Ted and I walked around Charleston’s historic district today to check out the Christmas decorations. Wreaths were a common theme on doors, gates and porches. No blow-up Santas in sight.

Many of these homes have back entrances on an ally or shared driveway with walls and gates for privacy, providing the perfect place to decorate.

Many of the wreaths we saw were traditional evergreen, and most appeared real, with natural decorations of berries and cones.

This display had very plain wreaths but used woven animal heads mounted to the windows to hang the wreaths and a wooden trough of green apples. It was pretty, especially against the old brick exterior.