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I love to get the Christmas decorations out and they are always in place by the first week in December. I love the build up to Christmas, the anticipation, excitement and magic!
What to decorate
Here at the house, I always start with my festive door wreaths (how did you guess!) and these are usually up by the end of November. Then comes our tree, which stands in the Great Hall and I also decorate our stairs and the Dining room table, followed by mantle pieces. And finally I sprinkle a little Christmas magic throughout the Snug, Library and Billiards room and here’s how I do it.
Choose a colour theme
Now I’m not one for matchy, matchy, you definitely won’t find a silvery, ice blue theme one year to be replaced by a gold and red theme the next. What I mean by a theme is choose a colour way and stick to this. I LOVE all the colours and sparkle at Christmas, however I do try to keep them in some kind of theme. Reds, greens, golds, all with some sparkle thrown in. Now I won’t mix silvers or ice blues with this as they don’t go together and it can start to look, like a jumble sale. Once you’ve got a theme it is really easy to add pieces to this each year. I do love a new bauble or two every year to add to the tree.
Make your own natural decorations
Clementines and oranges are a Christmas classic. I cut them into slices and dry them out in the oven. You can then use ribbon or raffia to hang these on your Christmas tree or as decorations around the house.
Pine cones are also great to decorate, I paint some PVA glue to the edges and then dip them in a bowl of glitter. Once dry you can then use ribbon or raffia to hang these around the house. This is a great one if you have children, numbers 4 and 5 love doing this with me.
Add greenery and natural elements
Forage foliage from your garden, or go for a walk in the woods, look for holly, eucalyptus, twigs, pine cones, etc. You can then use these found treasures to decorate your mantle piece. The wilder the display the better, I absolutely love a natural arrangement on a fire place, you can then use some of your hand decorated pine cones dotted throughout, or even some white fairy lights arranged throughout. Pine cones are also great arranged along your Christmas table runner or look good on mass in a metal or glass dish.
Foraged foliage looks great in large vases and you can display these wherever you like throughout the house.
Scented candles
Every year I swap out my Winter candles for my Christmas scented candles. I have these in the kitchen, the Snug, Library and Billiards room. With the evenings getting dark early I love to light them and have that cosy feel and Christmassy scent spread throughout the house.
Bows and ribbons
A really easy and inexpensive way to decorate the house is with bows. I buy large rolls of ribbon from the floristry wholesalers, but they are also available on Amazon. Then I make large bows to go down the length of our stairs and smaller bows to tie on the Christmas tree. You can use bows anywhere in the house that needs a little Christmas magic!
So, I suppose all that’s left to say is enjoy, go forage, glitter up those pine cones and have some festive fun! Pour yourself a glass of mulled wine, have a mince pie, I’m going to!
