New Year Compositions in Yerevan

New Year compositions in Yerevan: noble fir, the wreath and the right date

In 1839 Johann Hinrich Wichern, a Lutheran pastor at the Rauhes Haus children's home in Hamburg, took the wooden rim of an old cartwheel and set candles on it. There was a small red one for each weekday of Advent and a large white one for each Sunday, because the children kept asking whether Christmas had come. The wreath has since shrunk to four candles and moved to the dining table, and it is one of the shapes New Year compositions in Yerevan still take: a wreath, a low centrepiece, a basket or a small tree of noble fir branches. Which shape to send depends on the room it will stand in and on the date the recipient celebrates.

Noble fir from Denmark: what New Year compositions are made of

Almost every arrangement in this section is built on noble fir, the species florists call nobilis. It is native to the mountains of Washington and Oregon, but Europe knows it through Denmark: after 1945 its branches appeared at Danish Christmas markets, and the country became Europe's largest producer of the species. Today some 2,500 Danish growers cut around 30,000 tonnes of greenery a year. The needles are short and blue-green and stay on the branch longer than those of other Christmas tree species, and the branches are stiff enough to carry cones and baubles without sagging. That is why noble fir goes into wreaths, table arrangements and small trees made of nothing but branches.

The red dots among the needles are often winterberry, a deciduous holly whose fruit stays on the bare branches long into winter. The berries are decoration, not food: seeds, leaves, bark and fruit cause nausea if eaten, so in a home with small children or pets the arrangement goes on a high shelf. The one fresh flower in its own season at this time of year is amaryllis: bulbs are sold in autumn to bloom for Christmas, and a single bloom measures 13 to 20 centimetres across. Chrysanthemums, carnations and gerberas come from greenhouses all year round and stand in the same wet foam as the fir.

Wichern's wreath was a table piece, and the tabletop arrangements in the section follow the same logic. They are kept low so that people can see each other across a laid table, and the stems stand in water-soaked floral foam, so no vase is needed, at home or on a reception desk. A wreath hangs on a door or lies flat in the middle of the table. A tree built from Danish noble fir branches stands in for a real one where a real one will not fit: a study, a reception counter, a rented flat.

New Year bouquets of noble fir, berries and roses are tied to be handed over in person and will want a vase. New Year baskets have a handle and are usually sent to a family table. Next to the greenery the section keeps bento cakes iced with "Happy New Year!" and "Merry Christmas" and corporate gifts for partners and staff; a card with a message is free.

25 December, 1 January or 7 January: the date depends on the recipient

The same arrangement is ordered for three different dates depending on who receives it. Western countries put greenery in the house for Christmas on 25 December. In Russia and most post-Soviet countries the main winter holiday, and the one with presents, is Novy God on the night of 31 December. The tree there is a New Year tree rather than a Christmas one, ever since Pavel Postyshev proposed it in a letter to Pravda on 28 December 1935 as a secular celebration for children.

Orthodox Christmas follows on 7 January by the Julian calendar, and the night of 13 to 14 January is still kept informally as the Old New Year. So New Year compositions in Yerevan go to a colleague who keeps Christmas on 25 December, to parents on the 31st and to a grandmother on 7 January. Orders for a chosen date and time are accepted in every zone of the city, and the earlier the order is placed, the more slots are still free. Fresh flowers in the foam last about as long as they would in a vase: roses for about a week, chrysanthemums and carnations for two to three weeks.

New Year compositions delivery in Yerevan: office, hotel, no phone call

Delivery in the city centre is free; other districts have a flat rate for their zone, chosen at checkout and added to the total before payment. Most orders are delivered on the day they are placed. The bouquet card shows the delivery time for express orders, which apply only to arrangements the florist already has in stock. In a hotel the piece is taken to the room or left at reception, as the hotel's rules allow, so the order needs the surname the guest is registered under and the room number. An office order needs the company name and the floor.

Nobody calls the recipient beforehand unless the sender asks; the exception is a gated building where the courier has to ring, and that call comes from the door. If the sender does not know the address, a phone number is enough: the manager finds out where to deliver without naming the sender or the occasion. Before the courier leaves, the florist photographs the finished piece and sends the picture, and changes can still be asked for before dispatch. Payment goes through Visa or Mastercard on a secure page, the total is final, and the courier is paid nothing.

Heating, candles and water: keeping a conifer arrangement alive

The recipient's one job is the water in the foam. The block is watered daily in a thin stream over its whole exposed surface and never tilted; foam that has dried out barely takes water again. The arrangement stands away from radiators and direct sun, because warm dry air pulls moisture out of the needles and they start to drop onto the table.

A candle in the greenery deserves a decision of its own. In tests by the American standards institute NIST, a dry Christmas tree is fully alight in under a minute, while a watered one burns far more slowly. NFPA figures show that about a quarter of Christmas tree fires begin with a heat source too close to the needles: lights, a fireplace, a radiator or a candle. So no open flame goes near fir that has started to dry, and once needles begin to fall the candle in a centrepiece is swapped for an LED one.