It’s been a minute! I swear to myself every year that I am going to get myself so well organized come Christmas that I am totally stress free, sipping tea under my tree and reading a book. And the fact that I haven’t been able to do that not even once feels like a failure. I had a few clients ask me to decorate their houses for Christmas and that turned into a lot more work than I anticipated plus actual design and staging work – I have been swamped!
We had some snow and that made the holiday decorations outside look extra magical.
I was happy with the way our planters turned out. It has a thick base layer of Noble fir, then some faux berries and red branches in the center. I also pinned lights in the center so it kind of glows from the center. I did this before Thanksgiving and while the kids protested, I think I might do that early next year too.
I am still not done inside but hopefully this weekend!
I’ve gotten couple of emails about holiday decor and I’ll share them here as some of you may be thinking about the same things.
Q: I don’t enjoy holiday decorating but my family wants me to it. What is the bare minimum I can do?
A: I was surprised how many people felt like that, I’ve been asked this several times this year. First, what do you not like? If its the time rush – then do it earlier. If its the cost: invest into a nice garland for your mantel, I like Frontgate and Balsam Hill. Its not cheap, I know, but it will last forever. If you just don’t enjoy anything about this, think where your decor can have maximum impact and decorate that area. Put a glass or silver bowl filled with ornaments on the table, light some candles, and buy some evergreens and put them into a ceramic vase. I love the smell and it will insantly feel like Christmas. It also helps to plan out what you are going to do in advance which leads me to my next q.
Q: Why do you do a theme each year? I just pull the bins out and put everything out and I am done.
A: I like decorating and doing something different each year but I do find it helpful to plan it out so that tthe decor looks cohesive. My house used to look like Christmas threw up there but I just didn’t love it, it felt cluttered and so busy, I couldnt wait to take it down. And you don’t need some massive theme, it gets expensive and is a lot of work. What I mean by a theme is think of what you like, what colors your like and what feeling you’d like to evoke. Do you like more natural looking Christmas? Then do pinecones, fresh greenery, warm white lights. Perhaps classic red and green is more you or all white? Having some kind of a plan definitely makes decorating easier. Not everything has to match, as a matter of fact I keep the fun tree in the kitchen but keep other rooms quiter.
Q: Is it tacky to use fake greenery? And are they bad for the environment?
A: I love fresh greens, the smell is heavenly but they dry out so fast inside and cleaning is a mess. It’s also really expensive. Fake works better and is definitely easier to decorate (hatte putting lights on real trees!). I mix fake and real, outside the real holds up really well and it looks great. Fake is not bad for the environment IF you buy a good one and use it for many many years. If you use all fake, I would definitely bring in some cyclamen or amaryllis or paperwhites that’s real.
