If you want cheerful. If you want cozy. If you want a traditional Christmas in your home, decorate like a Colonial.
How to do so? Follow the tips below.
Decorate your doors, windowsills, fireplaces and table tops with wreaths and swags of boughs and branches of pine, boxwoods, Fraser firs, magnolia leaves, fruits (apples, pineapples and pears in particular), berries, and dried flowers.
Place a long swag of pine boughs around your front door. Place smaller swags atop or around the light fixtures on each side of the door.
Place similar bough and swags on any fence you have around your home. Place bright red fabric bows on them, as well.
The basic idea is to decorate your home with natural items – the pine boughs, fruit, dried flowers and fabric ribbons. Bake an apple pie and let the aroma waft throughout your home for an extra touch.
Another “must” for your home to be decorated as it would have been in Colonial times, is to place candles in all of the structure’s windows (or at least those facing the street). Colonial Williamsburg residents used the real things; today you can find electric as well as battery-operated candles.
In fact, if you can, visit Colonial Williamsburg in December. The city celebrates the season by “lighting” more than 1,200 electric candles in the windows of buildings throughout our Historic area at dusk each evening during the Grand Illumination.
To really get an idea of how to decorate your home as a Colonist did, be sure to check out Colonial Williamsburg’s “Christmas Decorations Walking Tour“. The guided tours let you get a close look at the outside of several buildings in Colonial Williamsburg and tour guides discuss the techniques and materials used to build and create the decorations.
Tickets are $10 per person (and are an additional fee to your admission to Colonial Williamsburg). Children younger than 6 are free.
Whether you want to decorate your home like a Colonist or if you just want to enjoy the sights and wonderful of the holiday season in Williamsburg, book your holiday stay in a Williamsburg bed and breakfast inn today!
