Christmas

 

Red and Gold balls, red and gold apples, with white lights and white pinecone lights, sparkles and crystals, and an assortment of ornaments. Tradition.

What makes it special - the red and gold balls are in a variety of finishes, shiny glass and matte, some deeper red, makes for real depth. the pinecone lights mean both big and small bursts of the white lights, again more depth. Pinecones and baby's breath is also a nice addition. I love it, always have and always will.

Brown paper wrappings with red, with gold ribbon and white lacy additions, another favorite.

The candles on the mantle are ceramic electric flameless pillars from Restoration Hardware some years ago. They're dimmable, and they're perfect. If you can find them, buy them.

Update: Amazon has some (Dec/2012) ◼ Pillar Candle Light String - they're shorter, six to a strand. By HomeACCESS

And - they have this ◼ Set of 5 Mercury Glass String Lights - Electric - The 5 candles each are 3 inches in Diam. The first and last candle are 6 inches tall and the middle 3 candles are 7 inches tall. End to end they measure 78", lighted length 40". A power switch is located before the first candle. Each uses a standard 5w bulb (Included) which glows bright white. When they are off the candle shells are an antique silver mercury glass, when turned on, they glow a beautiful antique amber gold. - They are available from an outside source called Flameless Candles.

The Mercury Glass String arrived - they're awesome. They're not as high quality as the ones from Restoration Hardware, in terms of construction (don't have a dimmer, for example) but they're lovely and as long as they're well treated they will last forever. These were hard to find, they first came out in CHS catalog, and sold out immediately, and it took more than a year to find these.