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Welcoming Christmas in the Fairy Garden

I thought I spotted Santa in the fairy garden! On closer inspection I realized it was a pair of reindeer and a bag of toys. Santa must be down at the local coffee shop, getting his fill before the big night. The reindeer lingered to see if they could spot any carrots growing in the curb garden. Sorry fellows. I’ve been a lazy winter gardener this year.

reindeer on the roof fairy garden

A couple of reindeer in search of a carrot

Boomdee sent this charming little Christmas sign all the way from Alberta, Canada. Isn’t it adorable? It will be welcoming the wee visitors for years to come.

christmas fairy garden

All decked out for the holiday

The miniature cyclamen is back in business, preferring the colder weather to our summer heat. The baby tears revived as well and are filling in nicely. I added a pair of hypoestes also known as polka dot plants  for a bit of white contrast. I’ve never seen this white variety. They’re usually pink.

cyclamen and baby tears

Baby tears and cyclamen

White 'polka dot' plant

White ‘polka dot’ plant

In case they’re looking for some exercise, I’ve added a small ice-skating rink. San Jose doesn’t get that cold, so like our local hockey team, the San Jose Sharks, we made our own ice.

ice skating pond

Fairy garden ice rink (we have to bring in fake ice and snow)

If I’ve timed this right, it’s still Christmas in the southern hemisphere and almost Christmas in the north. Merry Christmas!

29 thoughts on “Welcoming Christmas in the Fairy Garden”

  1. You timed it beautifully – it is 9 am here as I sit and read this delightful post. Siddy is sitting beside me chewing on his old bone and hoping I will play fetch with it. I prefer to play fetch with a soft toy or small ball – but he doesn’t quite understand that yet. Orlando is draped fetchingly along the top of the bookcase, smiling down on us and now and again giving a happy ‘harrumph’, I am almost ready to begin the day – it is very still and quiet as it so often is on Christmas morning. You just made it into the end of the emails too – so really your timing is impeccable! Have a most wonderful Christmas Eve and a happy Christmas Day! xoxo

    PS Every time I read about your Fairy Garden I want to dash out and create one too – maybe one day it will happen – or maybe I shall just become happy watching yours blossom and change with the seasons. xo.

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    • You’re off to a lovely start to your day, Pauline. I’m so glad you could pop in for a read before you launch your day. I can appreciate your desire to throw soft toys to Siddy. Your house will remain the better for it. Orlando is a fetching guy, so I can picture it well.

      Crazy as this sounds, puttering in the fairy garden is always enriching. It’s a nice spot to ‘garden’, decorate and imagine all at once. It requires a small commitment of time and can be changed on a whim. I highly recommend it. You may be out for a walk and spot the perfect feather, twig, or even bottle cap and your mind will think ‘fairy garden.’ I actually brought home a handful of green stones from a beach in Victoria, BC since they had fairy garden written all over them. They’ll make an appearance around St. Patrick’s day.

      I can’t wait to here more about your day. We’ve just had the shortest ‘violent storm’ in history. It went from sprinkles to heavy rain and wind within minutes. Very unlike us. Now the rain has stopped but the wind has picked up. It’s a nice time to be home.

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    • Anna, what a delight to read your comment. Babies take up lots of time. I remember it well. But you’ll look back one day and be glad you had all that time together. My ‘babies’ are 14 and 17 now. The days can be long but the years go by in a flash.

      Merry Christmas!

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  4. Enchanting and magical!
    What wild weather you are having on Christmas Eve! Rainy and windy here … but Andrew is home and all is well 🙂
    Merry Christmas, Alys! Enjoy … everything!!

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    • I’m behind again. Can you tell?

      I’m happy to hear that Andrew came home for Christmas. With my boys still teenagers, it’s hard for me to imagine them gone for the holiday, but I know that may be an eventuality. Clearly you enjoy your son where and when you can.

      Happy New Year, Laurie!

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  6. Your Christmas fairy garden looks fabulous! If Santa drinks all that coffee, doesn’t he have to make lots of pit stops while delivering presents? LOL We have no snow here in Cleveland, OH for Christmas, which is quite odd. I am not used to seeing no snow on the ground, or shoveling it. The strange thing was that we actually had our window open most of the day yesterday because of the warmer temps, but it’s supposed to drop a little today. From all of us at Nikitaland, we wish all of you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year! You mean the world to us!

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    • LOL good point. But how else does Santa stay awake all night if not for a bit of caffeine?

      It must be strange not having any snow on the ground for Christmas. Is that still the case?

      We’ve had the strangest wind storms here. No rain, but bitter cold (for California…low thirties) and high winds. I’m glad you read that you’ve had a warm spell.

      Happy New Year, Val.

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      • Man, Santa has to be doing some coffee or Red Bull to stay awake delivering presents! LOL

        Nope, no snow on the ground here yet. We are in the 20’s over here today (can you say brrrrrr!). A few flakes of snow fell, but that is it. The Almanac did say that we are supposed to have the bitter cold temps for Jan-Feb – Oh great! I can deal with snow, but not temps this cold.

        HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU & THE FAMILY TOO!

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        • Our Jan/Feb are usually colder as well. This is a bit different for us too, especially the wind. Trees are down across roads, power outages. Not much fun. We’ve been lucky so far. Our power often goes out, but not with this latest storm. Knock wood!!!

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          • Oh man, you just jinxed yourself! In our house, we have to bite our lips and NOT say something because once we do….look out, we’re jinxed then. Like for instance, when we get heavy non-stop rain storms, we have said in the past “I’m glad our basement did not flood”, and guess what happened then. Yep, you guessed it, the basement flooded. Mums the word.

            I even saw on the news the other day that parts of CA got snow and people were stranded in their cars! That’s an odd occurrence for CA, right?

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  8. Perfection Alys! What a darling little skating rink, those gnomes and fairy’s will love it. I spotted the glass garden ball, the lantern, kitty for Beijing and of course your sign. Thank you for incorporating them all so beautifully. I hope I’m not ‘spamming’ your garden. I see these things and buy one for me and think, “Alys would want one too”. LOL

    I think your little house is adorably festive. I love the red trim you added on. I’m pretty smitten with the hill behind the rink too, I always try to have hills and valleys in the fairy garden. I just think most secret gardens would….naturally :D.

    The white polka-dot plant looks just like it has snow on it and fit’s in perfectly. Lucky California Gnomes can still wear their little flip-flops at Christmas, lucky them. I’ve heard from Alyster, he’s in the forest with Petals and they’ve come upon some deep snow….yoy! Happy Boxing Day my dearest! I can’t wait to get home and snoop thru all my treasure. I barely had time to enjoy it yesterday morning before being whisked out the door. Ta ta for now xoxo k

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    • You are “never” spamming my garden, and to the contrary, have provided a lovely collection for each changing season. I love all the treasures you send, and I have it on good authority that the fairies love them too.

      I agree with you on the hills and valleys. It adds texture and dimension to the small landscape. We’re secret garden pros, you and me!

      You’ve had a crazy-busy holiday season, and now you’re enduring bitter cold. At least you have a good excuse to tuck into the Boom Room, at least on the days you don’t work. Around here, retail is dead for most of January and early February. Perhaps you, too, will get a small break from work, though I know you love it. It’s just getting there in the miserable weather that’s no fun.

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      • Well your fairies wouldn’t fib and you’re sweet to be so welcoming to these things. I can’t claim to be a pro lately. My gosh, I really must get a new container and soon. I just rescued my Fair Garden Plant today. It’d almost totally dried out. I felt terrible. I think it’ll recover, what a hardy little thing.

        I worked on Friday and it was pretty quiet because of the snow storm. But we kept busy re-arranging the store to accommodate new stock. I actually really love that part. Taking down a whole section and re-arranging it and putting it back together with new stuff. You’d be aces at it! I like to try and have the new stuff at eye level and everything in reach (not too high). We often run out of room but it’s fun to try and make it look great. The roads were really terrible that day but I got to take the BMW which is 4 wheel drive so I got there no problem. Thank you for caring though, you’re a doll! xoxox mwaaaaa

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        • Fairies are a lovely, honest and forgiving lot. I’m glad you rescued your plant for another day.

          You just described me when I worked in retail. I was always the one organizing and rearranging the stock. When I worked in gift wrap, I was always the one putting the greeting cards back in order. We are two peas in a pod.

          Hmmmm…is there an echo in here? 😉

          I’m glad you were in a 4 wheel drive that day. Brutal weather. xox

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          • My only worry when I drive Jim’s vehicle is scratching or denting it. Yesterday I backed out of the garage with my car and scrapped the garage door opening with my fender. Not worried about the fender because Jim had cracked it pulling too close to a parking curb. But the Garage side will need some TLC….ooops.

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  9. I’m very late in the door. I’m taking a down day and trying to catch up. Your fairy garden looks so happy and healthy. I brought mine inside but it isn’t happy because I’ve given it little attention in the last few months. I’m going to list all the plants you have in yours and see if we have anything that will survive the cold here. I don’t have good light inside.

    I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. They do change as the years go on. It was only my daughter and I this year. Almost not worth dragging all the stuff out except this year I’m weeding them out and fixing what needs it. I try never to miss one of your post as they are always so cheerful and informative. You have such a good friend in Boomdee. She is such a treasure too to think of you each time she finds something for her fairy garden.
    Did I say Happy New Year yet? I’m a bit muddled.

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    • Marlene, the best part of blogging, is we’re never too late to join the conversation. I’m so glad you’re here.

      I’m thinking of starting a small fairy garden indoors as well as the one outside. We’ve just had several days in the low thirties, and the cyclamen (I found a miniature one) and the baby tears are doing great. The polka dot plant won’t stay small, so I’ll transplant it next summer. I had two small, pink polka dot plants in my original garden, but once transplanting them into a larger pot, they grew to 18 inches tall. Now they’ve self seeded in a few other places in the garden. It’s a nice, hardy plant.

      Funny what you said about fixing things in your Christmas stash. I finally got out needle and thread and mended the boys advent calendar. It felt great to get that done. I’ve donated a few things as well that have outlived there purpose as the boys age.

      Boomdee does spoil me so, doesn’t she? So you do you. I enjoyed my Marlene treasures on the tree this year, the beautiful embroidered angel and the snowflake. One year I might just invest in a small, table top tree and festoon it with all the lovely blogging treasures from around the globe. I’m a lucky woman.

      Here comes a big, cyber hug. Are you ready?

      ((((((((Marlene)))))))))

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