A Williamsburg Christmas: Part 2

So, back to the Williamsburg decorations.  Where possible, I have tried to put what was in the wreath.  I am sure I have missed something somewhere.  I hope you enjoy the exploration of Williamsburg.

 Maybe decorate just one side of a wreath.

 This is the wigmaker's house.  I think that wreath might have 'hair' on it!

Flower in the corner from dried leaves and a shell.  Plain wreath.

 Dried flower header with locust pods.

 A rope wreath with flowers and greenery.

 Twine wrapped header with dried stuff.  That's technical jargon, that is ;)

 Cotton, dried flowers and seed pods.

 A simple bunch of dried flowers and grasses, wrapped in cloth.

 I love how this one looks like there is a sheep in the middle of it!  Looking closer, you can see it is actually a 'nest' of grasses and flowers, with a cotton and feather chicken sitting on eggs :)  Clever, huh?

 Shells.

 Dried flowers.

 Seedpods, flowers, cotton and grasses.

 Window decor with dried oranges and dried herbs.

 Corner decoration... dried flowers and dried peppers.

 Orange clusters, evenly spaced.

 Dried herbs, seed pods, arranged in a diamond pattern.

A pinecone with moss, dried herbs, sweetgum pods, dried oranges and cinnamon sticks.  It is a marvellously clever window decoration.

Dried flowers.

Really great garland consisting of dried fruit.

Shells, dried fruit and dried flowers.  Sprays of wheat around the outside.

 I had a model for this one :)  The garland is a spectacular creation of flowers.  Chrysanthemums I think.

Paper birds and hearts, and a couple of playing cards.

 We interrupt this broadcast to take a look at the kids modelling knits.  And showing their true colours ;)

 Dried herbs and flowers, with a spray of feathers!

 A prizewinner with wheat and corn.

 The wreath and the window decorations match rather well.

Grapevine wreath with seedpods.

Dried fruit in the center, surrounded by wheat around it.

I love these corner displays on the roping.  I wonder how they hold them on?

 Dried fruits and seedpods.  And docent ;)

Altogether, you can see my model and a house with wreath, header and window decorations.

A nice pineapple with oranges surrounding it.  And a wreath of greenery and berry sprays.

A very simple window decoration- fir branches with an apple in the centre.

This wreath is pretty amazing when you look closer.  Dried flowers, seed pods and the like.  The header matches and also has a couple of wooden spoons.

I have always loved the steps on this building.

This wreath is a prize winner.  There are playing cards cut to look like flowers on this one.  And a pixie who is modelling her brand new (knit by me) pixie hat.

 Another pretty header.  You'll notice my light is fading fast at this point!

 Even the taverns decorate.  Shells, dried flowers and ale cups dominate this one.

 The town hall gets in on the act too.

This is a wreath with osage orange fruit on it- they are the giant balls that look like brains ;)

This wreath is at the milliners- a dried grapevine with dried flowers in a most unique display.

This picture is one that annoys me terribly.  A couple of people just stood there in my way, and did not want to move AT ALL.  So my photo is really blurry, which is a real shame as this spray is one of the more spectacular.

The Governor's Palace, even at a distance, is always spectacular.

My favourite house in Williamsburg- it is tiny!  It has fruit on the wreath, which is far harder to see now.
These two photos are a little blurry, sorry.  Light was fading fast!

 Fruit... I think the top left orange is mouldy- so even the ones there suffer ;)

Even the stores in Williamsburg get in on the act- this is window in Barnes and Noble!

Christmas Inspiration: Williamsburg Style

Living in Virginia means Colonial Williamsburg is just a hop, skip and jump away.  This is especially good when it comes to Christmas decorations, for which Colonial Williamsburg is justifiably famous!

This house is at the end of the main street in Williamsburg (Duke of Gloucester or DOG Street).  Each of the little niches in the brick, is filled with an apple.  You can also see the wreathes, window decorations and header over the door.

 

 

So, every year, I convince my family to go down to Williamsburg, and look at the decorations.  The kids are usually bored to death, while I spend all my time running to catch up with the family, and my photos are taken at odd angles so as to cut out other visitors from them!

One of my oddly angled shots.  This lovely cape has wreathes on the doors and windows, as well as the roping around the doorway.

I was reminded just the other day, how I have never actually done a post about Christmas at Colonial Williamsburg, so I thought it a fitting time to remedy that oversight!

The roping and wreathes are on almost every doorway there.  In fact, this time I took photos of every single one on DOG street.  We got there a little too late to do the other streets though.

This is a picture heavy post, so take your time and get some great ideas.  I have attempted to provide a decently sized photo, so you can see the detail in the wreathes, but blogger does have a nasty habit of resizing.

This is one of the simpler wreathes.  It has boxwood and berries as the green base.  I am not sure what the berries are from, sorry!  There are dried orange slices and a dried pomegranate for details.  Both of those are sold at the DOG (Duke of Gloucester) Street garden stand.

This is a closer shot of the tailoring shop shown above.  This one has a greenery base consisting of fir tree, then dried seed pods, dried flowers, dried orange slices and berries around it.

The shops tend to theme their wreathes.  This one has some burlap wrapped around a spray of seed pods.  It belongs on the weird angled photo from above ;)

This one is colourful- the white is cotton and the others are flowers- I think carnations and cockscomb.

The simpler ones consist of just greenery and berries.  That the berries are a contrasting red, to the greenery only makes it more stunning in its simplicity!

 Another themed one.  This one has cotton, twigs and woven fabrics at its center.

Doorways are often focal points.  This was a very elaborate one with a straw wreath base surrounded by dried flowers and a pinecone at the keystone point.  The sprays of twigs above have more dried flowers, pinecones and some cotton.

Not every door had a wreath.  Some were bracketed with these sprays.  The sprays are made with the same ingredients as the wreathes, they just have a different look :)

 People put them on windows- with little shapes surrounding an artichoke...

 Or on the porch railings.

 Others chose to emphasise the corners of the doors...

 Or maybe the shutters.

If the door stays open a lot, a header and side pieces make more sense.  That header is made of apples and a pineapple!

Some of them have costumed docents standing outside for extra colour.  I don't think my family would agree to that though!  If you look closely, you'll see a leather shoe on the wreath, by the way.

 Apples, lady apples, locust pods, pinecones and dried flowers.

Apples, pineapples and dried flowers.  And another docent ;)

Stirrups with apples on them.  And a horseshoe in the middle.  Apples on magnolia leaves in the corner.

Maybe a little brass horn on the wreath...

Or a basket of fruit above the door.  This one appears to have a horse yoke of some sort as the wreath base, with wheat and apples in it.

Just because you are Jewish, doesn't mean you have to miss out on the fun!  This is a Star of David 'wreath', with something in the middle.  I am sorry, I have no idea what hte thing in the middle is... it might be a lantern representation.  Other years have had dreidels on the wreath :)

 If you're a baker, celebrate with cookie cutters, dough ornaments and maybe a spoon or two.

Windows and doors can match, using harvest themes of wheat and fruit.

Harvest is often a theme- this one sports wheat with coloured locust pods and dried flowers.

Roping can be used to bring it all together.  The white things on this one, by the way, are fans.  Paper fans.

Lady apples.

A fabulous design of dried fruits and flowers...

Or maybe fresh fruits and shells.

Place it on the porch railing and put roping around the windows.

From a distance, (you have no idea how lucky this empty street shot is!) the wreathes are very festive.

OK I have a ton more photos, BUT, I think this post is long enough right now!  I shall do a second post with the rest later.