Decorating My Victorian Home For Christmas, 2024!

[Music] [Applause] hello everyone thank you for joining me again I'm in a festive mood because today you and I will decorate This Old House for the winter holidays the house was built in 1826 so our decorations will reflect those that were commonly used during the early part of the 19th century so please hang out with me I think we will have a lot of fun here is the 9 ft tall balsom fur that you and I selected at the Berry Farm in the previous episode since the tree is extremely heavy I asked John our beloved handyman to put the tree in its stand John cut a 2-in section from the trunk so that the tree can take up water [Music] once the tree was set up in the Parlor I gave it two full gallons of water a steady supply of water can help the tree to retain its green Foliage for a full [Music] month our dog and two cats are delighted to see that we have brought a forest into the house it's a good thing this house is not open concept every room has a door that can be closed the pets are allowed in the Parlor only when I can supervise [Music] them well I'm all for Christmas all the happy smiles and the wishes and I want it all then John went about stringing the tree with lights I think he did a magnificent job one thing is there anything that you're missing I will keep you warm as soon as you remove that snow whatever we do we will be all right these holiday wonders will open your M may all your wishes tonight come true the love I live a dream I knew this Christmas I only want to be close to [Music] you before we head outside to gather green for a mantle Garland I want to make some almond butter cookies these cookies are a holiday tradition for me so I need one large egg one teaspoon of baking soda these are the easiest cookies in the world whisk the egg and the baking soda together then I need 1/3 cup of demarara sugar you could use ordinary granulated sugar here if you wish then I need one cup of almond butter this is organic almond butter that I buy at Tiara Farm it's unsalted very thick and very delicious and I'm going to trade my whisk for a spurtle or a spoon and just stir the almond butter and the other ingredients together when you first start stirring the mixture will seem very loose but as you continue to stir the mixture will become quite thick since there was no salt in that almond butter I'm going to add just a pinch of this Himalayan salt you could use regular table salt and there we have it our cookie dough is made I like to use a 1 in diameter cookie scoop to form the cookies and I'm spacing these little cookies about 2 in apart I like to flatten the cookies just slightly this way they bake evenly I'm not ready to bake these almond butter cookies just yet so I'm going to cover them and pop them into the refrigerator and while they are chilling we can head out to the Garden to collect Greenery for our mantle [Music] Garland in the garden I'm clipping sprigs of boxwood upright U fuig Green Giant and Holly all these will look well in a mantle Garland I will use long stems from my upright use to create a separate Garland for the staircase [Music] to help the greenery to stay fresh for a full month I spray it with an anti-transpirant called Wilt prooof Wilt proof proof locks in moisture I will let the greens sit outside for about 3 hours so that the anti-transpirant can dry while I wait for the anti-transpirant to work I want to head to the local supermarket to buy the fresh fruit that will Adorn the mantle Garland take a drive with me in the 19th century it was common for people to decorate their fireplace mantels and tabletops with fresh Greenery and fresh colorful fruit for the fruit component today I'm selecting Mandarin oranges red blushed apples pomegranates red pears green and red grapes and a large pineapple [Music] I'm also grabbing some whole milk for the hot chocolate that you and I will make together from scratch a little later today I have just washed all of the fruit that you and I purchased at the market so now we can get cracking on the firplace Garland before we can make the mantle Garland We we first need to measure the mantle with a piece of jute twine the twine will be incorporated into the [Music] Garland when I make a Garland I always start with my length of juk twine because it tells me how long the Garland will be and then I take some green 24 gauge wire and I twist the juk twine and the wire together at the top just like this then I create bundles from the greens that I've collected so I have my thua green giant I think this is a little long I'm going to trim it up and then I want some of the upright U and some boxwood so I've made a little bundle here and then I will tie them together with the wire and you want to include that length of juk twine when you were wiring the greens together there this is the beginning of our Garland fua upright U and boxwood and then you want to place the second bundle to hide the stems from the first bundle and then you just continue making and tying bundles together we are making good progress here [Music] last bundle and I am going to turn it in the opposite direction from the other bundles like so [Music] and here is our Garland all made now if there are any empty spots in this Garland I can always fill in the gaps with some of the Holly that you and I clipped from the garden this may seem like a bit of work but actually I enjoy the work and I have tried using artificial Greenery in this house and although very convenient it just doesn't look right in a 200y old house in my opinion well let's bring this into the [Music] Parlor now I am placing a small cast iron n at the center of the mantle the N will serve as a perch for the pineapple in the 19th century a pineapple symbolized [Music] Hospitality next we can have fun arranging the remaining fruit on the mantle fruit will stay freshl looking for a surprisingly long time even when arranged on a fireplace mantle of course if the fruit goes bad I will simply replace it with other fresh fruit [Music] I also want to make a Garland for the staircase this will be a very easy Garland to do because I'm only going to use the long boughs of upright right U that we clipped from the garden and I'm going to wire two of them together at a time and then we will fit the Garland as we go [Music] okay to the staircase I'm happy to report that after 4 days the cats have not attempted to play with this Garland they simply play with each other on the staircase and leave the Garland alone [Music] [Music] two garlands knocked out in record time one for the fireplace mantle and one for the staircase now I think I could hang some ornaments from this staircase Garland but we will see right now I think we can do something with this ConEd door he's the new a lamp for a bit of Christmas Whimsy I'm tucking stems of boxwood and Holly into the Nook of the Conquistador arm I hope these fashionable accessories do not embarrass him he is a very serious [Music] concador we can take a moment now now to hang a pair of wreaths on the double front doors these are the wreaths that you and I selected together in the previous [Music] episode it's almost time to decorate the Christmas tree but first I want to build a fire in The Parlor [Music] [Music] [Music] my holiday tradition is to decorate the tree while sipping hot chocolate and eating cookies and here are the almond butter cookies that we made earlier these will go into a 350° F or 180° oven and all they need is 8 to 10 minutes and for the hot chocolate I need 2 oz of a good quality bitter sweet chocolate and I'm going to chop this just roughly and we can throw the chocolate into a sauce pan along with one cup or about 220 M of water and then I will bring this to a simmer on the stove top until the chocolate melts and then we will add some other things [Music] once the chocolate has melted I stir in a/4 cup or 50 g of sugar plus a pinch of salt and 3 cups or 700 Ms of whole [Music] milk when the mixture comes to a simmer it is ready to serve and here are our almond butter cookies they always look underdone when you bring them out of the oven but trust me if you let them sit for about a half hour they will firm up and the edges will become crispy and we might as well pour our hot chocolate to make our hot chocolate easy to pore and putting it in a picture with a pore spout oh this smells wonderful and my tradition while decorating the Christmas tree is to sip hot chocolate and as I mentioned earlier eat almond butter cookies while decorating the Christmas tree and Lizette is here she's going to enjoy some hot chocolate and help me to decorate the tree I had not lived until I sipped hot chocolate through cold whipped cream while decorating a Christmas tree this is Heavenly these biscuits are delicious as is but today I am giving them a snow shower of confectioner sugar is the season [Music] every ornament in my collection Sparks a memory for me some were gifts from cherish friends While others were purchased during our travels in Europe as lazette and I suspend them on the branches I like to recall when each ornament came into my life in the quiet evening snow is falling and from every window shines a light somewhere in the distance drums are calling but no one he their call tonight Christmas oh Christmas how we love long for you Christmas oh [Music] Christmas let your Mage was again true as I walk through the streets of my old Hometown I hear sleigh bells and ringing in the air there christm [Music] the first thing that is going under my tree is this gift basket from from Tiara Farm as most of you already know I make and eat a lot of granola and I buy all of my granola ingredients from Tiara Farm here's what's in the basket a 3B bag of organic glutenfree rolled oats organic unsalted hazelnuts yum a very colorful blend of organic very berry mix this is dried fruit organic shredded coconut organic salted pumpkin seeds organic extra virgin coconut oil organic ground cinnamon and this is my favorite cinnamon and my very own special blend of coffee beans I work very hard with tiara Farm's coffee roaster to create a special blend which I love and which I think you will love it's 50% Mexican beans which are a medium roast and 40% Ethiopian beans which are a light roast and 10% Honduran beans which are a dark roast I've tried this coffee as a cold brew and also as a traditional drip and I can tell you the coffee is really fragrant and really smooth to drink if this coffee doesn't wake you up in the morning nothing will also included in the granola gift basket is my recipe for delicious cinnamon Maple granola and since I am a big big fan of afternoon tea and cookies too the farm has recreated the Kevin Lee Jacobs tea box which contains my beloved Garing automnal tea it's a big jar of it also a big jar of my beloved black chai tea and a big jar of organic unsalted almond butter and Himalayan sea salt and this box includes my recipe for the fabulous almond butter cookies that you and I made together this very afternoon the farm is selling the granola gift basket and this tea box exclusively to my viewers and at a price that is much lower than the retail price of each item and from now through December 13th you can get the basket or for the box at 20% off the already reduced price and I think you will love shopping at Tiara Farm just as I do the staff there is super friendly and super helpful I really love the place I can put more information about the granola gift basket and this tea box in the description box below if you were interested tier Farm has also generously included a free shipping code which I will include in the description below this video it feels great to have this house mostly decorated for the holidays I still need to decorate my dining room but we will do that in a future episode and I hope you will watch also in the comments please let me know how your own holiday decorating is coming along if you enjoyed this episode I hope you will subscribe and please be sure to tap the notification Bell to receive notifications every time I upload a new episode again thank you so much for hanging out with me today I can't wait to see you in the next episode bye for now friends [Music]