We are not what you call full-hearted Christmas enthusiasts, but when the days become shorter we definitely appreciate the contemplative atmosphere. We love decorating our house according to the season and occasion, thus winterly and festive. Still, we don’t turn our house upside down, but especially decorate the place where we gather with our beloved ones: the dining table. The centerpiece of our decoration is a branch which we found during a stroll. Hung beneath the ceiling and equipped with candles it captivates the eye due to its elegance. We are thrilled by the results since it shows you don’t necessarily need a Christmas tree or Advent wreath. We added to the natural materials of our this year’s festive decoration small, atmospheric still lifes, which we made with our instant picture printer FUJI instax SHARE SP-3*. The instant pictures support the calm ambience and play with the details of nature, art, and presentation.

We are often asked for our inspiration, and the answer is simple: nature offers the biggest treasure. Minimalistic and damped, yet cosy and atmospheric – this you achieve best when using natural, recyclable materials. Not to mention the fact that it is resource and space saving.

Another advantage: we get some fresh air to make our cosy little home even more cosy for the festive season. The fun of decorating already starts with collecting branches, grasses, and cones.

Instead of an Advent wreath on the table we hung a huge birch branch above our table. We fixed the obligatory four candles with copper rings. This way, we even have more space for our handmade earthen tableware, which adds to the natural setting, while the golden cutlery emphasizes the festive occasion.

When it comes to table cloths and napkins, we preferably work with dyed linen or natural linen. The folds, which develop over time, add a special character to the whole setting. Conveniently, since ironing becomes obsolete. Our treasures which we collected outside, look especially beautiful on linen. Pine cones, chestnuts, grasses, and leaves harmonise with the soft and natural colours and material. Also, we like how the single items correspond with each other: beeswax tree candles correspond with the honey coloured napkins and the delicious festive pie, while the brown table cloth correlates with the cones on top.

If you follow our blog for a longer time, you know that we are huge fans of instant pictures. It’s not for nothing that we are, together with Nic from Luzia Pimpinella, Igor from Happy Interior Blog, Jules from Herz & Blut, and Vreni from Never Ever, enthusiastic ambassadors for FUJIFILM instax. Susann already wrote about the relevance of instant pictures in her youth. To capture the evanescence of the moment carries an own poetry, and to visualise all these memories, which would have been long gone by now, just by taking out these instantly taken photos…this is magic.

Just as important as collecting and treasuring memories is to us, we love to share memories. We are especially delighted that we can produce a repeatable outcome with the Fuji instax printer – if we want to. Just like the principle of sharing one photo, keeping one, printing next one multiple times and share it with our friends after the festive meal. 

Instead of making spontaneous, fleeting snapshots for the decoration we chose an artistic execution. We took photographs of our wintery motifs like pine cones, walnuts, thistles and grass as a still life on a rusty steel surface. This way, the instant pictures support our natural decoration with staged motifs. We love the harmonic connection between nature and artificial nature, or rather art.

That’s also why we chose a black frame for the instant pictures, since this one appears very elegant.

Be it name tag, menu, or gift tag, the instant pictures are versatile. Either we just put them on the seat, plain and simple, or we stick it to a pine cone and write the name with a light pen on the black frame. Or we use the front as a picture and glue it to some kraft paper, on which we note the single courses of our menu. Instant pictures are also perfect as gift tags under the Christmas tree.

We took all instant pictures with our smartphone’s camera, but we also could have used our Fuji XT-3, which is compatible with the instant picture printer as well. The printer is easy to set up, you just connect your smartphone or camera with the printer via wifi. Put in the film cassette and there you go. Another big advantage: the printer is not depend on electricity, so you have a wireless printer to go.

Another advantage, which the format and the printer have: we can pointedly set up our pictures, shoot them, and chose and edit them calmly. This way we fulfilled our artistic aspiration, yet kept the nostalgia you feel when looking at instant pictures. Just try it, you will see that the best ideas evolve while…right, while doing it!