Fill your home with all the magic the season has to offer.
By Nick Steele
Tis’ the Season
As we celebrate the wonder and joy of the season, we hope we can provide some cheer and inspiration for decorating your home with simple personal touches, vintage charm inspired by warm childhood memories and the lush beauty of nature’s bounty.
Forces of Nature
Bring the beauty of nature indoors this season. Arrange flowers and foliage into gorgeous centerpieces, table settings and seasonal trimmings. Crown mantles, doorways and railings with graceful swags of greenery. Magnolia leaves woven into garlands, wreaths or a centerpiece add an elegant natural element. Ditch the tinsel and basic wreath this year and opt for a festive dried orange slice and cranberry version with pinecones instead. When it comes to color and beauty, fruit can be as festive as flowers, especially when used to decorate a holiday dessert or garnish serving dishes. If you have dreams of the stuff of sugar plum fairies, go ahead and indulge in sugared fruit arrangements. You can also go bold with glimmering nature-inspired accessories, like the striking handcrafted glass trees in various sizes and styles by Simon Pearce, available at Agapanthus Ocala.
Holiday Magic
If you’re like us, you’re craving a return to the comfort and joy of holidays past—when we created glad tidings from what was on hand and decorated with items that were passed down through the generations. This past resourcefulness inspired homespun décor with lots of heart. So now is the perfect time to embrace the comfort of tradition and make some new memories.Children love making ornaments for the tree and those often become treasured keepsakes as time goes by. Try having kids paint natural wooden ornaments from stores such as Hobby Lobby or Michael’s. Wooden clothespins are a great canvas to create festive little characters, representing everything from nutcrackers with mini pom poms for hats to sweet angels with scraps of lace and some gold thread. Cut out stars from white poster board or felt, run a glue stick over the surface and let kids sprinkle on the sparkles. Festive trimmings don’t have to come with a big price tag in times like these, so unfussy and easy to achieve may just be the antidote we all need to make the season bright again. You can also build on tradition with special flourishes. Treasured and traditional, glass ornaments like those from Christopher Radko, also available at Agapanthus Ocala, add a touch of warmth and whimsy. If building a traditional gingerbread house is a bit too involved and time consuming, decorate a cake with some iced gingerbread cookies in the shape of houses for a sweet shortcut that’s sure to bring a smile to your guests. It’s a fun way to transform an ordinary cake into an eye-catching decorative element. If it’s a white Christmas you want, choose a flocked tree or cover your ornaments and natural elements, such as pinecones, in a generous dusting of artificial snow. For a simple yet sophisticated touch, 
Dillard’s Market Street at Heath Brook stocks a striking Southern Living Capiz Berries Wreath that will add a chic organic element to your front door. However you choose to express your holiday style, be it an outdoor-inspired woodsy wonderland to something nostalgic, like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting, we join you in celebrating this special time at home and hope you will enjoy all the magic that the season can bring.
