Nutcrackers greet visitors to the Governors Mansion, which is decorated for the Christmas season starting Dec. 1.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — You expect red and green as primary colors for Christmas season decorations.
But black and white?
“We love black and white. It’s elegant and it goes with everything. It’s timeless, it’s universal,” says West Virginia’s first lady, Joanne Jaeger Tomblin.
Tomblin stood beside Glen Reed, director of operations and events at the mansion. For the past five years of Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s administration, Reed has been the go-to designer who creates the mansion’s holiday look, with input and feedback from the first lady.
To be sure, this year’s decorations lean heavily toward the red and green spectrum. But then there are the houndstooth, plaid and striped black-and-white ribbons curled among the ornaments. And the sprinkling of black-wrapped presents and black gift bags among the stacks of red and green fake presents encircling two tall Christmas trees…
