My Quick and Easy Christmas-y Outdoor Wall Planters

So, if you recall, I filled our wall troughs with autumn floral, greenery, and mini pumpkins in early September. I had stuck a bunch of floral picks into brown spray-painted chunks of styrofoam.

The other day I pulled those blocks of styrofoam out, leaving the floral arrangements intact, and stored them in a dry place until next September. I left the supporting white styrofoam in place in the planters to help support our Christmas arrangements.

Today I took a few minutes to go clip some cedar and fir branches in the yard and gathered some red plastic ornaments, pine cones, and ribbon from my decorating  and craft stash.

I laid the evergreen branches on top of the white styrofoam, arranging a few smaller cedar pieces upright to add a little height, then topped the greens with pinecones and ornaments. Adding a plaid ribbon bow to each was the final touch. I spent less than 30 minutes, including finding everything and cleaning up. And here's how they turned out.

It may be simple, but it adds a little bit of color to the front porch and was my favorite price -- free. 

Later this week, I'll do something similar on the mantel in the family room, using evergreen branches from our yard, pinecones, more plastic ornaments, and some fairy lights that I stretched out on the mantel as part of our fall decor.

Christmas Breakfast Menu from the Late 1800s/Early 1900s

I'm currently putting together our Christmas Day menus and procuring the needed foods. This morning I headed over to Fred Meyer and took advantage of the 97 cent/lb half-ham deal. So I know I have a ham I can work with for brunch and/or dinner.

While poking around on the Internet Archive site (archive.org) the other day, looking for Christmas menus from times past, I came across a gem of a cookbook from over 100 years ago, The White House Cook Book; A Comprehensive Cyclopedia of Information for the Home, by Hugo Ziemann and  Mrs. F. L. Gillette.  The original copyright was from 1887. The publication date from the edition on archive.org was 1913.

This cookbook was written for the general public as both a practical guide to cookery/housewifery and a source of interesting information about White House hospitality during the later 1800s. There are menus for everyday meals, holiday celebrations, and also state occasions. There’s a menu for Gen. Grant’s birthday dinner, Mrs. Cleveland’s Wedding Lunch, and a menu for a 1,000-guest buffet. On the practical side, there are suggestions for teething children, making poultices, and a cure for ringworm.

Would you like to know how to seat 50 people around the table?  Here's what the layout would have looked like at a White House state dinner.

There was in fact a page of Christmas menus.

Here's the Christmas Day Breakfast Menu (found on page 500):

Oranges

Boiled Rice

Broiled Salt Mackerel

Poached Eggs à la Crème  (poached eggs smothered in a warm thin white sauce)

Potato Fillets (sounds a lot like French fries, sliced into 1/4-inch sticks, fried twice, until puffed)

Feather Griddle Cakes  (yeast leavened pancakes)

Wheat Bread

Coffee

My family would probably skip the mackerel and maybe the boiled rice. The pancakes, eggs, potatoes, coffee, and oranges sound nice. Although it sounds to me like a lot of work on Christmas morning. I think I'll keep working on our Christmas day brunch menu.

How about you? Have you begun planning your holiday meals for later this month?