[Unless otherwise noted, all photos copyright © Sara Beth Turner.]
Throughout the year, Carter embraces aesthetic imperfections, so naturally when it comes to wrapping holiday gifts she favors originality, creativity, thrift and ease over the cookie-cutter look. She says, "My gifts are pretty easy to spot under ye olde Christmas tree!"
Her materials of choice include: tissue, clear sandwich bags, imperfectly perfect vintage post cards, old grain bags and wooden boxes.
[Grain bag image via Vintage Weave; red tissue via Kate's Paperie; green via Paper Source; string via Bell'occhio.]
Carter explains: "For small gifts I wrap a bit of tissue paper (preferably green or red) around said object and stuff it in one of those handy generic Ziploc sandwich bags. I buy sandwich, quart and gallon sizes to accommodate a range of gifts. Since they’re see-through, a vintage post card with a heartfelt message scribbled on the back adds a little personality!"
Sometimes she finishes it all off with a piece of rough cord, her preferred kind of holiday ribbon.
[Carter made and photographed the collage on her bed using favorite images copied for her Anthro workshop. Maybe a picture will end up in one of those baggie presents.]
For larger gifts, Carter has been known to use garbage bags and old newspapers. She purchases big quantities of shipping tags with the reinforced hole and little string tie (see the previous post for image) and stamps them with her personal junk truck logo along with a message written with a fat black Sharpie. To add flair to a special gift, Carter says, "I love wrapping in vintage fabrics or depositing [the present] in an old grain bag or wooden box."
While Carter describes her own wrapping style as no-fuss, she acknowledges that she is always in awe of her friends and colleagues in fashion, design and the arts who take such pains with their gift wrapping creativity.
She says, "For years one of my work buddies, knowing that I loved decoys and wooden fish, would tie one on to my gift as a tag so I could hang it on our little “fishy” tree in the city." An artist friend's magical packages are detailed here.
[Mary Randolph Carter photographed by her husband, Howard Berg, in their snowy apple orchard in upstate New York. Photo courtesy Carter.]
Favorite holiday tunes? With out a doubt the classics. Not a big fan of contemporary vocal interpretations. "Give me Nat King Cole singing White Christmas every time," she says, adding that she mostly loves instrumental versions of traditional songs like Deck the Halls, Silent Night, and Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem.
[Cheese biscuits as seen in Carter's book, American Family Style.]
Carter comes from a big Virginia family -- 37 family members, at last count! After enjoying Christmas Eve dinner (a gift from Emily and Dave, Carter's sister number five and brother-in-law), everyone gathers in front of the big dining room fireplace at her parents' circa 1680, "made-for-Christmas" place, Muskettoe Pointe Farm.
[Photo courtesy Mary Randolph Carter, from her book, American Family Style.]
[Image via Amazon.]
The tree stands decorated here, and the grandchildren take turns reading Carter's old edition of The Night Before Christmas, with illustrations by Grandma Moses, in which she faithfully archives the names of each of the readers.
[Photo courtesy Mary Randolph Carter, from her book, American Family Style.]
Because their local church gave up on Midnight Mass, the group usually piles into several cars and then into a few pews at 5 o’clock.
[©A Perfectly Kept House is the Sign of A Misspent Life by Mary Randolph Carter, Rizzoli New York, 2010.]
Breakfast is the family's major eating event: creamed chipped beef, grits, Sally Lunn, fried apples, Carter's chef sister Liza’s cinnamon coffee cake, and oftentimes Bloody Marys for the adults. Later, lots and lots of coffee is consumed.
[Bloody Mary photograph by Marian Cooper Cairns for Southern Living. Click here for the recipe.]
"On Boxing Day, we clean up our mess and have a huge Boxing Day party for all our friends in the area. A favorite holiday nibble is my grandmother, 'Ga Ga’s,' cheese biscuits, now made by my sister Liza."
[Virginia landscape photographed by Janet Blyberg.]
Maximalist and over-the-top, yet still rustic and simple, sums up Carter's holiday decorating style. I'll paraphrase the scene she set at Muskettoe Pointe Farm:
Real dripping candles are everywhere, including the overhead tin chandeliers, while mantelpieces are decked with holly and magnolia. White candle lights sit in the windows. the tree is decorated with cranberries and old cookie ornaments and toys, and to this classic mix the family adds a cobbled together nativity scene composed of characters and animals from many different sets -- a funny hodpodge of varied scale and levels of craftsmanship.
[Photo copyright © Sara Beth Turner.]
Carter adds, "Presiding each year from the mantelpiece over the [mismatched] stockings is a quartet of old ceramic Santas and a diminutive Santa Band that I added up a few years ago having found it in a New York City flea market."Her holiday pet peeve? "Taking it all down!"
To learn more about Carter's imperfect approach, click here.
[Photograph by Maura McEvoy ©Stealing Magnolias: Tales from a New Orleans Courtyard by Debra Shriver, Glitterati, Inc. 2010.]
Also of interest: Inspiration is Free and Trimmings and Tunes for Later...
and Eyes Wide Open (Thanksgiving Week).
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