Andre Viette loves Christmas!
He also loves to decorate! Walk into his home after Thanksgiving and you will be greeted with the sounds of Christmas music; Mitch Miller (one of my favorites), Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Burl Ives … all the old greats, plus many others. The carols just lift you up and get you into the Christmas spirit. They always remind me of our house when I was growing up; we listened to this very same music on records every Christmas season. Gosh – I’m dating myself!
The Christmas music plays non-stop while Andre is decorating the house – both indoors and outside. He loves it!
The outside decorations that Andre creates are my favorites. He decorates all the porches and the side of the house with a great variety of beautiful greens that he cuts from his own gardens and from a nearby tree farm. The different contrasts in color and texture of the various evergreen boughs make a really neat display. He mixes in more color by using the berried branches of hollies, Callicarpa (Beautyberry), and Juniper, and loads of different sizes and shapes of cones and seed pods …
He also paints a few seed pods, pumpkins, gourds, even oak and magnolia leaves with shiny gold paint to add some additional sparkle to both the indoor and outdoor arrangements. What a neat idea!
Andre incorporates some interesting antique farm tools and pieces of farm equipment into all of his outdoor displays. He also has two old sleighs which he decorates around on the front and back porches. They add a neat old-fashioned touch to the arrangements.
Whoa Dasher, I thought you were
supposed to pull the sleigh!
Inside the displays are just as spectacular. Even here he combines greens, antiques, and colorful Christmas ornaments to create some very unique decorations for the house.
The “snow tree”
The “snow tree” is beautiful with glistening snow coating each ornament covered bough. In the front hallway, the “crystal tree” is filled with handmade crocheted ornaments, beautiful pearl chains, and pearl and crystal ornaments. It is just breathtaking. The mantle in the den is swathed in lustrous gold lamé and decorated with stained glass ornaments and a beautiful stained glass fireplace screen. An antique butter churn is decorated with greens, pine cones, and little Christmas elves. Everywhere you look you see Christmas – a manger arrangement; antique ornaments; old Christmas cards; pine cones; sleigh bells …
Santas can be found everywhere – hundreds of them peaking out here and there. Andre’s Santa collection continues to grow each year. One of the fun games for the kids that visit is to count the number of Santas that Andre has nestled in displays around the house! At this point it would take quite a while the count them all. I wonder if Andre even knows …
If you would like to come for a visit to see Andre’s beautiful Christmas wonderland, the Viettes are opening their home for three separate house tours this December.
The tour times are:
Saturday, December 15 at 1:30 pm; Wednesday, December 19 at 5:00 pm; and Thursday, December 20 at 1:30 pm. The cost is $10 per person.
We hope you are able to take some time from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season to visit Andre’s magical Christmas wonderland!
Give us a call at 800-575-5538 to signup. Click for directions to the Viette home in Fishersville, Virginia.
Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season!
Until next time – Happy Holidays!
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The “crystal tree”
Dear Lori,
Great Post! Your photos are beautiful.
Many Thanks,
Claire
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