Vintage Cigar & Bourbon Library Tree

Celebrating the season with a Vintage Cigar & Bourbon Library Tree in our newly created Books and Bourbon Library.

You may have seen a sneak peek into our new library and Vintage Cigar & Bourbon Library Tree on our Home for The Holidays home tour. Our house theme this year was Christmas carol’s, meaning each room was designed with a specific holiday song in mind.  This can be a bit tricky with a gentleman’s bar/library in mind. However, I came up with “God Rest Ye’ Merry Gentlemen” as the song choice for this room.Although, if you look up the actual translation of this original 16th century song, it has nothing to do with “resting” as we would think of it in a modern day translation, it means something completely different. Directly from Wikipedia – the transitive use of the verb rest  in the sense “to keep, cause to continue, to remain” is typical of 16th- to 17th-century language (the phrase rest you merry is recorded in the 1540s). As you can see Dexter has found himself completely at home resting in this space. I still found this to be a fun theme, especially with the idea of men gathering, celebrating the joy of the season with gifts in hand. Since our Books and Bourbon Library is also filled with a library of bourbon, it really is the perfect place for a little extra holiday cheer and celebration. Our tree also houses a fun collection of our vintage cigar cases, which I have converted into holiday ornaments. Whether they were from a special occasion like a birth, or a celebration such as a wedding or graduation, you might find that you have held onto a few of these over the years. I thought this was a great way to commemorate those sweet little memories on masculine, man cave style tree. This was also a super easy DIY by looping some twine under the cap and re-attaching to form a loop.Keeping the theme of the Vintage Cigar & Bourbon Library Tree in mind, I also thought I would share two great recipes for this room. A few years back I shared a great recipe for dried orange slices in spice packets for Christmas Wassail or Mulled Wine which you can see here, but today I am sharing an easy DIY for garland.I love the celebration of simple rustic style dehydrated orange slices added into a pine garland this year. The trend was everywhere and for good reason, it was so easy and quick to do with a Air Fryer on dehydration mode. Such an easy DIY, especially if you got a few holiday fruit baskets sent to you this year due to social distancing and no way of eating that much fruit in one sitting before it goes bad.If you slice up oranges 1/4″ thick  using your Air Fryer on dehydration mode you can create the easy orange slice garland that have been so popular this season. It takes 5-6 hours, and since it is the Air Fryer it is a set it leave kind of craft. When they are done simple string them into twine, viola they are done!We thought this room was the perfect place to have a simple rustic pine garland with those sassy little orange slices, which are super fragrant as well.  Also if you are an essential oil fan, you can add a few drop of orange oil throughout the season just to jazz it up too!My second recipe involves this amazing bourbon and fresh orange slices to make a classic Sazerac. One of our favorite holiday drinks to celebrate with is an Old Fashioned Sazerac, they are super simple to make and really focus on the quality of a nice neat bourbon, with just the right touch of orange peel, or in this case candied oranges slices.

Did you love this tree, want to see more of my holiday trees? You can see more at these great holiday tree posts:

Winter Wonderland Tree Decor

A Green Guest Room Christmas Tree

Home For The Holidays Travel Tree

Dream Catcher Tree & DIY Rustic Tree Box

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Old Fashioned Sazerac

• Absinthe rinse
• 1 1/4 oz Rye Whiskey
• 1 sugar cube
• 3 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 1 1/4 oz Cognac
• Lemon Peel (shown with Orange Twist garnish)

Recipe: Pour absinthe into a chilled glass and swirl to coat interior, then discard excess liquor. In shaker filled with ice, combine whiskey and cognac. Muddle sugar and bitters into drinking glass. Shake until well chilled, 30–40 seconds. Strain into absinthe-rinsed over bitters, glass without ice. Garnish with lemon twist and serve neat.This is a simple drink, easy to serve in small single serve batches and perfect for sipping by the fire or looking at the lights on your tree.  For another fun variation see my Honey Lavender Sazerac recipe here, Enjoy and Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoyed this fresh little coctail recipe, be sure to sign up here for more recipes and inspirational projects for the season at our Email updates at this link!

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