A very Lilly Christmas

Christmas palm. Photo by Graham and Sheila.

I've always celebrated Christmas here in Maryland, either in Severna Park with my parents or in Towson where I live now. I like cold Christmases - they feel right to me. I like to sit by the fire, eat oysters, and pretend to think it might snow (even though it never really does).

But that doesn't mean that I can't daydream about an entirely different type of Christmas altogether - the Palm Beach variety. Like countless other Baltimore and Annapolis-area girls, I'm kind of a Lilly Pulitzer devotee. I don't go over the top - my house isn't decked out in top to bottom pink-and-green - but I have spent more than a little time at The Pink Crab.

I like Lilly clothes, but I'm really intrigued by Lilly Pulitzer herself. Her lifestyle is just so attractive - from her jungly backyard to her history of throwing gigantic, wildly fun parties (that is kind of my life's goal - to throw lots of gigantic, wildly fun parties). In her book, Essentially Lilly: A Guide to Colorful Holidays, Lilly describes Christmases that are warm in temperature, but pure Christmas all around, with waffles and presents in the morning and Cuban-inspired feasts in the evenings.

I'm not quite ready to give up my tenderloin and bouche de Noels (my sister makes them, not me). But Lilly does offer a couple of recipes that I could certainly see on my table this December.

She makes a simple salad of pomegranate seeds, pineapple and mint - totally seasonal everywhere, and a refreshing counterpoint to breakfasts of cookies and dinners of red meat.

And to drink (Lilly's great with drinks, not surprisingly), a "raspberry sunrise mimosa" - just orange juice, champagne and a little Chambord. Perfect breakfast (or anytime) drink, right?

Which makes me think...I actually have all of those ingredients in my house right now. Christmas might come early in my house.