BY RHONDA BENVIE PLUMMER
TRANSITIONAL HOLIDAY
DECOR
It’s that time of year again – the much-anticipated last few
months of the year, chock full of spookiness, feelings of
gratitude, and holiday cheer. But the closeness of Halloween,
ThTh anksgiving, and Christmas can have even the most
savvy home holiday decorator feeling burned out before the
turkey is even out of the oven. Th e daunting task of designing
new scenes for each of these holidays may just be a bit
too much – but with some simple decorating tips, items, and
ideas, bridging the gap between the fi rst of October and the
start of the New Year can be much simpler than you think.
We all have that one statement piece that is
the perfect holiday decorating backdrop.
Maybe it’s a chest in your foyer or the sideboard
in your dining room. Perhaps it’s
the mantel in your family room. Whichever
focal point you prefer, decorative lanterns of varying heights
can be the ideal items to introduce that particular holiday’s theme.
For Halloween, for instance, place one fi lled with mini skulls and
another with pine cones at one end of your statement piece. On the
piece’s other side, display varying sizes of pumpkins. For a jack-olantern
look, simply paint one side. Hang several black frames of
standard paper size above the console, sideboard, or fi replace –
depending on the size of your statement piece, make sure you have
enough frames to fi ll the wall space adequately. Fill the frames with
diff erent Halloween-themed pictures or quotes (you can easily
design your own and print on photo paper). For more height, add
a glass vase fi lled with branches that you can fi nd right in your own
backyard, draped with artifi cial spider webs and spiders. Th en place
some books and fall-scented candles alongside your set up – you
have now created the perfect Halloween decoration.
Once the calendar fl ips from October to November, simply remove
the skulls from the lanterns, and replace with acorns or
walnuts and fruit like apples and oranges (artifi cial is fi ne for this
purpose). Leave the pine cones in the other lantern. Th e pumpkins
can stay the same (unless you painted a jack-o-lantern on any of
them as described above – if you did, simply turn it around to feature
its unpainted side). Replace the Halloween pictures or sayings
with Th anksgiving-themed versions. Remove the spiders and webs
from the branches displayed in the glass vases and add a few berry
stems for almost eff ortless Th anksgiving décor.
To easily transition to Christmas, take the pine cones from the lanterns
and spray paint them either silver or gold – or both. Replace
the fruit and acorns with beautiful, colored Christmas ornaments.
Paint the pumpkins also silver and gold. Or maybe paint them
white and the creases red for a candy cane look. Beautiful Christmas
images for the frames will replace those from the holiday before.
Paint the vase’s branches in the same metallic hues as the pine
cones. Keep the berries but throw some holly into the arrangement.
Switch the candle scent to cinnamon, cloves, pine, etc. You have
now taken your statement piece’s featured decorating scheme from
Halloween to Th anksgiving to Christmas – with very little eff ort.
Th ere are many other things you can do to easily transition among
the various fall holidays. For instance, for your front door, swap
out the ribbon tied around a classic boxwood wreath from an
orange and white striped for Halloween to a burlap version for
Th anksgiving, to a red and black buff alo plaid for Christmas (or
whatever fun and festive patterns and colors you prefer that are
relevant to each holiday).
14 CIRCA Magazine | October • November • December 2020 | www.circamagazine.com
/www.circamagazine.com