Stepping Back to Christmas

I've had plans to start this blog for quite some time, and wanted to start it before Christmas. So let's all pretend for a moment that it's still mid-December. I'm sure some of us still have our Christmas trees up, don't we?

I wanted to recommend a book to everyone. It's full of beautiful photographs of an enchanted castle decorated in fairy tale Christmas wonder: Lyndhurst Castle in New York state.

Some of the blog posts here at Domythic Bliss will be about practical advice on how to create a mythic home. Some posts will be examples of inspirational houses. And then some posts will be straight-up fantastical admirations of places that take things to another level. I think Lyndhurst is a little of columns b and c. Sure, there's no way you could fill your bathtub with glass Christmas tree balls to simulate the Little Mermaid's undersea home for the whole Christmas season. (one has to use the bathtub eventually) But wouldn't it be fun to do for a party? Wouldn't it be enjoyable to choose one of these fairy tale themes for your Christmas decorating one year?


This is how the place normally looks. So I'd say they were starting out with a pretty good base to work with, wouldn't you?


Each Christmas, the castle is transformed, with each room of the castle set to a different fairy tale theme. We have...

Goldilocks sleeping in bed. What gorgeous lush swags of greenery!


One of my personal favorite fairy tales..


I believe this is in the Peter Pan room. What a beautiful mantle display!!


The greenery is lush, but I can't stop looking at the bed itself....


The Snow Queen room (another favorite...I should just tell you now, my favorite fairy tale is the Twelve Dancing Princesses, but Beauty and the Beast and the Snow Queen take a close second place)

The floor is set with mirrored tiles to look like ice. Brilliant.


The aforementioned Little Mermaid bathroom.



Hard to see in this picture, but there are clearer shots in the book. They fill the tub and sink with glass Christmas balls, with white lights underneath them to make it look like a magical bath of bubbles. Glass fish ornaments and clear baubles hang from a blue shower curtain.


Two more shots of the Peter Pan room. Love all the green.



Rumpelstiltskin's tree is, of course, adorned with gold and straw.



The book is really enjoyable to look through. It includes a few basic how-tos for things like topiaries, and some recipes. Really there isn't that much practical advice in the book. But I still check it out of the library every Christmas, because in some ways I still feel like I get ideas for my Christmas decorations from it. It's hard to get much more enchanted-holiday than Lyndhurst!