Your Decoration Project

[Huntn]

Christmas 2020
We’ve had a colonial Apple fan for decades over our front door for Christmas. Living in Minnesota the winters are so cold we could use a real pineapple and apples And they would freeze and last most of the winter, at least through the Christmas season.

Texas is too warm, so my wife found artificial pineapple, apples, and magnolia leaves and I went to work. Here is the final product, plywood backing. The materials cost about $70 but we could only find a half sized artificial pineapple so we scaled it down.

My $70 version
Wife did not want gold leaves


$400 Etsy version (larger pineapple?)​

 

[Alli]

Is there some special significance to the pineapple with apples?

 

[Clix Pix]

I think Pineapples represent "hospitality," don't they?

As for me, no decorations here -- IMHO it is waaaay too soon! Maybe about the second week of December I'll get around to doing something.....

 

[Huntn]

Is there some special significance to the pineapple with apples?

Pineapples were extremely expensive in colonial America and I suppose among the wealthy became a sign of hospitality, status, and welcome, however my impression is that pineapple became an architectural feature, before it appeared on fruit fans in more modern times. Williamsburg seems to be at the center of this.

And according to this article, fruit fans did not appear until the 20th century I suppose when the price was not astronomical, and I’ll admit, I did not know that until I researched it.

I always assumed that since we saw them hanging in houses in Williamsburg, they must be authentic representations, that fruits were used as decorations. Apparently not historically accurate. Pineapples may have been put in displays and offered to guests for consumption, but apparently was not wasted as a decoration... but the idea is quaint and Colonial Williamsburg is the inspiration.

Illuminating The Season in Colonial Williamsburg

Christmas decorating at Colonial Williamsburg is a tradition that goes back centuries with simple greens and boughs of holly. Only in the twentieth century, has the fruit, nut, and pod bedecked wre…

thegardendiaries.blog

Pineapple Motif
No one knows for certain exactly how the pineapple became an essential element in the Christmas decorations of Colonial Williamsburg, but a look at the history of this common 21st century fruit reveals some clues. Because the exterior of the fruit resembled the pine cone, and the sweet fruit was similar to the texture and taste of an apple, the name changed from its original “anana” to pineapple. A sought-after delicacy in colonial America, the pineapple was considered a sign of the highest form of hospitality because of its rarity and sweet taste.

By the 1930s, the pineapple was already a well established design element in architecture, ceramics, and art. It only stands to reason, then, that beautiful fresh pineapples would become the centerpiece for the creative decorations for which Colonial Williamsburg is known today.

Social History of the Pineapple

A brief and colorful history of a truly American fruit.

www.levins.com

 

[Alli]

I always assumed that since we saw them hanging in houses in Williamsburg, they must be authentic representations, that fruits were used as decorations. Apparently not historically accurate. Pineapples may have been put in displays and offered to guests for consumption, but apparently was not wasted as a decoration... but the idea is quaint and Colonial Williamsburg is the inspiration.

Thank you for the history lesson. I’ve often seen the fruit fans, and pineapples and corn are familiar motifs in wrought iron fences throughout the gulf coast. I just couldn’t figure out the correlation between pineapples, apples, and Christmas.

 

[Huntn]

Thank you for the history lesson. I’ve often seen the fruit fans, and pineapples and corn are familiar motifs in wrought iron fences throughout the gulf coast. I just couldn’t figure out the correlation between pineapples, apples, and Christmas.

Basically a point in time when fruits were valuable, pineapples really valuable because they were imported and these were considered valuable items, gifts? Maybe, but maybe mostly status especially when a pineapple cost the equivalent of $8000 which kind of puts a different light on just what such a wreath might symbolize, except for knowing that when they became popular as fans, pineapples and fruits, were affordable by average citizens, and the symbolism of hospitality remains without the symbolic wealth.

The fan deployed
​

The Super Luxe History of Pineapples—And Why They Used to Cost $8000

The South American fruit has been a symbol of wealth, luxury, and hospitality.

www.mentalfloss.com