DesignsandEvents: Naturally Decorating the Front Step for Christmas

Hi All! Today I am finally sharing some of my Christmas decorations with you. I know. I've taken my good sweet time getting here! In truth, I have been working on my Christmas decorating for a while but, have had other stories to tell you about until now. Today, I thought the natural place to start was the front step; the entry to my home.

"Natural" is the operative word. This year I have decided to go more simply with some of my decorations, mostly the outdoor ones. There are many reasons for this. One is the mere time that Christmas decorating takes. I decorate all over my house and it is time consuming. But, the real reason I chose to go with the natural theme is because I wanted a change. Since I have always liked mixture of greens in all the floral designs I do, I thought I would use that idea here and make it easier on myself. Hopefully, the end result will be pretty, even if in a simple way.

The two black planters are anchors on the front step. Since they are too heavy to move easily, it's a good thing I like them so much! The white twigs became the centerpiece of the planters. The last few years I have used birch branches but, as I said, I was going for a change this year. I also liked the clean, sleeker lines of the branches for my contemporary house. As a base for the mixture of greens in the planter, I used a traditional Christmas wreath as a topper to the planter. Filling in around the wreath I mixed in some seeded eucalyptus and other greens cuttings I purchased from the local nursery. As I am looking at this photo I am realizing I forgot to mix in some of the soft pine from my yard, however. Hmmm, I might have to revisit the planters and add some in.

Since the front step is somewhat large there is a lot of surface area to cover so, I needed lots of greens.

There is this little corner to the side of the front door...

and this wall planter also to the side of the front door. As you can see, I used the same mixture of greens to fill up this planter, as well. The pinecones came from the millions that fell to the ground in my yard this fall. Boy, there were soooo many pinecones! It's great that I was able to put them to good use.

The same design theme was carried through to the entry door wreath. I think the blue-green of the eucalyptus really adds texture to the whole look of the wreath and elsewhere on the front step.

By the way, I ran out of seeded eucalyptus by the time I made it to decorating the wreath. I was faced with the problem of having to go to the flower market, which is at the minimum 35 minutes away, for a small amount of eucalyptus until I realized I had one lone baby blue eucalyptus plant still growing in my garden. That plant was sacrificed for the wreath :). Oh well, it wouldn't have made it through the winter anyway.

If you check out my previous Christmas Posts, you will see that I usually decorate the front step with much more fanfare. I think this year I have actually gotten to the place where "less is more", which is a huge departure for me.

In the end, I am very happy with the natural look of the front entry to my home. I have many other places inside the house to add some bling. For this particular Christmas season, I am liking the simplicity of it all. I still might not be able to help myself, however. I will probably be adding white lights to the planters....if I have time. Snow is being forecasted :/