“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”
John 1:9
Happy December dear friends and welcome to Monday Morning Blooms. Are you busy decking the halls, or perhaps you have finished? It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our Appalachian Foothills home! I spent the weekend decorating the inside of our home while my Renaissance Man was cutting and hanging boughs of pine on our kitchen porch. In addition to hanging pine boughs, he crafted his Williamsburg fruit fan to hang above the entrance to his workshop. I still have a little more to complete before I can prop up my feet, drink cappuccinos, and eat fruitcake!
This is a most exciting First Monday in December! Our dear friend and leader, Shirley is back with us today. Lidy, Mary, and I are just so thrilled that she felt well enough to join us. I have missed her these past few months, just as I know you have. Her talent and creativity are beyond amazing as are her kindness and sweet spirit.
I am also excited to share a fabulous centerpiece giveaway today. Be sure to read to the bottom to see how to enter! Seasons Greetings sweet friends!
If you are a long time reader, you know I enjoy setting a pretty table. There is nothing that evokes more warmth and love than making sure your table is inviting for your guests. I particularly love using blue and white any time, any season…
…especially mixed with tartan for Christmas!
The links for my talented blogging friends are provided at the bottom of this post.
Once again we are collaborating with Lynch Creek Farm, a family owned business established in 1980 producing sustainable evergreen products.
A centerpiece is most important for your holiday table and I chose this woodsy, beautiful, and fragrant Woodland Birch. A striking birch-log pillar LED candle provides a soft flickering luminescent glow that adds warmth and beauty to any room or table. The birch candle is encircled by a lush ring of fresh noble fir, incense cedar, and white pine. Pine cones, clusters of red ball ornaments, and gorgeous red burlap bows finish this striking ensemble.
Queen’s Seasons Greetings blue and white dinnerware was discovered at Tuesday Morning many years ago. We use it for everyday during the Christmas season. I paired the Seasons Greetings with tartan chargers and Ralph Lauren cutwork placemats that rest atop a wool tartan throw. Yes, I mix tartans…the more the merrier!
The centerpiece slipped so easily inside this blue and white bowl. It isn’t an antique or anything special, just a piece I picked up somewhere along the way! It does make a statement with the stunning Woodland Birch centerpiece tucked inside!
Tip: look for cute ornaments that can be used as napkin rings, they are half the price of a real napkin ring. I think I picked these up at Walmart.
“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”
-Norman Vincent Peale
The gorgeous centerpiece is low enough not to block the faces of those seated across from you. That is most important for warm conversation.
Caring for the centerpiece is quite easy. With proper care the centerpiece should last at least three weeks. My centerpiece from Lynch Creek Farm last year was beautiful until mid January. Upon arrival, add 1/2 cup water to the center of the oasis form. To properly care for the centerpiece, add 1/2 cup water and spritz every 2-3 days to bring out the natural fragrance.
To the center of the table, I added fresh cut cedar, vintage sterling candle stands…
…and hurricane globes filled with blue and silver ornaments.
“Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.”
-Peg Bracken
Now for the GIVEAWAY!
Lynch Creek Farm has generously offered to give away a centerpiece to one of my readers. The Woodland Birch centerpiece has been extremely popular and has sold out. But my lucky winner can choose from any of the centerpieces found on the Lynch Creek Farm website. There are a few that are sold out, but still so many beautiful ones to choose from. How fabulous is that?
So how do you enter? Leave me a comment about your most cherished Christmas ornament or decoration. Now, isn’t that easy?
This giveaway is open to residents of the continental U.S. through midnight (EST) Thursday, December 5, 2019.
Please be sure your email is correct in the comment section so that I can notify the winner.
For more chances to win be sure to visit Shirley, Mary, and Lidy and comment according to their directions.
Shirley @ Housepitality Designs
Mary @ Home Is Where The Boat Is
Thank you so much for your lovely visits and a special thank you to Lynch Creek Farm for providing me with this lovely centerpiece and one to giveaway to a reader. Be sure to come back tomorrow for a Christmas Tablescape Blog Hop. Wishing you a joy-filled day!
The winner of a Lynch Creek Farm centerpiece is Sandra L. Thank you to all who entered!
Linking with:
Pieced Pastimes, Between Naps on the Porch, Katherines Corner, Follow The Yellow Brick Home,
Imparting Grace, Calypso in the Country
You are getting me into the Christmas spirit! You have waved your magic wand creating this tablescape. The fresh centerpiece is lovely from Lynch Creek Farms. It looks beautiful in your blue and white bowl. I like how you layered the tartans with the pretty white placemats framing your plate stack. The Christmas tree pattern in blue and white is so pretty.
My most cherished decoration is a ceramic nativity hand painted by my mother in the late sixties. My mother has been with the Lord for 35 years so it has graced me in my home for a long time. It even traveled with us to Alaska for five years and has lived in four homes.
My favorite ornament on our tree is one that my sweet Dad gave me many years ago. It is a red & white striped miniature sock that says Merry Christmas on it. I have had this for over 55 years. It is the first ornament I hang along with our family star ornament. My sock has some pennies in it that I was given by my Dad, who was an avid coin collector. Dad passed away from a brain tumor at the age of 45 soon after we were wed. So it is definitely very meaningful to me.
This centerpiece is so very lovely and I would cherish winning such a lovely floral tribute to our Christmas season, the birth of our Lord. Thanks again for remembering your readers and Lynch Creek Farm!!Merry Christmas!!
Picking one favorite ornament for me is like picking one child over another. All of my ornaments are special to me. I love the sparkly glass, the glitter, the shine of the ornaments on the tree. It usually takes me a full day to decorate my tree mainly because I enjoy the warm rush of memories that I get when I open up a storage box full of ornaments. Now that my tree is decorated, I have a cup of coffee in hand and I am throughly enjoying look at the sparkle and beauty that the Christmas tree brings each year.
My favorite ornament is a corsage I wore as a child some 70 years ago. It’s a ceramic angel face surrounded by white rabbit fur and a gold metal halo. I cherish the ornaments from my dear grandmother and mother, too. They saved me such happy memories! I have carried on this tradition with our children. Thank you for many happy Sundays reading your blog. Merry Christmas.
Your able is beautiful I love the red plaid with the blue touches. Those dishes are so pretty,I have seen them on some other blogs. I have two sets of Christmas dishes I use during the season. I have a box of shiny brite ornaments from my childhood and they are by far my favorite ornament. I love the Maine Attractio from Lynch creek
Pam, This is gorgeous! I love blue and white mixed with tartan plaid…the more plaids the merrier for me too! Queen’s Seasons Greetings is beautiful paired with the tartan and I love the additional pops of blue from your goblets, ornaments in your hurricanes and blue candlesticks on your table. Both you and Shirley’s centerpieces are beautiful nestled in your blue and and white bowls…great minds decorate alike. 🙂 As always it’s a treat to join you and share some Monday Morning Blooms. Merry December. ♥
My mother gave me the angel tree topper my grandmother made and I just love it. It is made of cardboard covered in silver paper, a dolls head and silver doily folded in half to look like wings. My kids think she’s creepy, lol, but I cherish her!
I love your dining room table with plaid throw and blue and white bowl.
Oh, how sweet of you to offer this giveaway! My favorite Christmas decoration is the precious nativity scene I won through a House of Lloyd party years ago, shortly after my sweet husband and I were married. It has weathered much through the years, the most current storm being a horrific flood that came through our little town in 2017. The flood waters rose and overflowed the banks of the Chattahoochee River that runs directly behind our rental, and unbeknownst to us, the flood waters seeped through our downstairs storage in to the crate of our beloved Christmas ornaments and decorations. We didn’t realize it had seeped into the inside of the crate until many months later. Imagine our horror to find many of our cherished Christmas things ruined, including the dear, old “barn” that held our nativity scene each year! I cried and cried. We tossed all that was beyond saving, and it was quite a task to clean up the things that could be saved, but praise the dear Lord, the actual nativity set itself was perfectly fine!!! We came up with a new way of displaying it by turning a basket on its side, and it looks just beautiful sitting on the side table that sits beside our front door. Every time I look at it, I am reminded of the love and mercy and goodness of God in protecting something that is so near to my heart and also how He spared our lives through that awful flood. I remember standing on our balcony being so terrified as the waters just literally RAGED past so forcefully and at such a violent speed, seeing it flow up over its banks on the opposite side of the river, but seeing how God’s Almighty hand kept it from ever overflowing completely on our side. He is a faithful God who is worthy of our trust, and His ears are open to our prayers each time we pray. I have never loved Him more, and I am so thankful He allowed me to see another Christmas with my dear, precious family. Thank you for inviting us to share here! God bless the two of you this Christmas season!
I’m first time visitor and I love your traditional cozy Christmas table setting! My favorite Christmas Knick knack is a pair of snowmen huddled under a plaid blanket with stocking hats on and dangling feet sporting ice skates. The pair sit on my kitchen window sill, with their cute legs hanging over, all of December and most of the winter because I can’t bear to pack them away! My late sister and I had a thing for ice skates after she broke her arm skating on my 30th birthday!
Merry Christmas
Pam, your tablescapes always make me smile. They remind me of my mother who is an excellent decorator as well! After 32 years of military life, we have many ornaments from all over the world and each reminds us of a friend or family who dearly touched our lives. I also cherish the box of family heirlooms handed down from my grandmother, ones made by our daughter, and those purchased on special trips. The memories always come flooding back when we decorate the tree. But, by far, my most special ornament is a nail spike which hides on the inside of our tree to remind us of the nail-scarred hands of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you and Lynch Creek Farm for the giveaway opportunity, and Merry Christmas!
You’re right — that’s easy! But first, kudos to you for another glorious table. I love the ornament napkin ring idea and I’m a sucker for plaid so that’s a joy. But the big surprise to me was how beautiful the blue looked with the traditional reds. Very lovely indeed, as as that centerpiece.
My favorite ornament. I can only pick one? Perhaps the most precious to me is the only one I have of my grandmothers, a beaded piece that is all but falling apart. Still, it’s carefully wrapped each year (and to be honest, no more falling apart than it was when I inherited it from my mom decades ago.) It has been loved. There are close seconds — a beautiful “winter wonderland” glass ball, definitely vintage, that I remember from my childhood as well and ones I’ve added since then. But if I have to pick one…!!!
Thanks for hosting the drawing, Pam. It’s a lovely treat!
Your table brings all the cheer and warmth of the Christmas season. As always, I enjoy your blog. Every year as I unpack the ornaments for our tree, I always cherish the small, delicate porcelain angel that belonged to my grandmother so many years ago. This ornament is hung in the front and near the top of our tree. The soft lights on the tree amplify the angel’s radiance.
I’d have to choose the round ball ornament with the cardinals on it, that says “Our First Christmas” with the date of 1977, the first Christmas we shared as a married couple. Thank you, and to Lynch Creek for a wonderful giveaway!
My mist cherished ornament is from my childhood..it’s a Shiny Bright…silver with he dimpled front and a church us snuggled inside the dimple…I carefully hang it every year. It is at least 74 years old.. I hope to pass it on to one of my children…your table is GORGEOUS!!!
Love your tartan plaid with the blue! Your lynch creek farm arrangement is perfect in the pretty blue bowl. Would love to win a piece from Lynch Creek Farms. Their items are just gorgeous!
I have so many favorite ornaments from being a church organist for 31 years, every year dear older ladies in the church would give me hand made ornaments. Most of the ladies have passed on but I have those wonderful memories of them making these ornaments.
Beautiful, Pam! Love that birch log, no wonder it’s sold out. Lynch Creek does a great job with their items. Thank you for the opportunity. Your blue dishes from Tuesday Morning make for great everyday ware for Everyday Living!
Oops….favorite ornament. It changes through the years, but I cherish a porcelain ballerina my mother gave me, and a glass Santa that was hers.
Pam, everything looks so pretty! You have combined two of my favorite things plaid and blue and white. Your arrangement placed in the blue and white bowl is so stunning and is the perfect centerpiece. A family member gifted us a Lynch Creek Farms wreath that arrived last week. It was gorgeous and of an exceptional quality! Now for the favorite ornament… I’ve tried, but I can’t choose just one. The ornaments my children made are very special treasures. Also, when I was a little girl my grandfather would take me each Christmas to purchase a special gift for my parents. It was always something I looked forward to. One year in particular, he bought me a porcelain doll ornament. It sweetly hangs on my tree every year, and it reminds me of those special shopping trips. I miss my grandparents so much. This year on my memory tree are a few of their ornaments that always hung on their tree. I look at them and a flood of precious and happy memories are with me. I hope this month of December brings you lots of blessing and joy, sweet friend!!!
Pam, your table is stunning. And I so love the blue and white with the red, just gorgeous. But, if I could only pull your goblets through the screen, I would be a happy girl. My favorite ornament on our tree is a lovely velvet frog that belonged to my mom. My mom loved frogs and she named this one Priscilla. She has sparkles on her toes and is wearing a crown. Happy week to you, sweet friend.❤
Good morning, l love your table just beautiful! My favorite ornament is the little high heels I have collected over the yrs. I decorate my tree in purple, gold and green! Merry Christmas! Thank you!
Your table is so beautiful! Love the blue Christmas tree plates. That centerpiece is lovely. My most cherished ornament is a vintage pink one that my Dad gave my Mom their first Christmas together.
I love the use of plaid for the holiday season. I makes everything seem all warm and cozy. As for my favorite decoration, I think it is my Sleeping Santa candy dish. It was given to me by a friend many years ago and was handmade. It reminds me of Santa being so tired after a long nights work and his satisfaction with a job well done. He’s plump, covered with a crazy quilt and has his one foot out from under the covers… the same way I sleep. Merry Christmas.
Oh Pam… you have my attention! This tablescape has all my loves! Tartan Plaid… and Blue and White! Oh so gorgeous! Love, love! The Blue goblets and hurricanes filled with blue and white ornaments are such beautiful accents to the stunning centerpiece! A table for lingering… I love to linger!
As for me… my most beloved Christmas treasures are Christmas gifts from my boys when they were young. Oh how I treasure them. A homemade ornament, a snowman feeding birds, a snowman Welcome banner and a snowman holding a flickering candle. I love them all! And my boys are such fabulous men…!!
Happy December!
Pam, your table settings are always so pretty. I love how bright and cheerful that centerpiece is with all the red,blue,and green. My favorite ornament on my tree is 3 little white deer from my childhood I guess, also a little ballerina ornament from when my daughter and I went to see the Nut Cracker in San Francisco when she was little. Thanks for sharing and may you and your family have a blessed holiday season.
My favorite piece at Christmas is an old gravy bowl that was given to us by an extremely poor elderly lady. It was her mother’s gravy bowl and she wanted to give us something special from her heart. I would be afraid to use it because hot gravy may be too much for it’s brown stains and cracked glaze. Every time we see it, it reminds us that it’s not the price or the gift at Christmas but the heart. Gifts from our hearts are always special. I think that’s why I love the table-scapes. A piece of your heart is in each one — all year round, but Christmas —- they are beyond special.
Pam, the table is so beautiful. I love the traditional red/green plaid with blue added. My tree is in memory of our grandbaby, Mattie Grace who died while being carried at 20 weeks. She would have been 17 yrs old. I have angels of various kinds all over my tree. My special ones are the ones I found at Cracker Barrel with plaid material edged in batten berge lace. The tree reminds me of how precious life is. We have 7 other grands who are special blessings!
A festive tablescape Pam. I love the blue and white with tartan! It’s beautiful. Your plates are so pretty. Your centerpiece is gorgeous & I can just imagine the wonderful fragrance! It’s inspiring me to get outside & cut some cedar. My favorite ornament is the last one my Mom gave me. A nativity scene carved from a light creamy stone shaped like a Christmas tree. Little did either of us know it would be her last to give but I cherish it the most as this one had the true meaning of Christmas-Jesus’ birth. What more appropriate for this to be the last one of many she gave me as this was a many years long tradition. Each time I hang it I think of the last Christmas we had together & the sweet child like excitement she had during the holidays. Have a great week Pam. Clara ♥️
A favorite ornament evokes a flood of memories. It’s a plastic silver star that was my grandmother’s. As a very small child I watched her put ornaments on her tree. As I grew older I helped place them there. As the years flew by the ornaments gradually broke. This one managed to survive even into the nursing home. It is a very special treasure to me not because of any monetary worth but because of the good memories of my grandmother.
I enjoyed your combination of plaid and my favorite color…..blue. So festive. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Pam, your table is so elegant and perfectly styled with tartan plaid and the blue and white. Every detail speaks of your attention to detail but most of all it welcomes Advent. The angel topper that was Mother’s is far and away my favorite as Dad gave this as a gift to Mother. She cherished it. I keep it out all year long and it graces many of my tables.Thank you Pam for your eye on excellence even with an unbelievably busy schedule. Blessings to you my friend.
Your blue additions are perfect!!! And that dotted stemware? Perfection!
What a beautiful tablescape!
My favorite ornament is a hand painted ceramic Santa that was inherited from my great grandmother.
Thank you for the giveaway! I love the Christmas Vintage Truck centerpiece!
My most cherished Christmas ornaments are the one’s my son’s made when they were in school;you know the one’s with their picture glued on construction paper cutouts. I have every one of them they made over 30 years ago! I love your table decor! Just beautiful! Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!
My parents started a tradition when I was in my early teens. They gave me a German nutcracker in the form of a Chimney Sweep. Each year I would put it up in the house meaning that Christmas was coming. Someone after that would gift me another nutcracker and my husband began giving me nutcrackers for Christmas after we were married. Each year though the one that started it all off is always put in a prominent spot. I have quite a collection of them in all sorts of characters and themes.
I love the porcelain ornament that belonged to my mother.
Thank you for your inspiration…..spiritual as well as tablescaping! There is always more than one idea to incorporate. I can’t pick just one ornament, but a very special one was given to my mother, I think, by her dad.
What a lovely post this morning! I love decorating my home, however it has gotten scaled down as my husband and I have gotten older. My favorite decoration is a tiny all in one piece Nativity scene we bought 61 years ago for our first Christmas. Such lovely memories over these many years!
Hi Pam, it is so nice to meet you! I’m a fan of Lidy’s here in Southern California! Now I can enjoy your wonderful decorating and beautiful postings. Your table setting is beautiful and I’m taken by the plaid! I would love to win your centerpiece!
My favorite ornaments are not ornaments at all, but 3 white country lighted structures – 2 Victorian farmhouses and a country church. I’ve had theses for many years, lighted, sitting on my fireplace mantel, with little metal cars parked by the church, snowmen and Victorian figures in the snow drifts, with white magnolia blooms and Christmas greens all around. Thank you so much and may you and your family be blessed this holiday season!
My most cherished ornament is a needlepoint miniature stocking that my mother-in-law made for our first Christmas together.
So wonderful, Pam, each time I visit you I’m in love with your setting. You have such a talent to create beauty, beauty that is elegant, yet very welcoming. The plaid is a holiday favorite, isn’t it? I’m completely smitten by your beautiful table, and can imagine your family and friends enjoying it for the holidays. You have a magic wand hidden somewhere, don’t you, secretly waving it when you need a gorgeous setting?
My favorite ornaments remain the ones my girls made in school, long ago, out of paper, toothpicks and styrofoam ball and glitter, lots of glitter. No matter how elegant our tree may look, those are always on the tree, they are my memory ornaments. xoxo Lidy
Oh I love this Woodland Birch centerpiece! I’ve been in love with blue willow style dishes since I was a child dusting them in my grandmother’s china hutch. Adding the wool tartan plaid runner was the perfect touch. Thank you for sharing.
Welcome back to Shirley…her sweet presence has been missed. I never thought when I admired the blue/white on tartan centerpiece the other day that it might land on our table because of a very generous opportunity for the fans to win one. Be still my heart…Candle lit and fingers crossed. On to the next… what a treat it is to view the creative Christmas ideas of 4 extremely talented ladies.. We share Butch’s take on it all and have had a Williamsburg apple fan over our front door and heading the staircase lo these many years…a favorite decoration, not to mention the childhood magic of ornaments made by our little ones over the years. Memories and traditions wrapped in love just about sums it up for most of us. I praise the Lord
for bringing us all together to share and glory in the kindred spirit found here.
I always love the imprint of my children’s baby hands on an ornament. It is so precious to me especially as they grow older and you think how small they were.
What a gorgeous table setting! I love your blue and white dishes and tartan plaid. Perfection!!
My most cherished ornaments are wooden handprints of my 2 children’s very own handprints made at school as a Christmas gift to me when they were in elementary school. They hold a special
place in my heart!❤️ I love that you share of your gift of creating beautiful tablescapes with us! Merry Christmas!!❤️
Your tabletop is stunning. My favorite piece is the Home Sweet Home centerpiece.
I have 2 Santa’s that were my parents when they were children and I put them in our tree each year. Your table is beautiful
Oh way to easy. My favorite ornament is old and from my childhood. It’s a German glass peacock that clips onto a tree branch. I love it so much. Hope I win the centerpiece and your table is beautiful.
Oh Pam, the way you styled your table to match the centerpiece is perfection! The tartan cloth, and blue and white tree plates, the natural elements, swooooon, go gorgeous! The shiny and snowy ornaments and plaid chargers and your beautiful goblets, it is all fabulous! Whoa, you have been a busy gal!! As for favorites, I have too many favorites to choose one…and I just bought a large nutcracker that just might be my new favorite!
Jenna