For years now, it has been a dream of mine to decorate a dollhouse for Christmas. The scene is set in my mind's eye--miniature presents wrapped in foil, lights twinkling in every window, infinitesimally small wax tapers, a beribboned tree teeming with angels shading thimble-sized nativity, and, of course, a table set extravagantly for a doll's Christmas feast.
Now, given the fact that we barely put up the life-size tree this year, you can just imagine how the dollhouse fared. Still, it occurred to me a while back that I could still have a piece of the dream, something to make the children smile and let the dolls know they have not been forgotten--a miniature Christmas hearth.
We started with an unpainted wooden doll's mantel, available in the dollhouse aisle at the craft store:
One coat of Folk Art paint in "parchment" added a bit of depth:
The stockings--created by my ten-year-old daughter with the greatest enthusiasm imaginable--were hung by the chimney with care glue:
Each one is slightly different:
We added a beautiful miniature triptych, purchased a while back at our local Catholic store (this could easily be replaced by a cut out from a Christmas card or small nativity scene):
I can't resist showing you what the back of the triptych looks like:
Greens from the tree and red ribbon add a crowning touch:
Just for fun, we put the miniature mantel on the floor beside our real mantel for scale (it's too bad our fire had already burned to ashes, or this would have been a lovely picture):
Our mantel makes a timely display for the Feast of Mary, Mother of God:
An old friend of ours hopped right off the tree to check her stocking:
We are hoping to keep our minuscule mantel decorated for a while, adding new embellishments for Candlemas, Lent, Easter and May. [I say "hoping" because the things we strive for and the things we actually do are often quite different!] Another fine addition would be a miniature fireplace screen. Perhaps I will ask the production crew to work on one tomorrow.
Happy New Year's Eve, dear friends!
