Lanie Brown Awesome that you included a pecan pie recipe!

Holly Marder @Lanie Brown Thank you, and it's an absolutely delicious version, too!

cillisa Great idea! I love picnics!

Dana Veach This pie is made quite differently from the Southern U. S. version I grew up with...I look forward to trying your variety. It looks quite tasty...thanks for sharing!

Leah Witmond That's so cool! I used to have indoor picnics with my daughters when they were little. I'm pretty sure they'd still enjoy a nice indoor picnic every now and then. Time to restore the tradition.

MahtaMouse Dad used to take mom and us kids on a picnic in the rain. Mom packed a basket and dad drove us somewhere where we'd sit in the car having lunch while it poured all around us. Years later when I had my own kids, we occassionally had an indoor picnic lunch OR dinner in front of the wood stove... it was warm, cozy, and a break from meal time at the dinning table. Rather than a blanket, I used an old table cloth. The kids are gone now, so I think it's high time for a romantic indoor picnic in front of the wood stove... think I'll dim the lights and add some electric candles, pillows and romantic music... thanks!

Casart Coverings Holly, thanks for a great reminder of the one and only time we had an indoor picnic. It was after an electrical storm. With a wood-burning fireplace and a gas stove, we were comfy with warmth and light while enjoying steaming hot bowls of soup, cheese and crackers and a glass of wine. Can't wait to try that square pecan pie!

Charmean Neithart Interiors, LLC. Hi Holly. What a great idea! Your styling is just beautiful. This is such a great idea for kids especially. I think mommy groups all over would love this idea. Of course, good for the young at heart too. Thank you for this great ideabook. Charmean

peterjh1964 When I was a child, raised by a single mom with two jobs to keep us afloat I had these picnics. Not as elaborate as the one on the picture. My Mom would cook sausages, slice bread for dinner and we would pretend that we are going camping and sleep on make shifts blankets beds on our living room floors. Years later I found out, that all of it was to disguise the fact that she had no money for real meal. I never knew I was poor! And certainly I was never going hungry! I love my Mom.

frenchdecor Never did picnic in the house. Great idea, thank you. We have similar fun, caveman, jungle, and dog nights with kids. Cooking on real fire on fire pit sausages or meat, potato, apples and then sleep on the floor on ship skins and animal print pillows (skins on top of couple of comforters and camp quilts). We do theme decorations too, kids like collect items they want and decorate room themselves with my help. We watch theme movie, tell or read stories. In dog nights dog sleep with us (never normally). Next time I'll try to remember to shoot some pictures, have to do my own decor though. I got from houzz cute idea, dry grass window valance for jungle nights.

CAROLE MEYER A WONDERFUL IDEA!

MahtaMouse LOVE that! My girls and I did similar theme nights :) We had theme movie nights, dressing up like favorite characters and eating foods from the movie for dinner. For example, on Titanic night we blew up their raft, they then picked "tickets" out of a bowl and whatever "class" ticket they picked (1st, 2nd or 3rd (steerage) determined what they got for dinner. They wore boas, "period" hats and sat in their raft eating their dinners for the entire movie and had a ball!

Dana Veach Holly, I can't remember having had an "indoor picnic" in my childhood. I'd feel deprived after reading your lovely article, but I have memories from the picnics my Great Aunt used to spread on her expansive Louisiana lawn. She had no children of her own and her "parties" for us were lavish! She spread quilts on the grass and topped them with Belgian linen tablecloths...set with her Waterford crystal, Tiffany sterling, and antique china! (I never remember being chastised for spilling something on this elegant fabric or for chipping the fine dishes...it just wasn't even imagined!) The basket hampers were filled with fresh picked berries baked in cobbler pastries made with fresh churned butter and topped with real fresh cream....lemonade made with freshly squeezed lemons...cold sliced ham or roasted chicken from animals slaughtered on her farm and smoked in her own smokehouse...wonderful potato salads and finger sandwiches...all with the crusts neatly trimmed away...fresh grown tomatoes...and so on! As a child, I had no idea what a vestige of old world elegance I was experiencing...this was normal at my Aunt's Southern home! (She did have an occasional cook or housekeeper helping, and of course those people who worked the farm for her...but she worked as hard as any of them!)

In the winter, we would often be gathered around the hearth in her living room and she would disappear for half an hour or so and return with a tea cart laden with hot chocolate, freshly made fudge, pop corn, and tea cakes with some of her home made preserves. It is a world long gone from my life, but the memories will never fade! I am grateful for the "richness" of these experiences, but most of all, it is the loving attention that I marvel at after all these years! Thanks for calling it to mind! Memories shape our lives. Children, especially, need to have such memories built for them!

Kenn Gaither We prepare for the long Winter months, back in the Fall. Making hot sauce out of the peppers from our garden allows us to choose from a selection of various spicy condiments for baked chicken wings any night we are sitting home watching a movie or grabbing some homemade salsa from last season's tomatoes. My better half does a bit of travelling for the first part of the new year, so to keep him near while he's away, with a blanket I had made (through one of my online photo albums) and tonight I'm in front of the portable fireplace with a glass of one of my favorite vintages from a local vineyard, a book and the blanket has images of JD and some of our favorite places. So I hope you're keeping warm, cozy, counting your blessings and looking forward to the year ahead.

Casart Coverings Holly, do you have ESP? Last night I watched the opening episode of Downton Abbey,. Through an unfortunate set of circumstances the family was left without the meal planned for a gala dinner party. Shirley Maclaine (the American grandmother) solved the problem by orchestrating an indoor picnic for the guests in all their finery. She even provided entertainment by singing Let Me Call You Sweetheart to Maggie Smith and the interaction between those two was high entertainment!

Holly Marder Thank you for all your input! I love reading your own personal stories, and am so glad this idea was received well. I held an indoor picnic with friends lover the Christmas break having been so inspired by this shoot I did. It was fantastic!! Will definitely continue to do this.
@ Casart Coverings: Yes, I saw that episode of Downton Abbey, and loved it! I can imagine an indoor picnic would have been a very risky thing to pull off in those days, but even back then people enjoyed informality and the simplicity of a picnic. Holly

Paul D'Amico - Period Design This idea of pic nicking is spot on. The concept is particularly well suited to 2 increasing trends - 1. the living space (living room+dining room+ kitchen all in one) and 2. The host has less time to cook a full meal and the guests less inclination to commit to a formal dinner. An increasing number of people just want to live a social moment with 'wine and bites'.

olldroo This is hilarious. Several other posters and I have only commented recently on our early days of marriage 40-50 years ago and how we entertained friends with simple picnic meals on a bare dining room floor because we couldn't afford any furniture. Getting a roof over our head came first in those days and furniture and furnishings came as we saved and could afford things. No credit cards in those days. Life was simple and we had so much fun.