Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Thanksgiving, Dorothy Draper-style

I couldn't resist pulling 365 Shortcuts to Home Decorating (Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1965) off the shelf to see what Mrs. Draper had to say about my most favorite holiday. I'll be thankful for a few things more meaningful than housewares this year, but I get what she's saying: Make your home your happy place, and be grateful for every single aspect of it.

"Around the House at Thanksgiving Time

Even if you live where the only place you can see a pumpkin is inside a grocery store, you can feel the frost in the air and know that in some lot, complete with scarecrow, the 'frost is on the pumpkin' and Thanksgiving is just around the next cornstalk.

And while you're looking to see what 'blessings you can count' and give thanks for, let's just stop a moment and see how many things around the house we can be thankful for this year.

I'm grateful, for instance, for the new cabinets to house the hi-fi and stereo equipmentfor the beautiful new wallpapers and murals that give a room the illusion of foreign shoresfor the new hobnail bedspreads that come with their own knee-deep ruffle on three sidesfor the rainbow palette of towels available today that would make any insignificant bathroom sit up and take noticefor all the magic of accessories that may be chosen in the heady colors of today: citrus green, curry, Bristol blue, tangerine, amethyst, and cranberryfor the daring new area rugs in a variety of definite hues to match your most colorful whim and in a variety of designs to charm a Michelangelofor the chance to set a Thanksgiving table with a big new block plaid in colors of pumpkin and white with a centerpiece of a mammoth real pumpkin, hollowed out and filled to overflowing with ripe fruit and a garland of sugar-frosted purple grapes, and low country goblets of shiny pine-needle green glass with inexpensive green glass ash trays at each place for an added green accent. Yes, it's time to give thanks for all that bounty available to the person of good tasteyou!"

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