Sunday, December 5, 2010

In hopes of St. Nicholas

I don't have a fireplace...so I don't have a mantle to decorate.
Yes, it's very, very sad!

Luckily, however, I do have a gorgeous buffet that I bought of off KSL.com for $80 a year ago (and I was in Montana at the time, so I made my sister drop everything and go get it for me!).

In my house, it substitutes as a mantle to decorate! So here it is...my lovely buffet.


Usually I save my favorite things for last, but this time I'm going to show them first! And my favorites are...the stockings!

When my first baby was born, my craftiness came out in counted-cross stitch (look here for two big Santa pictures I made for my mother). I found a darling stocking kit, and I made it up for her first Christmas. Of course, then I could do no less for the subsequent children!


I eventually had to resort to eBay to buy more stocking kits. I wanted them all to be the same size, you see...and face the same direction.


Some stockings had to "wait their turn" until I was expecting a baby of the appropriate gender! But it all worked out perfectly in the end.



There are hours and hours of work in these stockings. I have told my children that they don't really belong to them...they are mine for always! They are far and away my favorite handmade Christmas decoration.

I also made a custom board to hang and display all the stockings. "In Hopes of St. Nicholas" is a line from "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," and I used six different knobs as the stocking hangers. I love to bring it out every year!


On my buffet sits a little ceramic tree that has been a part of my Christmases for about as long as I can remember. It was made by a sweet neighbor who lived across the street from us, and my mother used to display it on her sideboard (shown here), opposite of one my grandmother made. Alas, my mother's collection of Christmas decorations has outstripped her storage capacity, so last year this little tree came home with ME! It may not be hip, or chic, or Pottery Barn...but it's home.


In keeping with all things glass and sparkly, next I have these pretty hand-made-in-Montana glass dishes (and I promise the color is much prettier in person), which hold ornaments and jingle bells for now, but Christmas candy when I get around to making some... (same for the glass boxes)



And last the candle holders, which repeat the bright green and red and hold glitter-covered candles!


Who needs a mantle anyway??




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7 comments:

Rachel said...

Very pretty! I think you did just fine without a mantle. :D I made stockings (needle point) for my kids and then when I started to have a gazillion more and finding kits was close to impossible I resorted to LL Bean making them for me. :)

So fun to see grandma's tree. My mom has a big one that she did and I just loved it. Every year I'd turn it on and then turn off the lights in the house so just that little tree glowed.

I'm glad you have a piece of my grandma and her love of ceramics and color!! :D I miss her and can't wait to get to know her better in the next life. Dad says I'm a lot like her. I take that as a compliment!

Every Day Blessings said...

I love your Christmas tree, I have a white one that my mother-in-law made me the first year I was married. I think your stockings are adorable and you found a perfect place to display them.

Betty G said...

I love your buffet and all of your beautiful decorations. You are inspiring! :)

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Anonymous said...

My mom cross stitched all her children, their siblings and her grandchildren stockings - 21 in all. so when my children got married and started having children they wanted them too. I am finishing my 9th this Christmas -love your holder

Funky Junk Interiors said...

Oh my gosh.. my mom had that same tree but hers was painted white. It caught me for a moment. Now I wish I had kept it!

Lovely decor! The wreath is so cool against the wood!

Donna
http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/

Sandy said...

Your buffet decor is lovely but the stocking are the sweetest ever. I still have my son and daughters first stockings too. Maybe someday they will actually be theirs but like you I have kept them as my own. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!