With boughs of holly!

This stairwell, which greets you in a festive fashion, is just inside the entrance to the tea room. For the holiday season, I love to decorate it with a draping swag that goes all the way to the second floor. Covered with twinkling lights and colorful red and gold bows (a useful skill my mother taught me as I was growing up), there are pieces of holly, glittery gold leaves and red poinsettias and ornaments tucked in the swag. The steps are oak, refinished many years ago by my father, and the newel post is a birds eye maple. Here are also a few more of the tea themed ornaments on my tabletop tree. "Fa la la la la, la la la la! 'Tis the season to be jolly!"