Sure, I love A Christmas Carol and Auld Lange Sine as much as anybody but they are tres passé. This year I’m thinking outside the usual Dickens and Burns holiday box and going with a more decadent French Bohemian attitude for my holiday entertaining. Recent politics and news events have left me with Paris on my mind this season. I am reminded of the resilience of the French people and their passionate courage, not just the political courage of “Liberté Égalité Fraternity” (Liberty Equality Brotherhood) but their long history of bohemian artistic courage, “L’art pour l’art” (Art for art’s sake). Paris has been the cultural mecca for artists, writers, and musicians for centuries but never more than during the Belle Époque (The Beautiful Age) between the end of the Prussian War (1871) and the beginning of WWI (1914). During this time, Paris inspired the greatest scientific and artistic minds of a generation. This period gave us the peak of impressionism and art nouveau. The symbolic and suggestive arts combined with advancements of science and technology to stimulate the literary movements of realism and naturalism . So how can I capture the belle époque style and attitude in my holiday entertaining to stimulate creative, free-thinking passion among my guests?
Decorating:
Christmass trees and holly wreaths are ubiquitous this time of year but there is no rule that says you have to stick to the basic red and green color palette. experiment with a white tree and then select a single theme and minimal color variation. Use ribbon or feather boas instead of tinsel garlands. Keep your decorations focused on a single theme. My mother, Brenda Neff, did this tree in mauve and rosé. She used round pastel balls for ornaments and made soft full bows for a tree-topper. Then she decorated the dining room chandelier to match. Notice how she uses white space between the ornaments instead of hanging every bough with a bauble. While most of the time, Christmas = chaos with riots of clashing color and light, you can take a hint from the 1900’s Parisian salons and evoke the traditional sense of abundance and excess with more judicious use of space and color. The result is still festive and decadent but more opulent and tres chique.
My friend Bessie Harper did this extrordinary tree in peacock blue. Like Brenda, she used a single shape and color for her ornaments but interspersed them with little matching peacocks in the art nouveau style and topped her tree with a crown of peacock feathers. Use your imagination for a theme, but keep it consistent and focused on a central design element. It helps to select a theme that is not usually associated with Christmas. This adds an avant-garde touch. How about a white tree full of nothing but silk butterflies; or a tree covered in sprigs of baby’s breath with silk lilies inserted among the branches. Perhaps a pink tree with feathers and fairies or a blue tree with pearls and mermaids.
Food and Drink:
What is more French than a wine and cheese party? Add a silver tray of Crudités or fruit in a crystal bowl to add variety. Or you can have a day-party with French pastry and coffee. Chocolate croissants and cafe-au-alit would be a delightful Christmas morning breakfast! Then for New Year’s Eve, go with something a little stronger. Absinthe cocktails perhaps? I found this delightful book full of absinthe facts, buying tips, and (most importantly) drink recipes. I can’t wait to try that most bohemian of beverages, the basic “absinthe drip frappe” or maybe the lovely “libertine” (garnished with edible flower petals). No drink is more closely associated with the bohemian movement than absinthe. No longer banned, this much (unjustly) maligned liquor is just the thing to invite the muse to a new year of creative courage. (Let’s talk some more about courting the green fairy in a following post.)
Music:
French Christmas music is easy to find. Many carols are familiar to Americans but hearing them in French is like hearing them for the first time. Some of the less familiar carols (to American listeners) are still decidedly festive and are a welcome break from the same old ear worms we are so familiar with. It makes the season feel new and fresh. For New Year’s Eve, I recommend cafe music or even contemporary French pop artists. But when midnight comes, ditch the over-used Auld Lange Sine track and instead play Edith Piaf’s Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (I regret nothing at all). It’s the perfect anthem for wiping the slate clean to write a new beginning.
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Read ~ Write ~ Wander
~Angie
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Photo credits: The chandelier and pink tree was created and photographed by Brenda Neff. The peacock tree was created and photographed by Bessie Harper.