Updated Classics: Holiday Decorating With Birch

Discover fresh alternatives to popular design trends in our online series, Updated Classics. 

Classic Pick: Birch logs by the fire. Keeping logs next to your fireplace feels especially seasonal and cozy at this time of year, and birch logs are decidedly prettier than most. In the 2012 Princess Margaret Show Home designed by Lynda Reeves, birch logs feel tone-on-tone in a woven basket next to the limestone fireplace.

Fresh Spin: Wrapping with birch bark. If you love the earthy, natural look of fresh birch in your home around the holidays, peel the bark off one log and incorporate it into your wrapping. Interior decorator Grace Castaneda wrapped her family’s Christmas presents with simple newsprint and wide satin ribbon in chartreuse, then tucked in a piece of birch bark and a sprig of evergreen. “It’s all about simplicity and nature,” she says.