile from some kind of wood, hung it on copper string - telling me the Statue of Liberty was made from copper donated by Chile to the U.S. of A. We are also patriotic on our tree, with South African beaded flags and the odd Norwegian flag which remembers my father's family. 

Fortunately my husband is very forgiving of my decorating desires when it comes to Christmas. When it comes to decorating Christmas trees, more is not less. More is actually, well, MORE

More lights, more tinsel, more trinkets, more greenery  -

Makes for a delightfully old-fashioned, even late Victorian - no make it Edwardian era (think gas lamps and candles) tree. And let us not forget to decorate the stairs - or the stockings which must get filled, as family tradition decrees, with cans of condensed milk (amongst other goodies).

Stockings on the Stairs

Plus there's also the piano to decorate in the aptly named, "Piano Room", which also stocks the tree:

Christmas time is also when the silver train rides again on our dining room table, complete with Father Christmas on a ladder coming up the side:

Father Xmas with auto-awesome snow effects

Of course, Father Christmas must be bearing gifts, and this year I was given the gift of a gorgeous silver train, courtesy of Carel, my husband's friend who flew out from Ireland, and for which gift I am most grateful - and surprised - little did he know I love trains and have quite a few. 

Here is the full effect:

I decorated the train with all kinds of bits and bobs, including hand-blown, decorated eggs. Essentially, all you do is spray-paint them gold or silver and then using very tacky glue, stick glass beads in patterns onto them, and hang via a 'finding' (which you can purchase from any Ukrainian pysanky store): 

Last year, I contracted Val Raw of Flower Favours to undertake to put in dried flowers since one year the green oasis wasn't dry enough and the moisture then caused mildew to form on all my natural, American Christmas ornaments packed away in that particular box (and so I lost the lot :-(((). But it looks delightful, especially with the gold beads swirling around on the mirror and the chocolate balls - all of which started evaporating in the weeks before Xmas: 

I do love the tiny Father Xmas bead ornament I found and glue-gunned into place, complete with tiny wreath which just fitted perfectly onto the front of the train:

And when it rides on the dining room table, it looks superb:

We even have tiny, hand-made lace snowflakes, delicate as anything, hanging around: 

Not to mention a singing angel or two (press their tummies and they play tunes - and different tunes at that!

But, of course, Christmas isn't Christmas without family in funny hats, which is what it is, after all, all about.