"Twas the Night Before Christmas Tablescape

 

Dear Red Couch Readers, Merry Christmas to all of you!  "Twas the Night Before Christmas" is the quintessential Christmas poem.  It was written in 1823 by Clement C. Moore.  These Johnson Brother's dishes, "Twas the Night," take the name of the poem and provide a delightful scene on each dish, with verses of the beloved poem.  I am enchanted with them.  Not surprisingly, we will be using these dishes on Christmas Eve. 

 

Of course, no Christmas Eve dinner would be complete without the red King's Crown glasses that my wonderful Aunt Ionia used to set her "adult" table every year on Christmas Eve.  These glasses were given to me by my sister Jacqueline.  I love the little wine charms on the clear bubble glasses.

 

 

The adult table at my Aunt Ionia's, many moons ago., with the King's Crown glasses.

 

 



The dinner plate begins the poem, "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...."



 

I bought these salad plates last year, and I did not realize that each one was different, with a different scene and verse.  Look how delightful this St. Nick is.  "He was chubby and plump a right jolly old elf.  And I laughed when I saw him in spire of myself."

 

"His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow.  And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow."

 

 

"The lump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth.  And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath."



"A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, soon gave me to know that I had nothing to dread."

The napkin view.

 

A key to let Santa in the door is awaiting the night.

 



 

I do believe in Santa.  Even as a toddler my mother said I loved Santa.  Other girls liked dolls, I carried around a stuffed Santa with black rubber boots all the year round.  When I could first speak, my mother said I went around saying "Ho, Ho, Ho!"  I called him "Causie" and thought he was my special friend.

 

Santa's bells are awaiting to herald in Christmas Eve.  These Santa Hat Hershey kisses are just adorable.  They are exclusive to Target.

 



 

We brought out the silver, Damask Rose, and yes, I might be counting it after dinner.  One Christmas Eve, not too long ago, our friend Leroy thought it was so funny that I counted our silver after dinner, as if we suspected him or something....WELL.....We explained to him that spoons sometimes ended up in the trash. 

 

 

A full view of the table.

 



A side view. The little berry bowls have the verse, "And mama and her kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled in for a long winter's nap."  There are other dishes available with other verses of the poem on them. 

 

I adore these huge jingle bells. 



May you have the merriest of Christmases.  From our Red Couch to yours.  Thanks for dropping by, hopefully you are not droopy with all the rush of Christmas!

 

Posted with Tablescape Thursday.



Nativity Display Tour

Welcome to Red Couch Recipes.  As the gingerbread for our gingerbread house is being cooked in the oven, I decided to show you some pictures of a wonderful Nativity display that we went to recently.  All of the nativities on display are from the personal collection of a Catholic Priest, Father John Connolly, in the Spokane area.  In all, including Nativity pictures, he has over 1,000 items.  It was truly a treat  to see.

 

There were traditional Nativities with many pieces.

 



 

There were Nativities for kids.  This one is the extremely popular Fisher-Price one.

 

 

Ones made out of fabric.

 

 

 

 

Nativities that were dolls.

 

 

This is a cardboard set that is very similar to one that we used to have when we were children.

 

 

 

This Nativity looked like it was made from pieces of rolled paper. 

 

 

 

Some of the components of this Nativity set were made from candy and gum wrappers.

 

 

 

I believe this was made from concrete.

 

 

Of course, there was the stain glass variety.

 

 

There was also the plump variety, which was really one of my favorites.

 

 

 

On display were two different Eskimo Nativities

 

 

Many of these Nativities were given to him by friends, family, and parishioners.



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 This one looks like it is straight out of Santa Fe, but it was bought in Colorado. 

 

Of course he had many from different countries.  These are typical of traditional Mexican Nativities.

 



 

A Nativity from India.

I love this one from Guatemala.

A box Nativity from Bolivia.
 



An adorable Japanese one.

 



 

 

A mother and child from Kenya.

 I am not sure where this one is from.

 



 

The fairy one was very unusual.

 

 

 

On display were several nutcracker ones.

 

 

 

Because of its sweetness, this was one of my favorite on display.

 

 

 

Look how sweet this little shepherd boy is.

 

 

This Nativity was also high on the sweetness factor for me.

 

 

I loved this one with the scriptures written on it.

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this tour of these Nativities.  Wherever people live, we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Remember to keep Christ in Christmas. 

 

Thanks for dropping by the Couch.

Peace, Hope and Joy Tablescape

 

Welcome to Red Couch Recipes.  I hope your Christmas season is going well. We had some friends over for dinner the other night, and this is the table that we set.

 

We bought these plates several years ago at Wal-Mart.  I love them.  I have the Peace, Joy, and Hope tables.  Please excuse the quality of the pictures, they were taken at night. 

 

 

 

 

Since we made two moves within a year, I have not been able to find all of our things, including some of my napkins.   I used two different napkins.  Which do you like most?  The cream....

 

 

 

Or the red and white toile?  The little desk top poinsettia is perfect for a centerpiece -- low enough for you to see the person across the table.

 

 

Our area suffered a major windstorm on November 17, and many were out of power for days, some for over 8 days.  A major proble was the beautiful pine trees that fell on the power lines.  I picked up some the greens from a downed tree for some greenery on this table and for around the home.  I guess that is like making lemonade out of lemons. 

 

 

I always like to give a glass peak shot.   

 

 

 

 

 I do like the traditional colors at Christmas, not all of the time, but a lot of the time.

 

I hope you find some peace, joy, and hope in this holiday season.

 

Thanks for dropping by my Couch.

 

Posted with Tablescape Thursday.