Williamsburg Christmas at Christ Church
Written by, Elizabeth Rasnake, Decorating Committee
The inspiration for this year’s Williamsburg theme came from the Magnolia candleholders created by our cherished member, Ruth Pottier. Nikki Melso and I first saw them in 2019, and knew at once we wanted to design a Christmas around them.
Ruth made these 12 candleholders over the summer of 2004 to be used for Christmas 2004. This was the first Christmas with Fr. Michael Newman when Ruth and Denise Ternove made the change from the traditional decorating with poinsettias in the Sanctuary windows. Ruth had a ceramic business in the basement of her home for many years, taking many lessons to perfect her skills. She says the candleholders are one of a kind and can’t be replaced because she no longer has the molds. We think they make quite a statement in our windows. Thank you Ruth!
To complete our Williamsburg theme, Nikki Melso spent many months drying an assortment of fresh fruits, from oranges and lemons to pineapples and pomegranates. All of the dried fruit was then fashioned into ornaments to hang on our Christmas tree. Nikki’s talents are inspiring and you can see her results in our tree, windows, wreaths and flower arrangement around the church.
The decorating committee stepped up to do their usual awesome job of preparing the Nave with so many components: fluffing and preparing the garland to hang, the men, both veterans and new to the team who carefully hung the garland and put up the candleholders, the ladies who decorated the tree, prepared the wreaths, added touches to the windows and candleholders. A very grateful thank you to each of you. We hope our parish finds peace, comfort and joy as you immerse yourselves in our Christmas this year.