Who remembers the first time they saw or heard a little Claymation snowman sing about “Silver and Gold”?  I am a child of the 1960’s, so when I hear the voice of Burl Ives, I think of holidays, flying reindeer, and misfit toys.  Remember all of those simple decorations that the Claymation forest animals seem to find when a tree needs trimming.  The silver and gold nuggets and ornaments provided the twinkle on the forest evergreens.  That’s just what a little silver and gold can do for your rooms this holiday season.  Vibrant metals finishes reflect and refract incandescent light and candlelight, adding sparkle to our rooms and making us cozy for the season.  Our attraction to holiday lights is no different than our mesmerization by the sparks and flames of a fire.  Certainly it’s primal, if no longer pagan…

In the last few years, I have been gathering those heavy-duty glass ball ornaments with the bronze-coloured tops.  I have a small horde of silver for my library, gold for my wife’s living room, and gold, green, and purple for the garden porch.  This year I even found some silver and red top-shaped ornaments in the same heavy glass.  You might have guess that since the name implies extra weight with these ornaments, I don’t use them on a tree.  I do arrange them in bowls, on the mantel, in trays, around pictures, and just loose on the tabletop.  Sometimes I follow the snowman’s advice and use silver and gold together, but this year each metal will highlight a different room.  My library is burgundy accented with different shades of blue.  The furniture is chrome and black leather, so silver balls and mercury balls will be strewn across the room—on the brown oak bar cart, in the 1950’s crystal ashtray, and across the blue granite mantle.  Adding in a few brilliant red balls finishes the look.  My new cache of gold balls is a variety of sizes, shapes, and sheens (some new, some discounted in last January’s sales).  Gold balls are reserved for the living room, where a blend of monochromatic golden tones creates a visual calm for displaying many of our favourite old family photos.  Framed in shades of gold and warm silver (a mix of silver and gold and bronze tones), the mix of black-and-white and hand-coloured photos on the mantle and across the bookcases were already cozy.  With the addition of the gold balls, the whole setting becomes magical.  The only additional highlight colour this year is the red berry on the winterberry branches clustered in vases of water and vodka for preservation.  The golden theme continues through the French doors onto the garden porch.  Satin-finished balls of gold, green, and purple are stacked in a Birdsall-Worthington bowl of yellow, green, and brown—perfect when paired with a carpenter’s box filled with green ivy and bouquets of dried garden lavender.  Now, just the simple addition of candlelight and firelight will create the sparkle and flame that has warmed the ages…

Try it!  Take out the silver bowls, the cut-glassware, cream-ware and grandmother’s porcelain.  Fill them with shiny Christmas balls in gold, silver, and even copper.  Set them wherever you need a little “holiday cheer”.  Now, light some candles (frankincense and myrrh?), get cozy, and watch the flicker.  If you’re rushed, then come out to Mahone Bay and enjoy the white lights.  You might not hear “Silver & Gold” yet, but it is a little early for our snow-people…