A Country Christmas At The Harcourt’s

Our home was constructed in 1935. We know this because the date is carved in one of the slate shingles on the roof. By all accounts it was not a great time in the United States. Unemployment remained at 20% and the Great Depression would not begin to end for five more years. Despite the economy, the Harcourt family chose this time to build their home in the country. With the exception of the house across the road, the Harcourt house was surrounded by woods and fields, unlike today when there are many houses in the nearby neighborhood.

The Historical Society of Hudson Bay and the Highlands asked if we would put our house on tour. Andrew and I discussed it and decided to not only put it on tour, but to have some fun preparing the house. Most people decorating their home today tend to go shopping. We wanted to create an atmosphere from the time the Harcourt’s lived in the house. The Harcourt’s Country Christmas is our intent to show the house, not as a glitzy, modern-day example of Christmas consumerism, but rather a homey version of a Christmas from 1935. Instead of going shopping, we started by going into the garden.

This blog is a tour of our home, beginning with our front door. We took yew and holly branches, and pinecones to create a door decoration. In the attic, I found a pair of old skis and a sled. These too were adorned with greenery and ribbon.

Our kitchen door was also decorated in the same manner. Another found object from the attic was a small child’s snow shovel. This is propped next to the door and is now a reminder of another era.

Entering the front door, one comes into the entry hall. The visitor is greeted by a small grouping of figures, heralding their entrance. Next one sees a figure calling out that mail has been received.

Entering the living room, one sees our Christmas tree. At the opposite end of the room is a battalion of Nutcrackers protecting the room.

The dining room is set for Christmas dinner. We used greens from the garden, along with pinecones and dried hydrangea blossoms for the centerpiece. The hand painted porcelain is English in the Kent pattern by Royal Worcester. The sterling place settings are nineteenth century American, in the Lily pattern by Whiting. The angels are German by Goebbel. The crystal is Irish and was made in Galway for Wedgwood. The nativity set is Italian, hand carved and painted. It was purchased in Sienna, Italy a number of years ago, while on vacation.

One of our garden projects was collecting leaves, mini-pinecones and acorns. We used these to make sprites we hung in the entry and the dining room.

The office features reindeer we made from branches. A garden project from a few years ago.

Moving up the stairs, we see more sprites. They are set off with rose colored ribbon on the stairs and ivory colored ribbon on the landing. These sprites were made with wings from maple seeds.

Our bedroom has a tree decorated with many antique ornaments. The garland I remember from my childhood. It was in pieces. Andrew and I restrung it to go on the tree. To make the tree, and all the remaining trees shown, we took branches from the yard, mounted them on wooden bases and then inserted yew clippings into holes we drilled. We could have bought small trees, but why consume when we would prune the yew bushes any way. Our tree is biodegradable after Christmas.

Andrew is a bulldog fan. I found this ornament in a small shop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

In the first guest room, we decorated a special hand-made tree. A few years ago, my dear friend Sophia, who lives in Germany, sent us paper stars she had made, along with an advent calendar filled with Niederegger chocolates. She sent more stars this year. We repurposed everything. The stars we hung in the windows. The advent calendar became Christmas tree ornaments. When each door of the calendar was opened and the chocolate removed, a picture was in the back. I cut out all of the pictures, drew a colored border around them and turned them into Christmas ornaments. The side of the box had a design of a train, which I cut out and put it at the base of the tree.

Continuing the hand-made tradition, the next bedroom (I refer to it as Amy’s room – my Goddaughter), features ornaments also made from the advent calendar. When I consumed the chocolates, I decided to save the foil wrappers. Several years ago, I had no idea what I would do with them, but found I could turn them into ornaments. On the bed are antique toys a little girl would have played with, McCall’s paper dolls, a pewter tea set, a rocking unicorn and my well-worn childhood bear.

The upstairs bathroom also has special ornaments. Sophia made us paper trees in 2021. They make a nice contrast to Andrew’s beach painting (he is a painter too!).

The next guest bedroom has a minimalist tree of branches covered with hand cut snowflakes and paper chains. We bought an old Collegiate dictionary from ReStore. They had several of them, but we took the one with a torn and soiled cover. Noone would ever use it for its intended purpose. We used the pages to make our snowflakes and chain. We relived our childhoods and had fun cutting out the snowflakes and making chains. On this bed is a farm set crocheted by my mother to go under my Christmas tree many decades ago.

Our television room has a tree made from a single branch. Hanging from the branch are crocheted snowflakes my mother made for me 40 years ago.

Our tour ends in the kitchen. Andrew and I made a gingerbread cottage – Candy Cane Cottage – to be precise. It was hilarious trying to glue the pieces together. We had not made one before, but we were happy with the result. We had extra dough and made cookies. Andrew does not like gingerbread, so I ate them all. The table is set for lunch. The place settings were a gift from my wonderful neighbors, Martine and Kurt. The plates belonged to Kurt’s late mother and Kurt remembers using them on Christmas day.

In the kitchen window is a set of tin ornaments I purchased in Munich, Germany.

It is time to end our tour. The final photo is of our grandfather clock from 1795. Hanging from the door is another ornament from Sophia. This is also a hand painted German tin ornament.

We spent many hours putting together our simple ornaments. In an age when everyone likes to over decorate, our meager efforts will probably be viewed as disappointing by some of the people who tour our home next week. This will not matter to us, as we had the joy of making them, putting the trees together and creating the small vignettes. Most importantly, our decorations reflect the contributions of people we care about.

We had the pleasure of spending Thanksgiving with our good friends, Wendi, Keith, Lauren and Amy, on Cape Cod. Twenty-two people enjoyed their hospitality. The day emphasized for me the importance of keeping things simple and genuine. The mashed potatoes were lumpy (I was put in charge – regretfully), the chairs didn’t all match, tables needed to be combined to seat so many people and overall, it was lovely, but not glamorous. It was a delightful day of food, friends, family, and the true meaning of Thanksgiving – giving thanks. Our Christmas tour will hopefully impart this same feeling to our home – simple genuine and a glimpse into a slower time.