Welcome to Parterre!The party is just about to begin and we’ve rolled out the red carpet for you. Each year I look for inspiration to bring a new twist to traditional decoration themes; this time it was some ornaments in the music room at The Breakers whose counterpart I have used to bring another bit of festivity to the front door lantern. The balled-in-burlap pruned box globes? They remind this gardener that spring indeed is just a few months away.

Any excuse to use candles! Taking a few cues for this stairwell treatment from the Shangri La hotel in Paris. Those luscious mixed garlands add such a richness to this old French railing, and “puddle” so nicely to embrace the pillar candles.

Each Christmas I find a way to use branches (sprayed red) from Parterre’s beech trees. This year they serve as accents in a monochromatic floral design for the main table in our salon.

Here it is about capturing a favorite holiday centerpiece — staggered tall taper candles — and translating their magic for the salon’s mantle.

When designing Parterre I knew that I wanted a special setting for our Christmas tree. The octagonal fluted bell recessed in the sun room’s ceiling permits a thirteen to fifteen foot tree, crowned with a large gold star.

Adding to the gold ornament collection are two new silver favorites… a gossamer  snowflake and a wish-it-came-in-a-larger-size crown.

In the library seen in the feature image, an inherited nineteenth century English fruit cooler was the inspiration for  the mantle’s “frosted” fruit vignette.

It is this library where we spend our private time at the end of the day, the holidays providing a special gift. For with the holidays come Christmas cards and through them our friends and their families join us, adding warmth to our evenings.

May yours be a joy filled holiday, warmed by family and friends.