Malvern B&B: an oak frame house at Christmas

Christmas decorations can look extra special in an oak frame house

Christmas decorations and an oak frame building are complementary. They can provide a combined traditional and contemporary feel.

Not only do the beams just ask to be decorated at special times they also help to frame them.

And deep window reveals provide an opportunity for larger displays, with the added bonus of multiple light reflections in the triple-glazed windows.

Linda does the creative work

I might set up the Christmas lights but Linda is the creative one. She not only arranges the decorations but also makes many of them, such as the ‘table arrangement’ on the window cill in the picture below and the ‘festive ball’ in the hall.

Linda’s arrangement of pine cones, animals and other objects (I especially love the translucent mushroom) is particularly good on this oak beam because of the out-of-sight LED lighting strip behind. This creates a brilliant silhouette drawing your eye to the beam and enticing you to identify each of the shapes.

The picture below shows a table arrangement that Linda made displayed on one of the deep window cills. Below that, you can see a festive ball at an early construction stage and its subsequent display in the Woodlands double-height hall.

Oak beams just ask to be decorated

The deep window cills in a Passivhaus are ideal for larger decorative arrangements. And the triple-glazed windows add to the effect with multiple reflections (our Christmas tree lights are also visible here)

Festive ball from early construction to display in the double-height hall

Malvern is famous for mistletoe

Malvern, like much of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, is famous for mistletoe. At Woodlands B and B Malvern, we’re especially pleased to have mistletoe growing on several of the older trees in our plum orchard. We use this to decorate our house at Christmas, and offer neighbours the opportunity to use some of it do the same with theirs. Although, this year, social-distancing makes the traditional under-the-mistletoe-kiss something we must forego.

Just over half-an-hour’s drive from Woodlands is Tenbury Wells, famous for its mistletoe festival. Unfortunately its famous mistletoe auction has been cancelled this year because of Covid-19. Hopefully, later next year we’ll get closer to ‘normal’ and the festival will be back.

Mistletoe, common in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, growing on some of the trees in the old plum orchard at Woodlands B and B Malvern

Many trees in Malvern have mistletoe - if you can reach it…

Christmas decorations elsewhere also brighten the end of a most peculiar year

It seems that many people have put up Christmas decorations early this year. And rightly so! We all need a break from a very strange year, even if social distancing remains the order of the day, and to anticipate a return to ‘normal’, hopefully, in later 2021. And, as shown in the picture at the bottom, people are still enjoying themselves, in this instance, at the Malvern Priory Christmas market.

Christmas decorations in Upton-upon-Severn, Great Malvern, and Link Top, Malvern

Malvern Priory Christmas market - thriving in 2020 despite Covid-19

Linda and I both wish you, your families and friends a safe and happy Christmas, even if this one is rather different, and a happy and healthy new year.