Sunday, October 11, 2009

By Leslie Linsley Special to The Citizen

It's just the beginning of fall, so it's a little weird to be thinking about Christmas.

But last week that is exactly what photographer Terry Pommett and I were doing. We were asked to do an article on holiday entertaining for Bird's Eye View, Cape Air's in-flight magazine.

I was reminded of my years working as the contributing craft editor at Family Circle magazine. Since we always worked six months in advance, every July we would create the "Christmas Bazaar" issue.

My house, back in those days, was a bevy of crafts in the form of decorations and gifts that we would photograph for the magazine. Every time anyone came into my home they would exclaim at how much fun my job seemed to them. What could be more fun, they mused, than getting paid to dream up, design and make craft projects?

And it was fun. But by the time the actual holiday rolled around we were totally Christmased out. It was hard to muster up enthusiasm for decorating when all summer I had been working on Christmas.

So as I was lugging all my Christmas doodads from my shop to create a fantasy holiday table while the temperature was hovering in the 70s and people were still in shorts, I began thinking it wasn't so crazy to get a jump on the holidays. How great, I thought, to have all the plans for the holiday season in place now, to know when you would have a party, when you would need to start making things if in fact that was what you intended to do and gather the materials now.

If one planned properly you could, for example, pick the fading hydrangea blossoms now and hang them upside down to dry in a dark place for making hydrangea wreaths later on. You might enjoy an autumn walk on the beach to collect shells that could be turned into all sorts of decorations and gifts. Perhaps gathering pinecones to make ornaments and wreaths would be a perfect excuse for a walk on a fall day.

Maybe, I reasoned, parceling out time in this way would make the holidays seem less hectic and there would be time to do all the things we enjoy at that time of year.

So as I put the finishing touches on the table I had set in September to look like December, as I placed artificial greens and holly on top of my china cabinet, as I clustered the fake poinsettia plants in an oversized tin container for my centerpiece, and finally lit the candles, Terry said, "And what about you? You can't have a holiday picture taken in jeans and a sweat shirt."

So off I trotted to don a bright green silky top with an appropriate red satin scarf and everything was set for our pretend Christmas party. Once the pictures were taken I stood back to assess the table that had taken me a couple of hours to perfect.

Could I leave it this way until Christmas? Hardly. Could I perhaps have an early, very early, pre-holiday party? Maybe, but even for someone who doesn't always do things by convention, this was too weird.

I packed up the fake greenery. I put away the beaded flowers and the red Christmas balls that served as place cards. I carefully stowed the newly ironed satin red and green placemats in the bottom drawer where only things that are taken out once a year reside. I packed away the beaded napkin rings and the 1920s champagne glasses used to hold votive candles and put the strawberry pressed glasses back in the china cabinet where I turned off the twinkly fairy lights that line the shelves.

The miniature Christmas tree in the corner of the dining room went back to the store room in the shop, and all the silver stars that were sprinkled on the table got scooped back into their little box along with the silver- and gold-coated almonds that were strewn haphazardly over the table. The ornate silverware is back in its rightful box, and the fat candles in the bubbly hurricane lamps have been snuffed out.

All that remains on the table are my grandmother's ornate silver candleholders that looked pretty elegant yesterday, but today look pathetically forlorn like everyone left the party and they are the only remaining guests.

I went into the garden and picked the last remaining hydrangea blossoms that are turning a lovely shade of green. It didn't take many to fill a white pitcher for the center of the table and just like that I was back to reality.

Christmas was a thing of the past, or rather of the future. But I had my holiday dry run and when the time comes I am more than ready to set a supreme table at the drop of a "Oh, let's have a Christmas party" thought.

So what came out of this exercise is this: It is never too early to get ready for the holidays, and you can begin to think about all the wonderful natural materials that Key West has to offer, whether you live here or are visiting briefly.

What could be a nicer reminder of your Key West visit than a holiday wreath covered with the shells brought back from a walk on your favorite island beach?

Leslie Linsley has written more than 50 books on crafts, decorating and home style. She resides on Nantucket with her husband, photographer Jon Aron, and has a store on the island that specializes in her one-of-a-kind creations. Her latest book is "Key West: A Tropical Lifestyle" (Monacelli Press), with photos by Terry Pommett.