A Christmas Arrangement Made In Advance

Press, Volume C, Issue 29696, 14 December 1961, Page 2

A Christmas Arrangement Made In Advance

181/ JAY GEE] Christmas week is always busy for the housewife, with shopping, preparing food and extra chores in addition to the usual housework. For this reason, a Christmas floral decoration that can be prepared well in advance is a big time-saver. The arrangement sketched above can be prepared at any time and kept in storage until it is needed. All the varnished and painted pieces used must be dry before the work is started.

The arrangement is suitable for placing on a table, as it is made to look attractive from all angles, but it could equally well be placed on a sideboard or a wall table. A large piece of bark makes the ideal base, but if this is not available a breadboard or chopping board could be used, or even a silver cake board. The display will be more effective if the board is of a dark wood Artificial Snow Paint the base with patches of white shoe cleaner to resemble snow and when it is almost dry sprinkle with silver glitter. Certain brands of washing powder, mixed to a thick solution with warm water and then whipped, also make good artificial snow. Put a large ball of plasticine in a shallow tin (a tobacco tin, for instance) and

place this towards one end of the base. Choose three good pieces of broom—removing some of the pods and leaves so they are not too biishy—and wash in soap and water if necessary. Trim each cluster with scissors so that it tapers off towards the top and then bend it to give flowing lines (see digram). If three suitable boughs of broom cannot be found, clusters may be made by binding together several pieces at the base. Coat the broom with clear varnish and sprinkle on a few coloured sequins and glitter while it is still sticky. Place a long red candle in the centre of the plasticine, lear’ng it forward slightly and away from the end where the tin is placed. Now anchor the prepared broom in the plasticine behind the candle. Make sure that no foliage is in a position where it will catch fire when the candle is lit. On the other side from the

broom, anchor a branch of macrocarpa in a horizontal position. This is also treated with clear varnish, sequins and glitter, and it gives solidity to the appearance of the decoration. Fine grasses are now bunched together with sticky tape and arranged above the macrocarpa branch. These, too, should be treated with clear varnish and glitter. Pine Cones Place varnished pine cones at the base of the candle and cover any plasticine that might be left showing with holly leaves that have been varnished and decorated with one or two sequins. Complete the arrangement with a red bow at the base of the broom and small coloured Christmas balls hanging from the branches. Various other materials are suitable as alternatives Twigs may be bound in bundles, tinselled and used in place of the broom, and a yew branch instead of the macrocarpa. Ivy, mistletoe and poppy seedheads could also be worked into the arrangement. (Copyright Reserved.)