If you already read last week’s post, you got some ideas for how to Celebrate Halloween in Style with Classy Halloween Decorations. Not everyone celebrates Halloween, though, so today’s post is all about how to decorate for fall without incorporating Halloween. In addition to decorating for this exciting and charged season, we’ll explore ways to enjoy its moment and celebrate with fun festivities!
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Decorate for Fall
Fall is the one season when nature-oriented, ‘rustic’ decorations naturally emerge. This decor style shows up with any season of the year but it really dominates the fall. Fall seems to more so lend itself to the outdoors and its decor embraces the changing weather and landscape. Roughhewn wood, autumn crops, dried grasses, and crisp leaves are all primary decor staples – whether natural or synthetic – during this time of year.
Pumpkins and Leaves
Pumpkins are the quintessential symbol of fall, along with autumn leaves. You can decorate for fall with pumpkins both indoors and outdoors. Place them outside of your front door, perhaps alongside some butternut squash. Line the edge of your front walkway or driveway with pumpkins of any size. Place smaller pumpkins on your table as a dining centerpiece, or arrange them on your mantel surrounded by colourful autumn leaves. You can always harvest plenty of fallen leaves from outside to arrange in or outside of your home. However, buying fake fall leaf garlands are a tidier (and more permanent) way to adorn your home with autumn leaves. A beautiful fall leaf wreath is a perfect seasonal accent to the front door.
Natural Autumn Colours
Just look outside during fall for seasonal colour inspiration. You’ll see all hues of orange, red, yellow and brown from the trees, pumpkins and other fall crops like gourds. Grasses turn brown and tan. Look to wheat fields to mimic their neutrals hues of bleached gold and tan. Displaying neutral-coloured foliage, whether real or manufactured, is a classy and laid back way to decorate for fall. Set out natural woven baskets in different shapes and sizes filled with acorns, dried Indian corn, pumpkins, gourds, or wheat.
Woven Fabrics
Rustic, natural-looking fabrics like wool offer warmth and texture and provide a comforting look. We often break out our sweaters in fall as the air gets chilly. In the same vein, find a cozy blanket in earthy colours to drape over your dining table, coffee table or console.
Candles
As the days get shorter and darker, we can light up our indoors with the beautiful glow of candles. Beeswax and soy wax candles give a clean burn that doesn’t emit pollutants like paraffin wax candles do. Lighting up your space with clean-burning candles creates a cosy and enchanting autumn atmosphere. Decorate for fall with natural-looking unscented candles and add your own festive scents by adding aromatic spices, such as nutmeg and cinnamon, to the melted wax.
Decorate for Fall with Edible Items
You can carve out the meat of larger pumpkins that you use to decorate and add it to any pumpkin recipe of your choice. Squash is another decorative crop that you can easily cook. A food with which you can decorate and more readily eat, however, is an apple. Of course, you’ll have to replenish apple decorations more quickly as they have a thinner skin than squash and pumpkins and won’t last as long, but they are an inexpensive, in-season and healthy fall snack! For those who are allergic to raw apples, cooking and seasoning them in spices like cinnamon and nutmeg allows safe consumption. Display apples anywhere you would display pumpkins and gourds inside the house. If you display them outside, they won’t last very long (and your resident insects will thank you). Apples can fill woven baskets, line shelves, or nestle up against pumpkins and other decorative arrangements.
Celebrate Fall Festivities
Hayrides, Corn Mazes and Bonfires
One of the best things about fall is the smells. The crisp smell of leaves changing color and falling to the ground. The smell of fresh hay during a harvest. The intoxicating scent of burning wood from a fire. Some of the most nostalgic and delightfully simple ways to celebrate fall include hayrides, corn mazes and bonfires. If you live near a farm that operates as an attraction for the public, check out what seasonal festivities they offer. You’ll likely find a pumpkin patch where you can pick and choose pumpkins of all shapes, sizes and colours.
You’ll probably have to travel outside of an urban area to partake in some of these traditionally rural events, but you don’t always have to go far. In my city, a family farm twenty minutes from downtown provides seasonal hayrides and a pumpkin patch. Corn mazes are more prominent in the Midwest, but if you can find one near you, it’s refreshing to get out in the brisk fall air and tromp around through a cornfield.
Bonfires are naturally more prominent in rural areas, but cities can have small contained fires, too, so long as they are far enough away from structures and foliage. There’s nothing quite like sipping a hot apple cider (or hard cider) while hanging out with friends at somebody’s bonfire. You could also see if there are any public events in your area that include a fire. You can often roast marshmallows and make smores, too!
Engage in Nature with the Simple Things
While leaf blowers more quickly and efficiently remove leaves from any given outdoor space, they are usually incredibly loud and disrupt any peaceful outdoor experience with their continuous whine that travels across blocks and blocks in a neighbourhood. In addition, gas-powered leaf blowers (which are most often used) emit toxic and stinky exhaust – not helpful when trying to enjoy the fresh fall air. The alternative to leaf-blowing is raking leaves.
Growing up, nobody used leaf blowers in my neighbourhood. We raked leaves. Yes, this takes more time and uses more muscle, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing – especially consider how few people get enough exercise. A few palm blisters never killed anyone. And raking is somewhat therapeutic, like your own giant Zen garden except with leaves instead of sand.
If you have kids, the added bonus is a giant leaf pile into which they can jump before you bag up the leaves for yard waste pickup. If your kids are old enough, they can do the raking, too. This not only gives you some free time to do whatever else you want but it helps them develop good work habits in your kids (and they benefit from the fresh air and exercise as well).
No leaves to rake? Take a walk! Simply walking by trees airily dropping fall leaves is its own sensory experience. For a more intense excursion, find a nearby park or woods where you can hike on a trail or among a denser tree cover. It’s especially good to get in as much outdoor time and exercise as we can before the winter rolls in with colder weather that makes outdoor time less pleasant for many of us.
Taste and Smell the Autumn Season
Apple Cider, Squash Bread, and Other Seasonal Treats
Fall is not the time to go on a sugar diet, let’s agree on that. There are too many delicious things to eat and drink! I like to temper splurges on life’s delicious seasonal treats with increased activity. The nice thing about fall is that the milder weather is more conducive to aerobic activities like running and hiking (or doing anything outside that breaks a sweat). So while you splurge on apple cider donuts and pumpkin lattes, plan some fun outdoor activities that allow your body to metabolize the extra sugars and feel great from all those endorphins you generate.
Spiced apple cider turns up everywhere during fall. It’s a refreshing alternative to juice when you drink it cold. It’s also a comfort drink when you sip it hot. Many public events offer hot apple cider as a staple beverage during this season. And if you’re lucky enough to live nearby a place that makes apple cider donuts, you cannot pass up this treat. Apple cider donuts are made with apple cider and taste amazing. They aren’t the standard large yeast donuts covered with glaze or icing. They are smaller and coated in sugar and cinnamon (and dangerously addictive). For a ‘healthier’ treat, opt for freshly baked squash bread. Local farmers market vendors often sell such baked goods as squash bread or pumpkin bread. While they are still loaded with sugar, you are arguably eating a ‘vegetable’, too!
If you love delicious and seasonal sweet treats but want to avoid excessive sugar consumption, homemade pumpkin pudding is an easy and healthy one to enjoy. I especially love this easy recipe that is gluten free and, optionally, dairy free (simply stir everything together and refrigerate):
- 1 can of pumpkin purée
- 1 cup of milk OR coconut juice (or other milk alternative)
- ½ cup coconut sugar or other sugar of your choice
- 4 tablespoons of arrowroot powder (flavorless thickener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon turmeric (optional)
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of whipped cream or to taste (either dairy OR coconut whipped cream)
Autumn Breakfast
Quality maple syrup is a treat that pairs perfectly with freshly fried pancakes on a Saturday morning. While maple syrup is basically pure sugar, it is actually a healthy sweetener when it is in its pure and raw form, without any additives. And while pancakes are traditionally a sweet breakfast meal, you can prepare them with healthy ingredients that provide nutrients and wholesome calories. Here is what I mix into my pancake batter before frying them in coconut oil on a skillet (double or quadruple for more people):
- ½ cup whole grain flour
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- ½ tablespoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted and slightly cooled
For a more savory autumn breakfast, Morning Star Farms vegetarian sausages are absolutely delicious. I eat them for any meal (my toddler loves them too) but they make for a great vegetarian alternative to this traditional breakfast staple. I usually pair them with Trader Joe’s latkes which are also delicious and toddler-loved and make for an easy breakfast (or any meal) staple. Both can be heated in the oven in under twenty minutes for a quick and easy autumn breakfast.
The Takeaway: Enjoy Fall with All of Your Senses
When we create an environment that engages all of our senses, we are inviting ourselves and others to truly live in the moment. What better way to savor this season than to decorate for fall with festive sights, intoxicating smells, and delicious tastes? Hearing the leaves crunch under our feet during a brisk autumn walk or hearing the crackle of a bonfire on a crisp night is most magical this time of year. And surrounding our home in soft, natural fabrics and textures similar to those we wear when it gets cold out is a perfect way to create that cosy fall atmosphere. You can’t go wrong when you incorporate the natural elements into your seasonal home environment and your seasonal festivities.