Shopping for Christmas decorations

Wilson Farm’s Christmas Train

Sitting in the house, by the wood stove I am cozy today. But a bit cranky, because my husband has clogged up my sink with a giant pot that he needs to wash. So my day is now running counter to my plan for the day. I feel like a cat on a nice comfy couch, you know when they move their tail in that irritated cat way. That about sums up my mood perfectly. So since my sink is unusable, I am just watching Dr. Fauci, on tv discussing the first case of Omicron found in the US in California, on the opposite end of the country… All I can think is… Grrrreat… Meaning quite the opposite of course. But I can’t complain about anything other than the clogged up sink. I am fine. Comfortably warm and cozy. Hanging out with my dogs, trying to salvage the day by making a blog post about what it has been like this year shopping for decorations for Christmas.

Wilson Farms

This year, I suppose I am doing a bit of an infomercial for Wilson Farm’s in Lexington. No I won’t be paid for it. I am never paid for blog posts. I share what I test and like as an independent unbought opinion. I have been going to Wilson’s since I was a small child. They usually have the most wonderful low to no pesticide fresh farm foods. Covid, has impacted everywhere’s quality… Wilson’s though still fabulous has not been completely immune to the ravages of Covid. They remain better than most places through this though. With the supply chain having such severe issues, I won’t lie… It is depressing the state of the food in this nation at this time due to all the Covid troubles and supply chain issues. Here at Wildflower, we share what we grow right here on property. When the season for that ends we do what we must. We buy local and as high quality as we can get. We would like to put in a large greenhouse, but to do that we will need several years when business doesn’t slow down and completely disappear starting the second week of November till May. So no guests lately. I have tried marking the prices way down… I try it every year it doesn’t help. All winter we are always empty. And I can not wrap my brain around why…. It makes it hard to put money into upgrades like greenhouse we could really use to enhance both our quality of service as well as our quality of life and independence.

Wilson Farms

Shopping for decking the halls has been hard this year. For some reason we drove around all day trying to obtain a Christmas tree. Not because there weren’t any! There were plenty! We are just super picky. We like certain kinds of trees and insist upon those. It was tougher than usual because trees weren’t labeled. And the prices were absolutely ludicrous. Many places advertising online that they had varieties they didn’t actually carry this year. So it was frustrating. One place we went in Stowe, was so noisy I nearly lost my lunch, seriously I love Christmas music but hearing yourself think while you select from the most over priced single variety of trees, (though more than 4 varieties were advertised,) is unpleasant. Our usual place, had nothing labeled and little stock was out yet. So we took the long drive to Wilson’s… And true to history they did not fail us.

Wilson’s

Usually the most horrifyingly expensive, this year they were shockingly the cheapest for a tree! I couldn’t believe it! And they had loads of Christmas swags wreaths and other decorations. I nearly cried I was so happy to see it all.

Christmas Trees at Wilson’s

Things were marked, and there were actually employees present to help you find what you were looking for. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. We selected a beautiful blue spruce. We are so very grateful for the help of the wonderful employee who was so incredible to work with after a long day of frustration. Quite the reminder in all this why this is my favorite place to buy stuff from. Garden things, holiday things, food, etc…

Fun decorations of all kinds were everywhere

I was surrounded by fun decorations and Christmas cheer.

Gingerbread houses

The ginger bread selection was a beautiful thing to see. Every year I go nutz for the season hoping and planning to create something beautiful here at the B&B…. For the guests who then don’t materialize… Leaving me to eat the gingerbread house by myself. Gingerbread houses are a tradition since I was little. As a little girl, my grandmother would get one and use it as a decoration object at Thanksgiving, later cutting it into quarters for Christmas. One quarter for each of her grand kids… But with no guests coming to the B&B in the winter, I get a whole one all to myself! I don’t have to share with anyone. I am never able to finish it. I do try to each year.

Christmas at Wilson’s

I purchased several wreathes and swags, to bring home to create something magical and festive for the guests that desert me every winter. I enjoy the festiveness, with or without the guests. You would think Christmas time in New England on a little country homestead would be popular… And most of the year we do quite well. it is just the winter… I guess the romance of New England Christmas time is no longer of as much value to people as it once was…. Perhaps the convenience of Christmas in the city is the just the current vogue. People really have no idea what they are missing. It doesn’t get better than a little country farm and the white pristine, the warmth of the wood stove and hot spiced cider… The old fashioned warmth and cheer of a bygone age time forgot in favor of convenience and city noise.

Hear them ring, ding a ling!

Later on this week I may make popcorn balls. I am perpetually baking for the guests that never materialize during the winter months… Creating magic is my happy place. I love to do it. It is just somehow empty during the winter months all alone out here with everything set up to be enchanting for the season… No one sees it. No one experiences it. And so it eventually gets put away for next year when once again I try again. As I said last month, hope is a choice. Every year I hope things will change as far as our chronic winter emptiness goes. This year is no different.

Wilson Farms

With all the effort I put in, it would mean the world to me this year to write a new story for this tiny little New Enlgand B&B… But you all, will have to finish it for me. So here goes…

Wilson Farms

Once upon a time…. In the far away land of New England, lived some self sufficiency homesteaders,They worked hard, in their gardens, caring for their animals, and managing their small farm year round. In addition they ran a tiny little B&B… Every day, the homestead wife, would get up, feed the animals, crunch through the forest snow to do the foraging. She cleaned the house, and baked the bread, and decorate for the holidays creating brightness and cheer, casting a spell of happiness through out the house. Each year when the winter gloom was at it’s peak and the weather would grow cold, The young wife would bundle up to go out with her dogs to feed the chickens… Each year, she would say to the wind that blows through the leafless tree branches of the woods nearby to her path to the chicken coop, “Oh how I long for guests to enjoy all the magic I make here…” The wind would blow up suddenly, mocking her loneliness and that of the lovely little country farm B&B at her back. But each year, she went out and she made her wish, to the emptiness and the forest all the same, for seven long and lonely winters….. Then one day………. This is where you get to finish the story. How do you think the story should end? It is up to you now.

Thank you for reading
Amanda of Wildflower Farm

Tags: airbnb, B&B, christmas decor, Christmas Decorating, Christmas Shopping, Covid Christmas, Farm Christmas, homestead christmas, New England Christmas, shopping for christmas decor, wildflower farm

About wildflowerfarm

Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.

My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.

Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.

Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.

Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.

We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.

We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.

This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.

We welcome you on this journey with us.

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Shopping for Christmas decorations

Shopping for Christmas decorations

About wildflowerfarm

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