Dec 12

Dec 12 Christmas decoration inspiration

I’m guessing it’s likely that, like me, you’ve amassed a generous, and much-loved, collection of Christmas decorations over the years. It may be that, like me, you haven’t added to it - other than the odd one or two that-will-remind-me-of-this-special-place/time purchases - for well over a decade.

Perhaps, like me, you break out the decs from their eleven months of the year storage spot and wonder how you’re going to hang/drape/display them this year. And then possibly, like me, you rummage around, on-line or in magazines, for some ideas to inspire you.

If that’s the case, I proffer what I’ve done in my little house this year in the hope it might prove helpful. Or make you feel like trying something new. Obviously if you’re someone who loves nothing more than making your festive decorating just the same every year, or if your decs have already been lovingly installed days/weeks ago, I hope at the very least it’s enjoyable to look at.

Over my many years of dec collecting I’ve assembled four distinct colour groups of baubles and assorted bits - gold, silver, red and white - with a few rogue items in black; a much-used selection of wadding (makes a great ‘snow’ base); a bag of silvery shredded…..I actually have no idea what, which does an equally great job of looking like glistening fallen/falling snow (and gets everywhere, but hey ho), and a goodly selection of the lights that are the key element of all my decorating - simple white (bright and soft) strings, multi-coloured ones, ones that look like red berries, ditto white, and ones in various shapes including stars and flowers.

I don’t have a tree - for no logical reason whatsoever, I resist that particular symbol of Christmas as just one step too far for a Jew. A criteria that clearly doesn’t apply to wholeheartedly decking my house in boughs of holly etc, so go figure.

Talking of holly, whilst I recognise that faux foliage is far from environmentally friendly, I have three strips that have been used as the bases for my decorative displays for nearly 20 years, and I hope will continue to do so for many more to come, so I figure they’ve more than earned their eco-permissable use.

For me the first decision is to choose the colour theme for my scheme. Over the years I’ve mixed the four colours in every possible combination, usually two, sometimes three, rarely just one and never all four (the rogue black gets chucked in every so often).

Some of my decorating colour schemes over the years

This year I’ve gone for silver and white.

Everything this year is silver and white

My tree centrepiece substitute is a large lantern that lives on a funny little triangular window ledge between the living and dining areas of my open plan downstairs. I sit it on a piece of the aforementioned wadding, wrap one of the lengths of foliage around it, entwine a string of lights through that, then get busy draping and placing a variety of decorations along its length.

Assorted decs, glittery snow and the all important lights

Other bits get placed around the base and, more often than not, the whole lot gets a generous sprinkling of the drape-y snow, which glitters satisfyingly when the lights are on.

How it looks all lit up. The shimmer of the snow doesn’t really show in a still image, so you’ll have to take my word for how it glistens in the lights

The home for my biggest and longest length of the foliage, which is rolled away each year with star-shaped lights entwined through it so I don’t have to go to the faff of doing that bit each time, is along the run of low cupboards in the living room. That gets the same generous helping of schematic decs, plus the all-important snow treatment.

My longest length of foliage. I leave the star lights (front, between the two baubles, entwined in the greenery) when I put it away each year. which saves a lot of faff

The last of my three lengths of foliage wraps around my bannister, along with its string of flower-shaped fairy lights. Whilst it also gets a matching dec treatment, I hold back on the snow on this one. The amount of it that would stick to my clothes, or get wafted to the floor every time I go up and down the stairs would seriously challenge my general Christmas bonhomie. .

Each year I try to incorporate my much-loved sculptures of an old tailor and the small boy watching him at work, into the festive scheme. Here’s what I’ve come up with this year.

My Christmassy master tailor and boy, un-lit and illuminated.

And then there are the wonderfully random decs that have their special place - in my house and my heart - every year. They include the knitted pieces made by the readers of Woman’s Weekly as part of our Guinness World Record winning collection of knitted and crocheted decorations. We sold them off for charity afterwards and like the rest of the editorial team, my purchases remind me of what a brilliant, bonkers challenge it was and how typically enthusiastically the wonderful magazine readers made it possible.

The Woman’s Weekly string of knitted and crocheted decs which always get hung in my kitchen

Here are just some of the 8,845 reader contributions hung and laid out along the corridors and walkways of the Woman’s Weekly offices ready for the Guinness World Record officials to count and verify. Just look how utterly fabulous they are and how much work the amazing readers put into each one.

Some of the 8,845 knitted and crocheted decs made by the readers of Woman’s Weekly laid out along a walkway in the magazine offices

The readers beautiful creations earned a Guinness World Record in 2014

Then there’s the increasingly scruffy-looking wreath I made at a special workshop we ran for the readers one Christmas which gets more oval with each passing year.

And last, but not remotely least, the Christmas fairy, who came from who-knows-where, but that was my eldest daughter’s favourite and was to be found somewhere prominent amongst the decorations in our family home every year when she was growing up.