We are so excited to introduce you to Dogwood Hill’s Holiday Tastemaker, Meredith Lewis. Meredith lives in North Carolina and is a collector of all things lovely and charming: ginger jars, Staffordshire dogs and all those things we love at Dogwood Hill, too! She loves to portray her family’s heritage in her home and Tartan decks their halls all year long. Her designs show a collection of Ginger Jars, sprigs of greenery and Tartan bows. We wanted to share a few photos from her home and some fun inside scoop on how Meredith celebrates Christmas.
HOLIDAY MEMORY: I think all my memories start to blend together… driving around the neighborhood delivering our yearly gift of homemade pimiento cheese to friends and neighbors, the children sitting at the top of the stairs in their Christmas jammies while I take their pictures before they come tearing downstairs, and all of us jumping on a new trampoline on Christmas morning. Years ago I started keeping a Christmas binder so I could remember things from year to year. In it I keep each year’s Christmas card, each year’s gift list (so I don’t repeat!), the master address list, and a section where I keep letters that I write once Christmas is over so I can remember everything. My memory is just awful and this way I can look back and see what worked, what didn’t work, what to repeat and where little traditions started.
HOLIDAY TRADITION: I asked my children to answer this one for me and I got quite an earful! They love hiding the pickle on the tree, finding the elf, and they put stockings on their bedroom door knobs and sneak around filling them with sweet notes and handmade gifts, re-gifted gifts and all sorts of treasures!
GO TO HOSTESS GIFT: Before the busy season starts, I go to one of my favorite shops in town with my Dogwood Hill gift tags and monogrammed matches and buy lots of my favorite candles and have the store wrap them all up for me. I put them all on a tray in my office and am ready to go!
A HOLIDAY PARTY IS NOT COMPLETE WITHOUT: Ham biscuits. Can’t seem to have a party without them!
HOLIDAY COLORS: For the last few years, it’s been plaid and leopard mixed in with my blue and white.
HOLIDAY PLAYLIST: I have this Spotify Christmas playlist playing non stop this time of year in the house and car. I prefer traditional Christmas hymns like Joy to the World, and Hark the Herald rather than Christmas donkeys and hippos… I just can’t.
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS: The children always buy each other one Christmas present and then they hide it somewhere in the house, and have a big hide and seek to find it on Christmas Eve. We also put out our luminaries down on the sidewalk and our whole neighborhood lights up around 5pm. Then, we go to our church’s family Christmas Eve service where, up until 5th grade, they participate in the Christmas Pageant… we’ve had many sheep, shepherds, an Inn Keeper, Joseph and Mary. Then we come home and drive through the neighborhood to see all the luminaries lit and then usually head over to a friend’s house for dinner.
DECK THE HALLS: I do love decorating with flowers and usually have quite a few amaryllis bulbs and pots of paper whites growing, along with cyclamen, and lots of preserved boxwood wreaths.
ON MY CHRISTMAS LIST: I would really like to start collecting personalized plates from Sasha Nicholas… hint, hint Honey!
I’M STUFFING THE STOCKINGS WITH: Our children receive three gifts for Christmas, not including what is in their stockings, so I do stuff their stockings as full as I can get them. I keep making their stockings bigger and bigger every year… I think keeping to three gifts is actually harder on me than it is on them! Their current stockings are made from my husband’s family’s tartan, and I trimmed them with mink from my grandmother’s old fur collars. She had a hat box full of them that no one was using so I claimed them. I don’t think I’ll be making any more stocking after these.
NO HOLIDAY TABLE IS COMPLETE WITHOUT: Family!