The family room and adjacent kitchen enjoy an expansive view of Lake Washington. At holiday time, the rooms are perfumed with the scent of baking cookies and paperwhite narcissus, and the monochromatic color scheme is brightened with red candles and red poinsettias on counters and windowsills.

Kris and Gerry Ronningen-Fenrich moved to Seattle from New York not quite four years ago, and have settled into a Seward Park home with an expansive view of Lake Washington. Their house is cubed, modern, simple and sleek, with white walls and cabinetry, blond wooden floors and black leather furniture. But Kris resists any impulse to make up for this lack of Christmas past by decking the halls with red-plaid ruffles or shiny glass balls. An avid gardener and supporter of the Arboretum Foundation, she decorates with plants and greenery gathered from her own garden and gleaned from the Washington Park Arboretum's annual Greens Galore sale. This naturalistic approach is gilded with Kris' eye for whimsy, and polished by annual trips to New York to check out Manhattan's Christmas windows.

Right: Some of the more whimsical touches are inspired by the homeowners' trips to New York every winter to see the decorated store windows. Below: A vine in the entryway drops its leaves in time to be garnished with cardinals and delicate white snowflakes.

Guests attending one of the Ronningen-Fenrichs' December parties approach the front door up steps trimmed in fragrant rosemary and lavender. The hillside beside the steps is held by a sea of ivy glowing with hundreds of white lights. These same little lights outline the roof and dip from the deck. White deck railings are trimmed in shiny red bows, and overhanging trees hold wreaths made of pods and pinecones stuffed with suet and peanut butter for the birds and squirrels. All is festive for human and animal alike, yet also subtle and natural; each area of the house and garden holds decorations that accent and play upon permanent architecture and plantings.

A large planter by the front door holds a Camellia sasanqua chosen for its bright pink December blossoms. It is underplanted with white cyclamen and pink roses still holding onto a few blossoms in this sheltered location. Behind the flowering plants a bare vine climbs the wall, seemingly for the express purpose of dangling a display of red cardinals and delicate white snowflakes. Each glossy white double door holds a rose-hip wreath dangling a red bow. Kris purchased the wreaths at the Greens Galore sale, then plumped them up with mossy sticks and extra greens. "If you had a yard full of greens, it'd be great, but I'm pretty deciduous," she explains. So she takes advantage of holly, fir, cedar, pods and cones donated by Arboretum members from their own gardens. These offerings are available as wreaths or swags, or in their raw, natural state to be fashioned as you wish.

A Northwest Christmas tends toward evergreens and drizzle rather than snow. The many strands of twinkling Christmas lights festooning the Ronningen-Fenrichs' Seward Park home brighten the gloom.

Kris used some of these boughs and cones to create a "forest" on the dining-room buffet behind Santa and his reindeer. A curly blue and green wire of smoke twirls out of a snow-covered rooftop to support glittery golden reindeer pulling Santa and his sleigh. The heft of the fir boughs seems to be the only thing preventing this melange of starry humor from floating skyward.

The dining room table holds a wide silver bowl filled to the brim with pine cones, a simple counterpoint to the froth of the Santa display.

Red poinsettias are perfectly shown off against the backdrop of white walls and monochromatic furniture. In the living room, a slab of glass coffee table holds a classic red poinsettia that echoes the red dress of a woman in the painting over the fireplace. Who needs a traditional mantle when the fireplace itself is draped with a fat swag dotted with white lights and trimmed with bows made of glittery French ribbon? The garland is made of artificial greens, augmented by juniper and cedar mixed in for texture, fragrance and colorful berries. Kris bought a wreath and took it apart, using floral wire to attach all the cut-to-size pieces of greenery to the swag.

Christmas decorations are simple and natural at the Ronningen-Fenrich home, where they've chosen to accent the house's architecture and interiors. In the kitchen, red candles, bowls of fruit and red poinsettias on counters and windowsills echo the hot red of a wall. Polished silver and glass candlesticks reflect the shine of glossy cabinetry and granite countertops.

The family room off the kitchen holds the Christmas tree, and offers a view of the swagged and beribboned deck. Here the couple can watch the birds and squirrels that feast on the wreaths hung up just for them. One wall of the kitchen is painted fire-engine red, no doubt to accent the cool smoothness of white cupboards and glossy granite. This time of year its vividness is picked up by red candles grouped in silver and glass candlesticks, bowls of apples and oranges, and red poinsettias on countertops and windowsills. Greens piled on countertops and paperwhites blooming in mossy baskets lend holiday aromas to mingle with the rich smell of baking cookies.

With the Ronningen-Fenrich home to serve as an example, who says you need snow or the trappings of old England to evoke the spirit of Christmas?

Valerie Easton is a horticultural librarian who writes about plants and gardens for Pacific Northwest magazine. She is co-author of "Artists in Their Gardens" (Sasquatch Books). Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com. Gary Settle is a retired Seattle Times photo editor.