Christmas, 2023 style

This year's Christmas decor follows my tried and true formula: silver trees, vintage ornaments, and lots of greenery.

I jokingly told a friend I was going with "a California Christmas"—meaning no conifers and an excuse to drop some cash on cut flowers and bromeliads.

First the mantel, left to right. The large leaves are from my loquat tree. There are also some purchased eucalyptus stems and trimmings from the Stachyurus salicifolius.

In the tarnished silver goblet are Leucadendron galpinii stems, the short mercury glass cups hold candles. As I mentioned in last week's post on the wreaths, this small one is made of stems from one of my Mahonia x media 'Marvel'. 

Close-up of the leucadendron.

No new tillandsia were purchased for the making of this holiday mantel, these were all ones I had in my collection.

There are more mahonia leaves tucked in near the wall, I am really impressed with how well they're holding up with no water.

A banksia bloom, doesn't it look like a holiday ornament?

Over on the dining table there are fuzzy white protea with more eucalyptus and Leucadendron galpinii stems. There's also a small mossy "log" that Andrew and I have been jokingly calling our "bûche de Noël" (yule log).

Vintage blue ornaments scattered about.

These protea blooms are so crazy cool with their fuzzy tips.

I scored enough of them to do a few vase arrangements (remember, it's a California Christmas).

Can you make out the red glitter snowflakes in the hallway? (thru the doorway) They hang from a piece of chartreuse velvet ribbon that I've had for 25+ years. I'm so glad I saved a long piece of it.

Red bromeliad blooms instead of red poinsettia.

And with that we're back to the tree...

I love reusing the same trees and ornaments year after year, but with a slight twist, so it's never exactly the same thing twice.

Plus since I'm not buying a cut tree, or expensive swags or wreaths, I can easily rationalize the cut stems and bromeliads—or so I tell myself.

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