History of della Robbia Style Wreaths

Visitors to Williamsburg love the traditional 'della Robbia' style holiday wreaths inspired by Eighteenth-century engravings. Only fresh fruits and vegetables and native greens are used in the making of these festive wreaths.

While there is no record of colonial Virginians using Christmas decorations per se, eighteenth-century engravings suggest that a range of natural ingredients were used to decorate entrances to homes and buildings as a prelude to the hospitality inside. Typical materials included apples, lemons, limes, oranges, pineapples, pomegranates, cranberries, bayberries, holly berries, chinaberries, rose hips, sumac berries, magnolia pods, lotus pods, milkweed pods, dried flowers, cotton bolls, rosemary, laurel, okra pods, dried cayenne peppers, mistletoe - as well as red cedar, red oak, boxwood, pine, fir, mountain laurel, magnolia, ivy.

Each year these special holiday decorations are prepared and hung in time for the popular 'Grand Illumination' weekend in Colonial Williamsburg which marks the beginning of Williamsburg's Christmas season. For this year's calendar of festivities visit the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

A local book of interest is WILLIAMSBURG CHRISTMAS: The Story of Christmas Decoration in the Colonial Capital by Libbey Hodges Oliver and Mary Miley Theobald (photographs by Erik Kvalsvik).