Red Dirt Ramblings®

Firmly rooted in the Oklahoma soil

Lit-up 1960s Santa Claus with double-flowering amaryllis and paperwhites. I like to force bulbs indoors.

A little Christmas Bloom Day Decor

All around the house, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Although we Catholics are still technically celebrating the season of Advent, Christmas is right around the corner. Bill and I are throwing a party for some friends tonight. I haven’t had a Christmas party for anyone other than family in years. I’m pretty excited, so I decorated the house with almost everything I own. It’s been a blast to uncover all of my decorations and to pull growing bulbs from the greenhouse.

So far, I have amaryllis, orchids, hyacinths, non-stinky paperwhites and lily of the valley because blooming plants beat the winter blues. Only the amaryllis and orchids are actually blooming. The others are growing and will probably be ready by January’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day.

Lit-up 1960s Santa Claus with double-flowering amaryllis and paperwhites. I like to force bulbs indoors.
Lit-up 1960s Santa Claus with double-flowering amaryllis and paperwhites. I like to force bulbs indoors.

Our family party will still happen, as it always does, on Christmas Eve.

Shiny old International Silver punch bowl. Bill bought it for me at a local antique shop, and Claire and I polished it yesterday.
Shiny old International Silver punchbowl. I’ll dress up the table with a festive tablecloth. I hang my tablecloths in my spare closet to keep them from creasing so badly. My mother-in-law taught me that. I also now buy tablecloths with some polyester. I throw them in the dryer on refresh instead of ironing.

Bill and I found this silver-plated punchbowl at one of our local antique stores in Guthrie. The store is Magnolia and was named years before Chip and Joanna Gaines took their company to the national stage. The punchbowl belonged to a young woman’s grandparents. She didn’t want to polish it so it was languishing. I bought some amazing Wright’s Silver Cream, and Claire and I fixed it up in a jiffy. I’m going to serve Martha Stewart’s eggnog in it. Won’t that be splendid?

[Click on the photos in the galleries to make them larger.]

The Christmas tree is fully loaded and lit. This view is from the kitchen.
The Christmas tree from the front door.
The table behind the sofa has a poinsettia and a Tiffany-style lamp. The framed image says, “Joy.”
Poinsettia and indoor Christmas decor. Poinsettias are probably my favorite Christmas flower with amaryllis (hippeastrum) a close second. Isn’t it interesting that my two favorite holiday flowers are tropicals?
Christmas cactus, amaryllis (Hippeastrum) and paperwhites for natural decor next to the window.

I love poinsettias. My mom made the bowl, below, when I was in high school in the late 70s. It’s one of my favorite things, but I’m taking it to her apartment this week. When I helped her move a couple of months ago, I took her Christmas decorations and put them in a separate place in my closet. I accidentally didn’t get this one to her because it was in a different box. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Ha!

My mom was really talented at ceramics, and I’m grateful I have a Santa and a bell she made. I’ll need to give her bowl back.

Fun Santa pillow I found at Target.
My Mom’s Christmas poinsettia bowl she made in the late 70s.
Silver bell nativity scene a dear friend gifted me. I love polishing the bells and setting them out each year, and I say a little prayer for her family as I do.
Christmas tea set Mom bought me when my children were small.
Santa Claus made by my mom in the 1970s. Isn’t he adorable?

For the food, I made David Lebovitz’s spicy pretzel and nut mix, his green olive almond tapenade. I also took a play from his book L’Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home. In France, hosts rely upon good food prepared by locals instead of making everything themselves which is a brilliant idea.

David Lebovitz's nut-snack mix. The pretzels are gluten free, but you'd never know it.
David Lebovitz’s nut-snack mix. The pretzels are gluten free, but you’d never know it. This stuff is like crack.

I bought a wonderful selection of hard and soft cheeses including a lovely brie that I’m going to top with honey, almonds, and amaretto on advice from my friend, Gabi. With it, I’ll serve the best gluten-free crackers, Simple Mills naturally gluten-free seal salt/almond flour crackers. All of Simple Mills’ flavors are great, but because I wanted the cheeses and olive tapenade to shine, I chose the sea salt ones, along with rosemary & sea salt ones. If you ever find their barbecue ones, get them.

My daughter, Megan, is making cherries in the snow, one of the prettiest and easiest Christmas desserts out there. She’ll make the angel food cake gluten-free with Kinnikinnick gluten-free angel food cake mix. Angel food cake is one of the easiest cakes to make gluten free because it is mostly egg whites and sugar.

This is our original nativity scene that I collected over several years when our children were young. Do you remember these?
Fitz and Floyd Santa from our daughter, Ashley, many years ago.
Swarovski crystal poinsettias Bill bought in New York. He fell in love with their sparkle.

My best friend, Aimee, is making gingerbread cookies. Yum. I have See’s almond covered toffee if I don’t eat it all beforehand. There are also sausage balls which I need to figure out how to make gluten-free. If I accomplish it, I’ll try to post the recipe here. We’ll also have a vegetable tray so we’re healthy. Insert laughing here.

Hyacinth bulbs starting to grow. They will smell so good after Christmas.
Hyacinth bulbs starting to grow. They will smell so good after Christmas.

I’m serving some sparkling wines, iced tea, coffee, Coke and Sprite bottled in Mexico (with real sugar) and of course, eggnog. If anyone else wants to mix a drink, they are welcome to do so. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

What kind of parties are you having in the next few weeks?

This post is part of Carol Michel’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Thank you for again hosting Carol. MWAH!

Also, this post does contain a few affiliate links from Amazon to help me pay for disk space to host the blog. I recently had to update hosting, and it does cost me monthly to maintain the space. After ten years of blogging, this little blog has become quite bloated, and I may be too after tonight’s party.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lucy Corrander

    Didn’t have a Christmas tree this year – but did buy a poinsettia . . . which I over-watered so all the red and green bits fell off and it looked like a grape twig. In some ways I’m glad. It looked good at the right time and I felt ok about throwing it away afterwards rather than struggling through the year with it in the hope it will be red again in 2018.
    Happy new year!
    https://looseandleafyinhalifax.blogspot.co.uk/

    • Dee Nash

      Hey Sweetbay! I’m glad you like all the wood. I live in a log house so I don’t really have a choice except to embrace it. I have sheetrocked a few walls in the bedrooms to give us some contrast. Thanks so much and thanks for coming by.~~Dee

  5. Pam's English Garden

    How lovely, Dee, to take a peek into your home at Christmas time! But, oh no, I forgot to bring my three amaryllis up from the basement. Thanks for the reminder; hope they aren’t dead! I’m sure your party was a terrific success. I am hosting a lunch and a couple of dinner parties, and of course, the big family dinner on Boxing Day — the best part of the holidays is time spent with friends and family. Merry Chiristmas, Dee. P. x

    • Dee Nash

      Pam, it’s so lovely to hear from you. I’ve missed your sweet voice. I think your amaryllis will be just fine. They’ll just be later than usual I bet. Merry Christmas to you and yours. Enjoy Boxing Day and the party.~~Dee

  6. annamadeit

    My dad always forces bulbs, and I remember how mysterious I thought the hyacinths were – sitting in a dark closet with little paper cone hats. How fun to throw a Christmas party – a great way to put all those heirloom collections to good use. Have fun – it looks wonderfully inviting!

    • Dee Nash

      Hey Anna, I still think they’re pretty mysterious too. Haha! I do them every year, but it’s always a surprise. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

      • annamadeit

        I might have to start forcing some too – it such a nice thing to see emerge when everything else is going dormant. Need to put it on the calendar next year, so I don’t forget…. 🙂

  7. Lisa at Greenbow

    We just had a birthday party for a friend. Of course it looks like Christmas here. We are having another birthday party, 90th, for another friend on Christmas Eve. I love parties and all the trappings. Your home looks ready of anything. I love those big silver punch bowls. A friend of mine has one that I can borrow whenever needed. Our parties are usually smaller dinner parties. Not too fancy, just warm and friendly. I love the bowl full of amaryllis. It looks so cheerful. Happy Happy…

    • Dee Nash

      Hey Lisa! I loved hearing about your parties. Ours are usually smaller too unless we invite Bill’s family. Then they get pretty huge. I think all the trappings are so much fun to create. Merry Christmas!

  8. Beth @ PlantPostings

    It all looks very festive and warm, Dee. We had our big party for Thanksgiving, so we’re gladly letting others host Christmas. But it’s still nice to have some decorations here and there and a creche to show the reason for the season. Yours is really special. 🙂

    • Dee Nash

      Hello sweet Beth! I’m glad I don’t have to do both Christmas and Thanksgiving. I would be worn out. I do love a good party though. Merry Christmas my friend.~~Dee

  9. Debbie Fish

    It’s all beautiful. When you recover from the party, would you post how to force the amaryllis bulbs. They grow so easily from seed here and I’ve ended up with TONS of them, but only grow them in the ground. With so many, it seems a shame not to pot up some for Xmas bloom inside. I’ve never known exactly when to dig and dry to ensure bloom in December. Your thoughts, please???