CREATIVE CHAOS--A WEST TEXAS CHRISTMAS

I thought I'd give you a peek at the Christmas decor at First Baptist this year. About this time last year we looked at the Christmas decorations and went "ok, it's time to change". However, we were late in the game getting it done for 2007 so we made a plan for 2008.

We went to the Dallas Market Center in January of this year. This is a market for buyers and wholesalers. We were able to qualify because our "Religious Organization" status. We shopped most of the morning for ideas and came up with the idea of "A WEST TEXAS CHRISTMAS" for a theme. That made it much easier to select items.

We had great stuff in our decor, but just needed to update it. So instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water, we ordered materials that could be added into our new "theme" (garlands, picks, materials, etc) and knew that we would add some local stuff to the mix (cotton, mesquite beans, etc).

It is a very simple look for Christmas. The tree in the worship center is beautiful. It's all natural with grapevines and burlap with hints of pine cones (none of those things here in West Texas--oops) and gold berries. I would say that it is a simple elegance.

The front foyer is a welcoming area with the guard rails and entrance covered with natural burlap and greens. We even transformed the Garden Room (our natural gathering space) through the use of trees, a dining room table and quilts and pillows to make it more inviting. The natural smell of cinnamon was achieved through scented pine cones in bowls and good old Wal Mart PINE scent candles.

The comments have been encouraging as we strove to carry out our theme and keep it simple.

What does your church look like for Christmas?

This post is part of Creative Chaos.