I love holiday decorating. This is a joyous season, and it can
be a time when the entire family gets involved in a home’s
transformation.
Some of us have a very time-honored and traditional approach to
dressing our homes for the holidays, using the same decorating
strategies year after year.
I love holiday decorating. This is a joyous season, and it can be a time when the entire family gets involved in a home’s transformation.
Some of us have a very time-honored and traditional approach to dressing our homes for the holidays, using the same decorating strategies year after year. For instance, the tree goes in one particular spot. And this ornament always hangs front and center, while another goes at the bottom for the “little ones.” Or, the tradition might be menorahs always are lined up on the sideboard, placed on a special cloth year after year. And while one menorah gets only white candles, another might always get the colored-candle treatment to mark the eight days of Hanukkah.
This holiday decorating approach makes it easy and stress-free, and everyone knows his or her role – from who puts the tree in the stand to who puts the star on top.
But for those of us with the decorating bug, holiday decorating can become a yearly challenge, and it is this annual change that keeps the holidays fresh and exciting.
So, for those who love to incorporate new ideas into your holiday decorating, here are some of my tried-and-true tips.
I suggest you start with a simple theme, a creative roadmap of sorts whose inspiration may come from your travels throughout the year, an ornament or craft project you love, favorite fabrics or colors, or simply an effort to coordinate holiday decorations with your existing home decor.
These suggestions may inspire your holiday decorating theme, be it romantic, adventurous or serene, and may help you build on a collection of ornaments you already have or help
you think of new ways to make your annual holiday statement.
n Travel: Where have your travels (whether real or imaginary) taken you lately? Maybe a trip to Chinatown is all the inspiration you need to turn paper umbrellas, lanterns, embroidered fabrics and strings of lights into the theme of your decor.
A friend of mine spent a teaching semester in Mexico, and that year her tree was filled with colorful tissue-paper flowers, rustic-cut tin ornaments and Milagros, or “little miracles,” symbols of saints’ relics attached to crosses.
And her tabletops were graced with tin-punched candelabra and pedestal bowls filled with chili peppers and strings of lights.
If you haven’t been traveling but still love a global look and feel, the UNICEF and Save the Children catalogs are great sources for handmade wrapping paper, ornaments and gifts from around the world that just might give you the inspiration you’ve been seeking and allow you to give back with your purchases. (A percentage of the sales will go to that particular worthy organization.)
n Collections: The holidays are the perfect time to bring your collections out of the closet and let them take center stage. Stacks of quilts will look great in an open armoire or even stacked beside the fireplace. Sparkly silver such as old baby spoons and cups, teething rings and rattles, or punch cups, porringers and silver flatware, can be incorporated into tabletops, trees and wreaths. Porcelain or majolica dishes such as dessert plates and compotes, as well as cherished or vintage glassware, can be displayed on oversized trays set on your sideboard for elegant holiday eggnog parties and impromptu drop-in visits.
n Holiday collectibles: The Santas, menorahs, cookie cutters, snow globes, candy molds, village houses and vintage ornaments should all be amassed and displayed on shelves, on or under the tree, hung in front of windows or set on a sofa table or mantle for great visual impact.
n The stuff of children: Create a theme around your children’s treasured works of art by framing them in inexpensive, ready-made frames to hang on walls or on the tree, laminating them for placemats or using them for place cards or holiday greeting cards. Incorporate bold, crayon-like colors – in ribbons, tissue or jelly beans – to create your vignettes and displays by filling variously shaped glass jars with crayons, candy, small toys or rubber balls and setting them out on a tabletop covered in “snowy” felt. Use candy – ropes of licorice draped as garland, wrapped lollipops and hard candies tied with ribbon or hot-glued to a length of satin to decorate a tabletop tree.
n Candles: One of my favorites ideas is to simply place a collection of white pillar candles of different sizes on a plate or tray and surround them with small ornaments, cranberries, nuts or pinecones. Or line small votives along a mantle or set them on all your holiday tables and fill every candleholder you have with tapers, pillars and tea lights. Candles add elegance and a warm, welcoming glow wherever they are placed. I also put them in pairs of glass hurricanes and fill the glass half way to the top with limes or cranberries to decorate my sideboard.
Whether you are a traditionalist or an adventurer when it comes to decorating, always be on the lookout for the next great idea or inspiration. The most important thing about holiday decorating is that it be fun, stress-free and pleasurable for all involved and celebrated in your own personal way.
