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.