One of my small trees that grows on the patio year round with a
homemade garland of dried oranges
I'll be honest here, I'm a big fan of Christmas. I like to try to make each Christmas period as enjoyable as possible however short or long they end up being. For me, the planning is part of the enjoyment and not part of the stress and I like to get started around the beginning of November. That being said, if you like the rush of last minute or you like being a busy person who is totally spontaneous (do they actually exist?) then you do you. No judgement here. This is me and what I do.
A little tree in the family room with my husband's boyhood sledge
and various collected baubles
Starting at the beginning, I am lucky enough to have accumulated quite a bit of decoration 'stuff' over the years - I'm not starting with a blank canvas. If you are, there is inevitably going to be some outlay for decorations. Yes, you can make them yourself and use things from the hedge row and garden but realistically you'll probably need some basics - ribbons, baubles, vases, candles even a tree of some kind. Of course, if you're a real planner you may well have been collecting bits and bobs in the various sales and boot sales over the course of the year but if not, and I'm usually in camp not - my advice would be to research as much as you can and then based on your research, create and cost your wish list. Work backwards from that taking things off the list as you go that you can do without, source from 'free' sources (the garden or great outdoors being a plentiful one although I'm not suggesting you take a Christmas tree from the wild) or borrow from someone else. Even with ahem... many years of accumulation of decorating stuff, I do usually succumb to something new - upmarket garden centres are a minefield. If you do find something you can't live without for that season, make it something that will reappear each year - classics. Try to avoid the outright weird and wonderful or the over-the-top, hilarious Christmas lobster anyone? Unless of course you'll be wheeling it out each year for the next twenty years - some jokes are never not funny after all.
I completely understand if you like to bring out the decorations every year and recreate the exact same Christmas displays each time. It's all about memories, creating and recreating - for me though it's not about reliving and whilst the items might be the same, I like to use them in different ways to change things up.
Little Cat and the curtain of star lights in the family room window
I keep the lighting simple - basically plenty of warm white fairy lights threading through the whole of the downstairs. I love the magic glow from which everything can be built. I replaced a few strings last year so I am hoping that this year we can manage with what is in our stock and the budget can be put into other bits. Fingers crossed. There's nothing worse than discovering the creative budget has to be redeployed as maintenance and for me lights are pretty much maintenance. Check them early though, just in case. Obviously, we are being more cautious with the power use this year so do make sure your lights are LED and/or on a timer. Many battery lights are also on timers and I've found with many one set of batteries just about lasts the season. If you need to save, put the lights up later in the season and get them down straight after new year; the twelve days of Christmas tradition has been out of favour in our house for years as I like it all put away once new year is over. You could also only put the lights on in the room you are in and perhaps the outside lights are the area to cut back on - afterall, it depends on where you live but mine are mostly enjoyed by the postman and various delivery drivers. I don't change the lights up very much and colour comes from other decorations. For me the fairy lights are a neutral.
Perhaps not surprisingly, much of my decoration planning starts with colour. The decorations have got to work with the decor of the room, whether that's blend and compliment or pop and contrast. I like to think of a colour theme for each room, we are pretty open plan downstairs (I don't decorate bedrooms at all) and because of this the paint colours in most of the rooms compliment. This gives me the option of just using the same colour throughout or in multiple rooms. This year I'm thinking of red in the dining room, green again in the sitting room and multi-coloured brights in the family room. Having got a vague colour theme I will then shop my 'stuff' for bits and pieces, baubles, ribbons and candles etc. I gather together things I have and bits I've collected. At this point, I might shop for a few bits of new, nice to have. Sticking within the confines of my colour plan, budget and idea for use if I have one.
Christmas Eve dinner with potted Christmas roses and the big white
Amaryllis display
This year I've invested in some very good quality faux stems for seasonal flower displays in vases. I'm not a fan of faux in the main, much preferring home-grown real flowers. But the garden is pretty much devoid of high-quality flowers by Christmas and florist bought stems are very expensive (in terms of actual cost but also to the environment too - they will probably be flown in and will certainly be hot housed and chemically sprayed). Last year I bought a few amaryllis stems which were both beautiful and high impact. I had to buy two lots as we had a Christmas party at the start of December and then for the actual Christmas holiday three weeks later. Whilst the stems lasted over a week with good water care, they would not stretch for a month. I reduced the overall cost by supplementing the arrangement with garden stems and foliage but nonetheless each stem was several pounds. This year, I've made the initial outlay of the faux flowers but in following years I can draw on these as very useful basics. I'll post these on my Instagram feed when they come in (@clairesmiths_life). It's worth shopping around for faux flowers. The quality and reality are important. The eye wants to be deceived rather than met with too much plastic and glitter - at least mine does.
Autumn colours with blue glass baubles on ribbons from my
hanging branch in the dining room
Within each room I will consider which areas I am going to decorate and create my decorative scenes. These days the whole room doesn't need to be decorated - you could of course. Maybe it's time to consider a whole set of hanging decorations from the ceiling, seventies and eighties is back in fashion in many ways and no ceiling was left without tinsel in my parents' house back then. Realistically, better to settle on which areas you are going to create your magic on.
The dining room has three permanent areas for display and of course the table itself which is temporary but gets its own planning later on, usually complimenting what I have already done with the room. The areas in this room are the short sideboard in the corner, the hanging branch (or big twig actually) in the window and the rustic table which sits just outside the dining room window (on the opposite side to the hanging branch). One area sitting outside, I am very much bringing the outside in and the inside out. This is important to me as I love my garden but also because essentially one wall of the dining room, the length of the table, is window. In addition, our dining room is also a dining hall as it forms the walk through to the kitchen. Therefore, what you can see through the window is important as you see it every time you go to the kitchen, and it will be on full view for the duration of Christmas dinner. The theme for this room will be quite naturalistic (although not entirely) I will be using house ferns in wicker pots (these are houseplants I can use around the house later), red waxed amaryllis bulbs, pinecones, foliage and hanging red paper fans and balls. Last year, the same room had a theme using autumnal brown colours with blue glass baubles and peacock feathers. I added the big vase arrangement of foliage with white amaryllis and more peacock feathers for drama.
The kitchen dresser with miniature Christmas puddings hanging from
the handles
In the kitchen, I use a few traditional decorations but try to keep things simple and a bit rustic. Last year, I made a string of baked orange slices and draped them around a small living pine tree which stood on the island unit. I hung tiny faux Christmas puddings from the dresser handles and made simple candle displays in rustic old terracotta pots, with bronzed stars and foliage. Much of this I will repeat this year I think.
The main tree complete with our collected baubles over the years
The sitting room houses the main tree. This traditionally goes up around the middle of December. We always have a real tree; I love the smell. It's a part of Christmas for me. This might be reasonably environmentally responsible but is not great for the budget. It doesn't go up before mid-December because we have underfloor heating, and the tree is always crisp by the time we get to new year. We prolong it's life by watering it each night at first (we have a stand with a sump) but after a couple of weeks it cannot take up water and begins to dry out. It wouldn't really be sensible to try a tree with roots either as the heating will probably kill it anyway. Being a gardener, I also have a collection of small Christmas trees (or pines) that I grow from year to year in pots on the patio. These come inside for a few weeks each year for decorating on tables or they are moved to a be just outside the front door or dining room window for festooning with lights and decorations. Keeping them alive year to year is fairly straight forward. They occasionally need a bigger pot but otherwise kept in the shade and with regular watering they do well. They even look quite good in summer on the shady side of the house - a pine tree is not just for Christmas. I've not tried to keep a larger tree in a pot like this. I suspect it could be done but the maintenance requirements, feeding, watering and repotting, let alone the moving of the thing are prohibitive for most people I think. I often use other plants in pots too. The Christmas Rose, which is actually a hellebore, can be potted into attractive rustic pots for tabletop displays. These are forced by garden centres to flower for Christmas, although most will naturally flower roughly then anyway (perhaps not as reliably) and will do well indoors for a short time. I put mine back outside in the new year to enjoy at close quarters and plant into the garden in early spring. Cyclamen can also be found in the garden centres. These are not quite hardy if we have a very cold Christmas and don't like too much wet either, this makes them quite useful for a short spell indoors over the festive season. I wouldn't spend much on these though as they will not survive beyond a few weeks.
Outside the dining room window on my tray table last year
Back to the main tree. This is pretty traditional for me. It does tend to have the same ornaments - in our case rich coloured baubles in claret, gold, green and deep pink. Strings of beads in the same colours and of course plenty of warm fairy lights. Most people are pretty fixed on their main tree ornaments, they may have been collecting them for years (as I have), be made by the children, be collected whilst on travels or perhaps, be vintage. It seems the right place for an emotional tie and every household has their own view on what that should be.
Little Cat again, this time with a display of battery-operated candles
with fresh foliage
I've not really mentioned candles here, but I use them in creating my decorating displays all the time. They bring a special light that is important. However, I rarely leave candles burning when I am not there in person to enjoy them. This is partly because of expense, leaving a candle burning down means another needs to be found to replace it for the display. But also, for safety. We have had a few near misses at the Christmas table where we have lingered too long, and the candles have almost set fire to the table decorations. For a party, or where pets or young children are involved, I wholeheartedly recommend the battery candles, especially the pillar candles. They are safer and do create almost the same light effect. Batteries aside they are of course quite cost effective.
That's all for now.
Happy Christmas planning.
Claire