Flowers and greenery and other floral materials can be used throughout the house for holiday decorating. Here are some ideas.

For the Christmas tree I prefer an old fashioned decorating scheme with dried flowers. One of my favorites is a pink and white confection. I use white hydrangeas and everlastings in pink and white. For the ribbons and bows a bicolored pastel pink with white works very well.

This color scheme can extend to the rest of the holiday decorations. On the mantle display some pink and white flowers among the pine cones and greenery.

For the holiday table take some bare branches from the garden. Place these in a tall glass cylinder. Then, decorate the branches with some gilded pine cones and other glittery seasonal floral materials. The cylinder can also be filled with the cones as well for this will help to hold the branches upright.

For holiday flowers nothing beats the colorful kangaroo paws
(Anigozanthos). Originally from Australia, these are long lasting stems with a vase life of about two weeks. Kangaroo paws are available year-round. These air dry very well, and retain their color. They’re used as a small form flower due to their unusual shape. These stems come in traditional Christmas colors—red and green.

Don’t forget to decorate the holiday gifts that are around the Christmas tree. Various materials, such as pine cones and long cinnamon sticks work very well. So do small and medium sized sprigs of everlastings. You could also gild some large evergreen foliage and use this to adorn the gifts.

For an unusual touch spray paint unusually shaped everlastings with silver or gold. Dried drumstick-like alliums or ornamental onions are ideal for this.

Depending on your climate and what greenery you have available, various kinds of evergreen foliage can be used for fresh wreaths. Examples include olive leaves. Magnolia leaves are large and thick. These are perfect for wreaths. In addition to leaving them in their natural color, you can also spray paint them in seasonal shades.

Fresh and gilded evergreen foliage is ideal for swags. Combine this with pine cones and fresh fruits, such as pears along with some gilded berries and fruits.

Swags can be as simple or elaborate as you like. It can be a handful of conifer branches and a piece of ribbon holding the material together. For accent, a sprig of berries is often added.

For simple decorations on a mantle the berried branches look very nice. Place some of these in tall, clear glass vases or cylinders. Then, scatter small sprigs of the berries along the length of the mantle.