The Colour Collaborative: December: Berry

So often when thinking about these posts I am reminded that the best colour combinations begin in the natural world. It could be in the big expanses of a winter sky, a sunset or sunrise, a forest or a sea view, or in the smaller things like a shell or pebble, a flower or a single fallen leaf. It all starts with nature and then we take it from there. So I can't really talk about berries at this time of year without including holly, that prickly stalwart of Christmas decorating. It gets everywhere; in wreaths hung on front doors, in boughs strung across mantels, aflame on top of the Christmas pudding, and it's image is replicated a million times on Christmas cards and rolls of wrapping paper.

It's the simplicity of the colours that work so well: red, green and white, instantly recognisable as festive colours. Bright garnet berries, deeply coloured, shining leaves and, hopefully, a glistening snowy backdrop to make those already vivid colours pop even more. And it seems I go to these colours year after year when I decorate our home for Christmas.

Those same colours appear in our food too, in the sweets we buy, the cakes we bake and the gifts we decorate.

I clearly like decorating with these colours in December, which is strange really as they're not ones I would choose at any other time of the year. Maybe next year I'll experiment with pinks and grey or silver and gold instead, but I doubt it. There is something about these colours that I want in our home in the middle of winter; the glowing red brings warmth and the freshness of the green reminds us that spring will come, so really these are perfect colours to lift and comfort in a dark midwinter.

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Don't forget to visit the other Colour Collaborative blogs for more of this month's posts, just click on the links below:

Annie at Annie Cholewa

Jennifer at Thistlebear

Claire at Above The River

Sarah at Mitenska

What is The Colour Collaborative? 

All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.