Home for the Holidays

One of my favorite holiday songs is
"I'll be Home for Christmas."
And this year,
Tiffany & Company's flagship
Fifth Avenue store's holiday window theme is
"Home for the Holidays" ...
and what a treat this home is!

These very special holiday windows
 lead us on an little fantasy trip
 to the front door of an
elegant miniature city townhouse.
And what a lucky family indeed that lives there ...
for, who wouldn't want to live in a townhouse
that boasts architectural details like these ...
in a home where delicate pieces of diamond jewelry
lay in wait for us to find on the snowy stairs
as we arrive home at the end of the day ...
and what would we find at the top of the stairs
but a very special Tiffany blue box ...

... and as we step through the door
of our momentary dreamworld,
and find ourselves in the grand entry,
with it's tall tree that's been
embellished with Tiffany blue ornaments,
we'd see that someone has been very clumsy indeed ...
"What is this?" we'd ask ... "a diamond bracelet?"
"And a beautiful cocktail ring?"
Be careful, don't trip!

The living room is filled with tiny treasures too ...
just look at the surprises bursting from the box
atop the golden console table ...
and you'd probably have very sweet dreams
if you should choose to lay your head
on this pillow resting on the lovely settee ...
{I can't quite believe the detail in the tiny chandelier!}

It seems as if this abode has something precious
on every available surface ... 

Even the newly-engaged couple we spy through the window,
about to sneak a kiss under the mistletoe.
have set a little something aside on the windowsill
for just a moment ...

Do I really have to come back from that tiny dream?
I don't think so ... for if we don't have a little townhouse like that one,
we can always create our own, right?

And I think that's exactly what I'll be doing.
You see, my other favorite holiday song is
"Silver Bells" because I love the words
"It's Christmas time in the city" and
"City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style."

Let me back up a bit ...
and fill you in on why I'm talking about the city.
This is the first Christmas in our "new" historic home ...
and we have been blessed with 10-foot ceilings,
so we were quite excited to go out in search of a
beautiful tall tree this weekend that would almost touch the ceiling ...
and we found one ...

But when we arrived home and tried to take the tree off the car,
we found that one person could hardly budge it, it was so heavy!
It took a lot of maneuvering to get it into the very sturdy
tree stand and place it in front of our bay window.
The window below is in our living room
and as we've been renovating the house and
working on the rooms one by one ...
this room is just being painted now
and currently has nothing else in it ...
not even the drapes ...
but it does now have a 10-foot tree!

When we finally got it into the window recess,
the only thing I could think of was
that it felt like our very own
Rockefeller Center tree, it was so huge!
To give you an idea of how big the tree feels to us,
when my husband stands by the white middle sash
of the windows behind, it's at his chin level ...

We've gotten as far as the putting the lights on the tree ...
this was a close-up I snapped of the magic ...

And now that the lights are on and the tree
awaits its ornaments, instead of my
collection of lovely family ornaments that I normally use,
I feel that this tree begs for a theme ...
and since it feels like a Rockefeller Center tree to us,
It seems only right to give it a city theme ...
so, of course, I will be painting and glittering
a few of the paper ornaments I want to adorn it with ...
but that's for another post ... stay tuned!

Happy holidaying to all of you wonderfuls!
I hope everyone is having a magical time
in your very own homes for the holidays!


Holiday windows are from
 NY Fifth Avenue flagship store windows of
Tiffany & Company

Ooh La Frou Frou
is the blog of illustrator
SANDY M ...
if you would like to inquire about
having a custom illustration created,
contact Sandy here.