440 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1913 



WITHIN THE HOUSE 



SUGGESTIONS ON INTERIOR DECORATING 

 AND NOTES OF INTEREST TO ALL 

 WHO DESIRE TO MAKE THE HOUSE 

 MORE BEAUTIFUL AND MORE HOMELIKE 



The Editor of this Department will be glad to answer all queries 

 from subscribers pertaining to Home Decoration. Stamps 

 should be anclosed when a direct personal reply is desired 



CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS 



By Frances Mayne 



HRISTMAS time brings with its advent one 

 of the most joyful occasions to tempt the 

 home-maker to show how skillfully one may 

 work out a scheme of decoration for this 

 festive holiday season. In dressing the 

 house in gala attire it is unfortunately a 

 fact that more often than not the home decorator overloads 

 the various wall spaces, doorways, chandeliers and vases 

 with flowers and foliage, so that, instead of obtaining the 

 effect of a happy profusion, the result is one of oppressive 

 confusion, and the well-intentioned but miscalculated ef- 

 forts produce an arrangement that is truly annoying by 

 reason of the inconvenience it imposes. 



Of all Christmas greens, Holly seems nearest our minds 

 and Mistletoe nearest our hearts. Although the latter 

 plant is a less common one than the former, tradition has 

 lent it a sentimental association that we are loth to dis- 

 pense with at Yuletide. It often seems as though it were 

 best to restrain the use of Holly and Mistletoe somewhat 

 in order to emphasize its importance in a scheme for Christ- 

 mas decoration rather than to employ it "exhaustingly" 

 throughout as a trimming. Where one may go into the 

 Winter woods — and happy is he who can thus go forth to 

 gather the Christmas greens himself — he will be sure to 

 find there wonderful things for Christmas decorations that, 

 perhaps, he had not thought of before. There will be the 

 Cedars, the Pines, Balsam, the orange-colored berries of 

 the Bittersweet, the ashen-white berried twigs of the Bay- 

 berry bush, the scarlet hip of the wild Rose. Then, dig- 

 ging beneath the snow near marshy places, he will come 

 across all sorts of green things which he thought long 

 since were killed by Winter's frosts. It would, indeed, be 

 a pity to forego the good old custom of going forth for 

 Christmas greens. Already, alas! it is becoming an old- 

 fashioned one, but let us hope the age and its tendencies 

 will not smother our enthusiasm for this simple but joyful 

 accompaniment to the Christmas season. 



Once the greens have been gathered, individual taste 

 will, of course, suggest many happy arrangements for the 

 different rooms of the house. Windows, the "eyes" of the 

 house turned towards the street, naturally expect to receive 

 the conventional Holly wreath, for one should always bear 

 in mind that no house is ever successfully put in Christmas 

 order which does not give some hint of the festive attire 

 within to the passer-by without. Window wreaths should 

 be tied with silk ribbons rather than ribbons of satin, this 

 latter material being somewhat to shiny. While red is the 

 usual color for the ribbon, pale green is often effectively 

 used, forming a pleasing contrast to the dark green of the 

 Holly leaves and emphasizing the importance of the red 



of the berries. When a ribbon is used upon a wreath it 

 should have its raison d'etre by being used as a means by 

 which to suspend the wreath, and not merely as a great 

 bow of color having nothing to do with the wreath's make- 

 up. The early Italian method of garlanding decorative 

 greens by looping them from point to point on the wall 

 of some important apartment, is a scheme of decoration 

 that should be more studied and more often utilized in 

 our own Christmas decorations. Many excellent hints 

 along this line may be gleaned from a study of paintings 

 by the early Italian masters, Ghirlandaio (he was himself 

 a garland-maker!), Botticelli, and the others. 



The gorgeous color effects obtained in Christmas deco- 

 ration by the employment of such floral exotics as the 

 Poinsetta, which plant is now raised for the Christmas 

 season in nearly every greenhouse, suggest their use in 

 connection with garlanding. Placed at intervals in a long 

 rope of greenery, having red ribbons braided into its 

 length in such a manner as only to show a spot of color 

 here and there, the artificial Poinsetta of paper (procurable 

 almost anywhere), so cleverly simulating the real flower, 

 can be used to excellent advantage. The real flowers would, 

 of course, quickly wither if kept out of water. 



Very often no flowers or red berries are obtainable in 

 certain localities at Christmas time, even though an abun- 

 dance of Evergreens may be at hand. In this event, tiny 

 rosettes can be made of narrow ribbon and attached to 

 sprigs of Evergreen as a substitute for the Holly with 

 its berries. 



Although, in northern localities, Pines and Spruces and 

 Cedars are the most available Christmas greens, we must 

 not forget to take into account the fact that in the warm 

 temperature and dry heat within the house they speedily 

 shed their needles, and in consequence should not be placed 

 where this will cause annoyance, as, for instance, it would 

 do if such Evergreens over a dining-room table were con- 

 tinually dropping their needles upon the cloth below. Such 

 Evergreens should be placed against walls rather than on 

 chandeliers or over tables or chairs. 



Trailing masses of Bittersweet with or without the ad- 

 dition of Evergreens always form a beautiful Christmas 

 decoration. In their arrangement a hint from the Japanese 

 may not come amiss. Take a few long sprays of the 

 Bittersweet vine, with its berries in clusters, cut off the 

 green leaves — for they quickly curl up and look dead — tie 

 the ends of the bunch together and let the vines hang 

 straight down against the wall from the picture molding 

 or from a nail in the wall if the molding is too high to 

 bring the mass of the decoration in the right space. One 

 will be surprised to see how naturally and beautifully this 

 mass of trailing vines with their clusters of berries will fall 

 into graceful shape. While, if one attempts to put the 

 vines into a vase, on the mantel, we will say, and then 



