You know what is awesome about building your Christmas decor collection slowly year after year? Eventually you have enough stuff to work with and switch it up and make things different and interesting! ; )

This is the first year that I really feel like I have Christmas decorations in more than just our living room. Last year I had a *little* elsewhere, but not really.

I don’t ever want to make Christmas more about the decorations and lights than it needs to be, those things have their place and I need them to stay there. But decorations so help set a celebratory mood and we do have a reason to celebrate!

You may recall my white and blue theme in the living room but with the red wall in the dining room I decided to stick with red and I’m so glad I did because the red ribbon in this centerpiece makes me think of candy canes (and candy canes make me think of Jesus — In fact, I think a few candy canes tucked in here would be the perfect final touch, don’t you?)

The bowl is a Christmas tree shape, featuring three large gold ornaments (3 kings?) tucked in with candy cane-ish ribbon, pinecones, cinnamon sticks, apple ornaments, lights and guarded by a little gingerbread man holding a gift. Being in the dining room, I thought I’d kinda go with a food-ish theme while still using some symbolism with the remaining ornaments.

I like how the lights illuminate the whole bowl of goodies. There’s an outlet right there behind the table which is very convenient. I was a little concerned if they’d get too hot, but we left them on for a few hours, and each time I checked them they were fine.

I also like how I already had all these things. I’ve been keeping a little storage container of ribbon pieces and small ornaments for just this sort of thing (or a mantel or a hurricane vase, etc.) My mom has some pretty acorns in her yard I am TOTALLY collecting some of those to add to my stash. ; )

Ok, I’m not really sure where/how the gingerbread (snow?)man ornament fits into all this, except that he looks like gingerbread and so is food-ish and has red on his hat and scarf. But he DOES look very happy and he IS holding a gift and Jesus IS the best gift ever. (Stretching?)

If the apples represent sin, and lights represent Jesus (as the light of the world), the ornaments represent the wise men, the candy cane ribbon represent the stripes and all the other red the blood that was shed, if the cinnamon sticks (tree bark) represent the wooden cross, and the pinecones (seed) represent new life and then if the evergreen Christmas tree represents eternal life — then we’ve got a whole little redemption story centerpiece going on here, now don’t we?

That wasn’t what I set out to do when I started but it’s how I ended up and now that I thought about that how can I look at that centerpiece and NOT think about the true meaning of Christmas? I love decorating with symbolism, don’t you? = )

Do you use symbolism to decorate, too?

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Amber

Hey, y’all! I’m Amber and I wear many hats. I drink a ton of coffee and I’m constantly sweeping crumbs off the floor. After 20+ years of homeschooling, we are starting over at preschool with our fourth, Lil Miss Mouse. She keeps us young and she’s the main reason for my excessive coffee consumption. Drink up!