It’s that time of the year, to decorate and transform the historic farmhouse into a Holiday Farmhouse. That’s when the tree, garland, pinecones, and ornaments come out of storage. It’s the week before December, so we need to get things decorated. While we work, we listen to holiday music.
The first thing to do is to lightly dust some of the vintage items in the farmhouse. We use special, very soft rags to dust the Hoosier cabinet, wringer washer, the table tops and whatever else is dusty. However, we never use any soap, cleaning solutions or water to clean vintage items. Some of vintage metal items would, also, rust if exposed to water. After that, I take a few things outside to dust them off such as our small rag rug near the farmhouse sink.
I keep a pair of soft, white gloves in my purse, so I put them on to pick up some of the very old items.
The Holiday Farmhouse Meal in the Dining Room
This time, we are leaving the table set for the meal except we are replacing the faux Thanksgiving’s turkey with a faux ham. Interesting to note, we are no longer allowed to pick up or place the vintage dishes on the table. Only a person from Collections can do that. The silverware on the table is, also, from the Collections Department. The faux stuffing is taken away from the table and we add a gravy bowl full of faux gravy for the mashed potatoes.’ And, since this is a southern farmhouse, the faux biscuits are also put out. Actually, we think about the meal and discuss what the farmwife of the past holidays would serve.
During the holidays, desserts play a special role on the farm. So, we get out our faux cake roll, candy, meringues and place them on one large plate. In another plate, we get some faux chocolate candy.
Next, the vintage wooden nut bowl comes out of storage. This is about the only time during the year we use it. We fill this nut bowl with faux walnuts and almonds. The nut cracker and picks do not belong with this nut bowl, but if we are careful, we can get the picks to stand up in the slots on the bottom of the bowl.
However, we don’t put out the vintage crystal ashtray.
In the Holiday Farmhouse Kitchen
For the first time, we now have three faux popcorn balls which are placed on a small serving plate. There is a large cast iron skillet on the wood burning stove we pull out and toss a few faux popcorn kernels in. Underneath the cast iron skillet, we place a protective material so the stove doesn’t scratch. We, also, have about three strings of faux popcorn, we place around the tree. I remember years ago, faux popcorn strings were a popular item to put on holiday trees.
In the farmhouse kitchen, faux gingerbread and snowflake cookies are arranged on a plate. One cookie is left on a vintage baking sheet. We add a few fake oranges on the kitchen table table. When we open one warming oven door, we see a baked mincemeat pie. Our visitors can almost smell the turkey and cookies baking.
However, we always remember to display all the faux food pulled way back on the tables. Sometimes the children who are on the house tour want to pick it up and perhaps take a bite out of it.
Holiday Farmhouse’s Tree
The holiday farmhouse would not be complete without a faux tree in the parlor. The hardest part is stringing the lights around the tree in an even pattern. The lights are new but they are shaped like old fashioned holiday lights. Then we decorate the tree with bulbs. We have a few vintage bulbs we also put near the top. All the bulbs are wired to the branches, so they can not fall and break.
We have a newer patchwork quilt tree skirt we put around the base of the tree. Then a few vintage dolls or toys come out of storage. We also have some small wrapped empty boxes we put under the tree keeping the illusion of presents.
As usual, we have an area where the farm wife is making stockings for the children with a candy cane, a few nuts, and an orange. Usually, that was the only orange a child received all year.
Ending Notes
Well, after a couple hours of work the farmhouse is almost decorated. Today, the battery powered candles do not work. Either they need new batteries or are just not working. So, this is something we will need to check out and fix.
I forgot to add a few nuts to the stocking making table. I’ll do that the next time I come in.
As the first of December rolls around in a few days, we should have everything ready for viewing.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
Note: None of the photographs on today’s blog were taken at the historic farmhouse.