Chickadee Home Nest: deer tablescape

Friday, December 26, 2014

A Rustic Christmas Deer Tablescape

Two posts in one day! And here I’ve been absent for weeks! This is the companion post to my earlier one, A Pinecone Cheese Ball (http://chickadeehomenest.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-pinecone-cheese-ball.html). I thought the two would work well for a New Year’s Eve party.
For years I’ve thought I “needed” a pair of deer (the tabletop kind, not the barn/field kind), but I hadn’t really seen the ones I wanted. My mother has the Fitz and Floyd ones that are gorgeous, and those are some I’ve considered, but I just haven’t been sure about which ones, so I haven’t pushed real hard to get some…until this year, when I did our Christmas china cabinet in Friendly Village ~

Christmas china cabinet at Chickadee Home Nest

Then I got kind of serious about finding just the ones. It wasn’t an exhaustive search, but I kept an eye out for some I liked (and that I liked the price!), but nothing was jumping out at me…until…Mr. Chickadee and I walked into Harick’s, a favorite shop near our home in Shawnee Hills. You know how the music plays and the light shines upon the Christmas tree that Clark spots (Christmas Vacation)? That’s exactly what happened when I spotted the deer.
But they were pricey—more than I wanted to spend, and I get pretty stubborn about what I’m willing to pay. So we kept looking around and I told Mr. C that there were 3 or 4 things I’d want to take home, one of them being the deer, if only the price were right. Yep…you’re ahead of me, aren’t you? Guess what was under our tree when Santa came?!

Deer, Stag centerpiece at Chickadee Home Nest

When I “gently” questioned Santa about losing his mind he told me the owner agreed to hold them for him while we were there, and agreed to a fabulous price “adjustment.” I’m going with that, so I can enjoy them to the fullest! I know you’ll see these guys a lot over the coming years, now that I finally have my deer!

But you know we bloggers can’t leave things plain and simple. They needed to be nestled and fussed over, of course, to create the after-Christmas-yet-Christmassy centerpiece tablescape I wanted.

Now that’s more like it, isn’t it? Candles and “snow” and pinecones and berries and greenery.

I took a ton of pictures, because I want to show you the detail on them—the fur, or hair (my research says it’s one and the same) is quite visible, though they’re made of some sort of resin, I guess.

And did you notice the bark candle in front of the deer lying down? My brother has been making tons of these for me—they are really, really cool, and perfect for my love of woodland settings.

I think I’ll be leaving this “centerpiece” up for quite a while—certainly into January—though admittedly it has to be moved for any meal involving more than the two of us. Mr. Chickadee sits at the end of the table, so that works. I sit right in front of them, but I’ve been able to set my place just fine, which means I’ve been enjoying them up close.

I’m always curious about centerpieces—what do you do? Do you leave a large one like this up and work around it? If we do anything here at home for New Year’s Eve I’ll probably just move it back and continue with the woodland theme to not get too fancy this year, and I’ll do a simple buffet around it. For our New Year’s Day pork and sauerkraut it’ll surely need to be moved.

I’m wishing you and yours a happy New Year and the best in 2015!!