A HOUSE MADE FOR CELEBRATING

When Chris and Pat Andino designed their Ohio home, they included both formal 18th-Century spaces and rooms with primitive décor. Filled with a lifelong collection of quality reproductions and local antique smalls, their home is especially warm and welcoming at holiday time.

Jeanmarie Andrews

WINTER AT GENESEE COUNTRY VILLAGE & MUSEUM

The western New York living history museum sparkles in winter, offering a century’s worth of holiday decorations and traditions as well as outdoor activities and demonstrations that explore how 19th-Century rural and urban settlers prepared for the long winter ahead.

DIRECTORY OF TRADITIONAL AMERICAN CRAFTS HOLIDAY

We share the top picks of museum curators, collectors, and other experts in handmade re-creations of period holiday crafts—in clay, fabric, paint, wood, and wool—for decorating your home or giving as gifts.

CHRISTMAS IN SALEM

For forty-plus years, homeowners in the Massachusetts seaport have decked their halls and opened their doors to visitors during the holidays. This year’s event has expanded into a virtual tour so you can see more than the usual dozen buildings in a single neighborhood.

ONLY NATURAL: DEERFIELD'S WREATHS

Decorating homes from the austere Puritan period is a dilemma solved by the staff of Historic Deerfield, one of the Bay State’s oldest historic villages. They transform plain evergreen wreaths with natural materials to adorn the doors of the town’s museum and private homes.

THE LEGEND OF THE POINSETTIA

Tales of the ubiquitous Christmas flower are mostly modern fiction created by savvy marketers of the holiday plants. Its history is more convoluted than a detective novel with a twist, but none of that detracts from the beauty of the world’s most popular potted plant.

Winfield Ross

STUNNING HOLIDAY TABLESCAPES

With fresh greenery, dried flowers or simple ornaments, and a bit of imagination, you can create an eye-catching holiday centerpiece to brighten your dining table or credenza. Our herbal experts offer a step-by-step guide.

Don Haynie and Tom Hamlin

TREES FOR ALL

With strips of colorful leather, beads, needle and thread, you can create a multitude of simple tree-shaped ornaments for decorating throughout the house.

Diane Louise Paul

TEA WITH MARTHA WASHINGTON

Mount Vernon shares some of Martha Washington’s favorite recipes you can cook up at home for a socially distanced holiday get-together with friends. Dressing in period attire and breaking out the fine china add to the festive atmosphere.

THE BOAR'S HEAD

In medieval times, Englishmen prepared a feast fit for the king as part of the Yule celebration. It featured a procession of Nature’s bounty, crowned by the head of a wild boar. Festivals around the country keep the ancient tradition alive.