CHURCH DECORATION. 



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best suited to the building and the materials available, and only a few general hints can 

 here be given. 



Churches. 



Christmas is, perhaps, the most important festival of the year with the majority of 

 church decorators. Time was when no other festival was honoured to a similar extent, 

 but Harvest Festivals are now generally recognised, and the decorations are often elaborate. 

 In some churches, Easter would appear to be regarded as the chief festival, while Whit 

 Sunday and various Saints' days are also florally celebrated. This adds not a little to 

 the prosperity of florists, and also, it must be said, to the discomfort of a considerable 

 number of private gardeners, who object to cutting flowers so freely for these purposes. 



The old-fashioned plan of decorating the churches at Christmas consisted largely of 

 forming for the pillars wreaths of ivy, berried holly, and other evergreens, with still 

 heavier festoons between the arches. In the corners were placed masses of common 

 laurel or other evergreens, all of a serviceable nature and remaining for six weeks. 

 Decorators have recently gone to the other extreme ; and when the wreaths, emblems, 

 and festooning is done with extreme delicacy, like so much millinery, it is doubtful 

 if the method of our forefathers was not the more effective. The larger structures should 

 have moderately heavy, closely-made wreaths of ivy, yew, laurustinus, variegated and 

 berried holly for the pillars, to which festoons also drape from the centres of the arches, 

 and in the outside corners fairly large masses of evergreens would still be appropriate. 

 Ladies do most of the church decorating nowadays, and making wreaths in long lengths 

 is not to their liking ; the work also absorbs large quantities of material. All the same, 

 it is better than stitching leaves to coloured flannelette, or whatever is used, or sticking 

 tiny sprays where branches are more to the purpose. Holly plays such an important 

 part in church decoration that it will not be inappropriate to depict a few effective 

 varieties for planting. (Fig. 162, next page.) 



The most modern idea is to decorate churches largely with natural flowers in certain 

 colours, renewing them, if needed, with a view to keeping them in a fresh state for the 

 octave. For Christmas, the correct colours are red, yellow, and white. " Raspail gera- 

 nium " and poinsettias are principally used for red ; W. H. Lincoln chrysanthemums 

 for yellow; Lady Lawrence and Princess Victoria chrysanthemums, arums, Eoman 

 hyacinths, and Paper White narcissi, principally for white. With these, adiantum 

 and pteris fronds, sprays of asparagus, and cupressus are associated. The flowers show 



