Quick, Easy, Affordable Christmas Flowers

 A quick post on inexpensive floral arrangements for Christmas. Since this is the first Christmas I will be hosting in NYC I have been running around to get all the details taken care of. Of course for us that means number one, FOOD & DRINK, and then in a close second, flowers.

This was a pre-Christmas celebration with our uncle and aunt who came into town for the night. We did dinner out at Good in the West Village, and as usual it was fantastic. Good is a great local spot that never fails and is always consistently... well... Good :) On a side note but worth mentioning, the happy hour at Good is great. Bar bites are a few dollars for happy hour between 6-8PM, and all their scrumptious cocktails which are premium liquors are half price, meanwhile the wine and beer are somewhere around $3-5.

After Good, we came back to our place to do an early Christmas! What fun, Christmas squared! Presents, pie, spiked egg nog, stalkings twice, and even D.C.'s Christmas Spectacular on TV. But the point of this blog was to share a centerpiece idea I came up with.

White roses, berries & Christmas Greens

Firstly, I wanted something that would last the whole weekend onto Christmas. Many of us are having holiday get togethers throughout the weekend onto the actual day on Tuesday, so I wanted something that wouldn't wilt and would look fresh. I also wanted to make it myself, keep it inexpensive and something short that I could use on the dinner table on Christmas Day (there is nothing worst than tall flowers on a dinner table blocking views and making cross table dialogue difficult).

Since I knew my linens had holiday plaid and would be colorful, I wanted something simple and festive for the flowers, hence the white roses. Initially I wanted to keep it monochromatic with just white roses, but then I came up with this quick and easy way to make the centerpieces multidimensional while also adding some holiday cheer.  What's great about this is you can use glassware you may already have instead of fancy vases. I personally used a margarita glass and round wine glass, that way there was different heights and shapes involved.

What's Needed:

• Dozen Roses (I chose white, but red would work as well)
• Holiday Mix Greens (Balsam Fir, Holly, etc.)
• Red Berries
• Glassware that can be used as vases

Dessert Setting. Pecan Pie from Amy's Breads in Chelsea Market
and Lenox Holiday Setting which is proudly made in America

First I cut the roses to know how many were needed for both arrangements and to what height. Then I cut the greens to fit into the vases and make sure the stems were cut off so you only saw greenery. I added water first, and then arranged the greens sideways in each vase. That way the bottom of the vase that you normally would only see stems, now appeared to have floating holiday greenery.

The trick to keeping the berries in place and not all floating to the top is to purposefully place them in the greens so they stay in place. I took some berries off the stem and had them individually placed among the floating greens, while I also took some small branches of berries and placed them in the floating greens. The flowers were purchased from my local bodega.

What I really like about these arrangements is you can make as many as needed for whatever size table you have, and to whatever height and shape preference for the vases. Whether it is two or ten, the motif would look chic and festive on any size table. On the picture below you can somewhat see the height dimension. Plus, while mixing the centerpieces with candlelight on the table it adds another dimension as if there is candlelight glowing in the vases.

Living in Manhattan the total cost for the dozen of roses and greenery was $25, but elsewhere I imagine it could be even less. I already had the glassware for vases which made it easy as well. Plus I had plenty of left over greenery and even a few roses, so I continued a similar theme for the rest of the rooms which in my situation isn't many (bathroom and windowsill, we're talking a studio apt).

I was also quite excited for the first part of my holiday hosting because I got to use my new and first ever China. For the holidays my mom got us the classic Holiday Lenox Dinnerware. It's American designed and MADE In the USA (go Lenox). So excited for my dinner setting for Tuesday, the 25th.

On a parting note, other than a decadent pecan pie from Amy's Breads in Chelsea Market, which was phenomenal, the overpriced egg nog was soooooo well worth it I am going to buy another pint tomorrow. For $10, you can get such delicious egg nog it tastes homemade except it isn't, other than coming from the local, organic farm called Ronnybrook. If you don't buy much this year, you need to buy this egg nog... It was even voted "Best Thing I've Ever Had" from Food Network. So convenient, the local Duane Read Pharmacy sells it.

I will be posting a Christmas Dinner post going over the menu, but just early inspiration for the flowers which truly sets the tone. Merry Christmas and God Bless!

My husband Charles with our Aunt Jaci and Uncle Larry! Love you guys & thanks for a fantastic early Christmas