Another Christmas has Come and Gone.

Here’s a look at the lead up to the big day in my corner of the PNW.

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Illuminations

^{Wild Lanterns at Woodland Park Zoo}

We started off celebrations with a night time illuminations adventure! This year, Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo featured a new holiday tradition called Wild Lanterns. The zoo has been open evenings since mid November to showcase hundreds of “animals” recreated in lantern form! Tickets were pre-sold with timed entry to limit the number of guests in the park. It was a great socially distanced way to kick off the holidays.

^{Just a small sampling of the displays! Here we cover peacocks, giraffes, alligators and a giant cheery toad.}

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The Hunt

^{Hunter’s Tree Farm}

Next on the Christmas agenda - Finding a tree! Since being married, my husband and I have been an artificial Christmas Tree family. It was really the only option when we lived in Australia, and after moving back to the USA we just kept with the fake tree. However, this year of stress and crazy seemed like a good one to reintroduce a fresh cut tree to our holiday.

I grew up in northeast Seattle’s View Ridge neighborhood. Every year my family bought TWO fresh cut trees for Christmas. One for the living room and one for my bedroom! (Yes... indulged only child here. 😁). We ALWAYS got these trees from a spot near our house called Hunter’s Tree Farm.

Hunter’s is family owned and operated since the 1950’s. Every year since 1963, the family has transformed a vacant lot in Seattle’s Wedgwood neighborhood into a massive Christmas tree lot. They open the day after Thanksgiving and sell their last tree of the season on Christmas Eve. Going to Hunter’s is one of my most beloved holiday traditions. So driving 20 minutes from my place to get our tree was a way to add some fun into this dumb year.

^{Tree shopping.}

I picked out a smaller Noble Fir. These bluish green trees are found in abundance in SW Canada, Washington State and Oregon. They are very hardy with strong branches and tend to hold their needles well. (All excellent attributes for a Christmas tree.) Our pick was six feet tall and only a bit over 30 inches in diameter.

After paying for the tree and a wreath, I headed straight home to start decorating!

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Decorate!

I have a great love for Christmas and a massive collection of ornaments. Having my own tree since childhood has given me over four decades to accumulate lots of eclectic tree bling. But this year I wanted something different.

So, I went nuts and bought ALL NEW decorations! This included new ornaments, new lights, a new tree skirt and even a new tree topper! Along with the new, my husband and I also decided to have a themed tree for the first time. The theme we chose... Coastal!

Here is the result.

^{Coastal Christmas}

I found the topper (a stylized gold coral) and the “garland” (stylized glitter glass seaweed) on sale at Pottery Barn. Crate and Barrel had gold coral ornaments that complement the topper. I found turquoise mercury glass floats, burlap ribbon, the tree skirt, as well as icicle, starfish and sand dollar ornaments on Amazon. Amazon also had battery operated sea glass string lights! I picked up the tiny white glass balls at a local shop, and the larger turquoise and pink balls were hand me downs from my grandmother. I also added a few folksy Jim Shore designed whales and crabs I had previously collected.

^{Close up.}

It was fun to mix things up and be a little funky this year. Next year I might break out the coastal tree AND our regular tree, just to be even MORE extra. 😄

^{Over blinged at night! 🤩}

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The Table

Now a coastal tree with blues and pinks would look a little weird next to a table decorated with traditional reds and greens. For this reason, I went full blue Christmas coastal in the dining room too. I love a fun tablescape! Especially, for special occasions.

^{Christmas is the perfect time to use the sterling silver and fancy china.}

This year’s table is a bit Frozen meets the sea. I have always been slightly snowflake obsessed. Which is particularly obvious this year!

Our holiday table featured snowflake votives, candle holders, stemless wine glasses, napkin rings, place cards and place card holders. The dessert plates (placed on top of our wedding china) were decorated with different gold Christmas trees. These complimented the Christmas crackers (light blue with both trees and snowflakes) and the cloth napkins folded into the shape of trees.

My centerpiece is a coastal Santa holding a fish staff. He sits on top of a silver snowflake trivet. Surrounding Santa were silver beads, small pearl colored ornaments, delicate seashells and more tiny silver snowflakes.

^{Santa, a tree fold napkin and holiday flowers.}

^{A few other silly Christmas coastal elements around the house.}

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This seems like a good spot to pause. Part 2 I’ll dive into the meat and potatoes of the season - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Until then Hive folks, I hope YOU are enjoying the holidays.

Much Love, @dfinney

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