Ready for Christmas?

For those of you that celebrate Christmas, are you ready? Each year I begin decorating my home slowly, building up to the approach of Christmas week. The ornament in the photo above used to hang near the fireplace on the family home. This ornament was made by one of my mother's friends years before my own mother passed away. A lot of ornaments can be made using simple, easily accessable things, such as in this case, pine cones, dried plants and colourful ribbons. For me, dressing up the place with ornaments, a tree and some aromatic and colourful plants or plant settings, such as holly and spruce or fir, probably goes back to the old celebration of Yule, celebrated by the Germanic and Nordic peoples before the introduction of Christianity. I'll have more about the Christmas celebration as we approach the day in question. - V.