'Tis the season … to decorate!

The holiday decorating magazines have hit the local newsstands, and I wanted to share two of the new ones I'm enjoying, Holiday Decor and Vintage Holiday.

Traditionalists and minimalists might enjoy seeing this pastel-decorated tea cart in Holiday Decor magazine. I love the understated elegance here.

And this little detail on the tea cart caught my eye: cookies served in some of those pretty scalloped baking cups. I've used those to make cupcakes and to serve sliced fruit, but this photo made me realize that bite-size brownies, lemon bars, shortbread bites, and truffles would also be pretty served in these cups.

I'm looking forward to pulling out my Santa mug collection again this year, so I enjoyed this photo in Vintage Holiday magazine (plus, I'm still hankering for one of those vintage campers like the one shown on the bottom shelf).

Vintage Holiday also used a metal tea cart — they call it a "bar cart," but whatever — to display a Christmas vignette. I like this idea as well!

And Vintage Holiday also shows a vintage Christmas tablecloth with mix-and-match plates and teacups, and it dawned on me that those old green teacups would blend well with some new Ralph Lauren plaid dessert plates I've been using at Christmas. So those are the first two Christmas magazines I've read this year, and I enjoyed them very much. Have you started reading Christmas magazines yet? Spotted tea in any of them?