Go from Everyday to Holiday

By Teresa Opdycke

With a few quick touches you can take your home from everyday to holiday.  Holiday decorating often starts the day after Thanksgiving, but if you’re a live-Christmas-tree family you can begin decorating long before putting the tree up.  By adding a few sparkles here and there you’ll quickly find you and your home in the holiday spirit.

Candles

Nothing creates an ambiance of elegance like candles.  The gentle glow of candlelight touches the romantic heart in most.  Use candles everywhere and in every room.  Start by placing a large tray in the center of your dining room table.  Place gold or silver foil stars on white votive candles.  Fill the tray with the votive candles but do leave space between each one.  Encircle the tray with greens, dried flowers, berries, rose hips, small Christmas balls, ribbon, or any manner of decorative items. 

Make a holiday statement with candles on the mantle.  Cluster candles of all sizes and shapes on each end of a mantle or shelf and for the most impact use candles of the same color.  Add greens around the candles or other botanicals depending on the room.  For a sparse natural look try using bare branches that have an interesting line to them.  Intertwine the candles with the branches.  Use caution when lighting the candles.  Think out of the box and set your candles in unusual containers.  Items that are not necessarily holiday can become holiday with a little imagination. Make luminaries from paper bags and set them along the walk or at the entrance of your front door. Candles quickly create a holiday mood through the house. 

Ribbon

One of the most whimsical touches you can add to your home costs very little.  Ribbons of all colors and widths can be purchased for little money.  Drape a chandelier with ribbon, ending with a bow and long streamers that hang down from the center.  Make bows and add to sconces.  Tie a ribbon bow around every candle and taper in the house. Use wide ribbon for garlands around doors and windows.  If you don’t have a tree topper, a large full bow with long streamers ending midway down the tree looks lovely.  Wrap ribbon around napkins for a quick ring that livens up a holiday table.  Tie a ribbon around lamp bases.  Set a bow to one side of a large framed picture, just make sure the bow adds a touch of holiday and doesn’t detract too much from the art.  Beautiful ribbons from French wired to satin can be found in most craft stores.  The sweet little touch of ribbon brightens a home in no time and announces the holiday season to all. 

Spices

The aromas of the holidays warm the heart with joy.  The delicious fragrance of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg baking in cookies and pies makes the mouth water in anticipation.  Why not create a spicy Christmas for your kitchen?   You can find whole spices at some craft stores and from suppliers online.  Bundle 5, 7, or 9 cinnamon sticks together and wrap with a ribbon or raffia.  Drill holes into nutmegs and string on thin ribbon to garland kitchen windows or wrap the string of nutmegs around a pine garland.  Tie a bundle of cinnamon sticks at each end of the garland.  Simmer cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and star anise in water on the back burner to drench the kitchen in delicious aromas.  Find a basket or bowl to hold bundles of cinnamon sticks, whole  nutmegs, creamy white dried ginger, darling little star anise, and apples or oranges.  For a bit of a decorative flair use whole cloves to create patterns on the oranges.  You can also completely cover oranges with whole cloves to make pomanders.  Toss in a bag: ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, orris root and cinnamon oil, place the orange in the bag and roll around until the clove-studded orange is covered in spices.  Shake off the excess ground spices and place the orange in a shoe box.  Tuck away for a week or two and when you go back you’ll find a dried orange pomander that will last for years keeping its delightfully spicy fragrance.  A pile of orange pomanders on a bed of greens looks and smells wonderful.  Cookie cutters or festive tea cups look adorable hung in windows using ribbons to tie them.  You can hang them from a garland or by themselves with a pine decorated window sill beneath them. 

Pick up poinsettias and group them all together inside the entrance door.  Cover clay pots in a foil that blends with your home, turn them up side down to sit poinsettias on top.  Displaying the plants at various levels adds interest to the simple arrangement. 

Create enchanting vignettes with things you have about the house.  Use toys from your childhood or if you have collected old toys from the past use them in whimsical ways.  Arrange dolls, old games, cars, trains, blocks, dolly dishes, or anything you may have on a pretty table cloth in the corner of a room.  Again, put them at different levels to create an artistic look to the collection.  If tea is your thing, get out your loveliest tea set and display it among candles and greens on a sideboard, buffet, hutch, cupboard, or coffee table if you dare. 

Taking a home from everyday to holiday requires more imagination than money.  Satisfy all the senses from a kitchen that reminds you of apple pies and gingerbread men to the romantic look of votive candles shining bright from your dining room table to the soft feel of satin ribbon bedecked lamps, candles, sconces and chandeliers. Turn on your favorite Christmas carols, gather the things you love, add greenery and a pretty bow and you’ll have a beautifully decorated home for the holidays that are all about you.  

© Doityourself.com 2006