Christmas Shrine

Christmas inevitably leads to a large amount of free time. If you're ADD like me, this means restlessness that is only cured by socializing or creating something. Since I had already filled my quota for days spent hungover, I decided to create a decorative accent at my parent's home to add to the Christmas spirit. My mom had decked out most of the house with greenery and ornaments so I landed on the idea of creating a Christmas "shrine" on the back porch. 

I began by grabbing an old pine table from my parent's basement to be used as an pseudo alter. From there I added random pieces of greenery that were left over from decorating the rest of the house. Holly, boxwood, and pine fill the areas around a pottery compote and the small Christmas tree that my Mother had purchased. I gathered up a pile of firewood and stacked it to one side underneath the table to fill the void. Adding a small boxwood (the same one I used in our Thanksgiving table scape) and a bowl of pine cones filled the visual gaps and distributed the pieces asymmetrically through the space. 

The "shrine" wasn't looking all that merry, so I brightened it up with some votive candles and a few Naval Oranges. People have mocked me in the past for using oranges in Christmas decor. Funny enough, Oranges are the most Christmas appropriate fruit as they are harvested in the winter. So, just to spite my idiotic dissenters, I threw them in to contrast with the mostly green and brown background of the setup. Finally, I added in bits of Reindeer Moss (ironically Holiday appropriate) to fill in openings and layer in another hue of green.

This layered decorative shrine was fun to create and only took me about an hour. As I have said before, try to use things you have in your kitchen, yard, and house to decorate for the Holidays: you will surprise yourself at what you can come up with. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

-Hugh