A Darlington Winter Woodland Christmas Tree

We have a lot of ornaments and decorations to choose from at Darlington House when it comes time to decorate the house in its Christmas finery.  As I have written in earlier posts, Boy and I have been collecting ornaments for as long as we have been together, almost fourteen years.  We probably have several thousand ornaments, both vintage and new.  And we buy more every year.  We pick them up at antiques malls and around and about, at prices ranging anywhere from five cents an ornament (a score) for little balls to twenty dollars or more for a really unusually shaped one.  We always have our eyes out for ornaments in different sizes and shapes.  And we like ornaments that have patina to them, that don't look too shiny or new.

With so many ornaments to choose from in our collection, we decorate the tree every year with a different theme and/or colorway.  Well, when I say "we," I'm actually referring to Boy, since he is the Master of the Christmas Tree at Darlington House.  Reggie is an appreciative cheerleader when it comes to decorating the tree at Christmas, and for decorating the house in general for that matter.  And he's quite happy with that role, as that way he gets to act the part of the client.  And a very satisfied client he is, by the way.  It's really rather nice to have the services of a fancy New York decorator at one's beck and call.

As I've written elsewhere, we take our Christmas color directions from the rooms' decoration.  When we have our tree in our gray-and-white drawing room, as we do some years, we will decorate it with ornaments in silver, blue, pink, and green—taking our inspiration from the pastel colors that are in the English and Chinese ceramics in the room.  When we have the tree in our dining room, as we do this year, we decorate it with gold and green ornaments—taking our cue from the room's gold walls and green wooden venetian blinds.

We buy our trees at a "cut-your-own" tree farm not far from Darlington House.  Boy has more patience than Reggie does in finding the perfect tree to saw down and tie to the top of the Rover.  I'm glad he does, because this year he found us a real beauty, far nicer than the one that Reggie would have settled for if it had been up to him.

This year our Christmas tree's theme is "Winter Woodland," and it is decorated with gold and green ornaments, and glass icicles.  It is also covered with little artificial birds in complementary colors.  Boy really outdid himself this year, I have to say.

Does everyone think their own Christmas tree is the most beautiful one?  Every year I am convinced that our Christmas tree is the most beautiful Christmas tree there is.   I'm always in awe of how lovely our tree is.  Really.

Merry Christmas, Dear Reader.

All photographs by Boy Fenwick