Decoration Ideas

In recent times, the old glittery stars, baubles and tinsel which used to be all the rage when I was a girl, have been overtaken, in the most fashionable houses, by home-made decorations made from recycled materials, foodstuffs and the most unusual natural materials. Here are some ideas to utilise in your own home this Christmas. By using all sorts of materials readily available in the home and garden, you can start afresh every year too, with a different set of decorations, or with a new theme every time. The other great aspect to making your own decorations is the cost! Usually, shop bought ones are so outrageously expensive that you end up using the same ...  Read the complete review

Help! I don't want to be a perfectionist..... My husband much prefers a real Christmas tree to a fake one, so every year for the past five years we have spent the best part of an evening just before Christmas messing around with a bucket of gravel, trowels, chunks of wood, hammer and nails, secateurs and an unhelpful seven foot tall Norway spruce wrapped in finger-lacerating plastic netting. It is quite a complex operation getting the trunk inserted securely into the purpose-made tree base that he has devised. First of all, four 12" lengths of pine tongue-and-groove wall cladding are nailed lengthwise to the trunk to enclose it in a sort of ...  Read the complete review

No my title isn’t a Christmas store or some strange code it’s how long it takes me to decorate my Christmas tree! Here’s my day in the life of a perfectionist tree decorator. I need to be in the mood so off goes the TV and on goes a selection of music that I can listen to. No not Christmas carols YUCK! But a mix of De la soul (Groove is in the heart), Depeche Mode club remixes, Space (Neighborhood), Stone Roses (Fools Gold) and other such tunes courtesy of Napster. Out comes the tree and the day begins. I have a fake tree and I love it, because it’s fake it means I can manipulate the branches as needed and I will need ...  Read the complete review

Sorry I haven't updated this op - I've just resurrected it- cos it's that time of year again. I'm sorry it's in the wrong category too - dooyoo decided to put it in this sub category after it had been posted. Christians and pagans each have their own ideas about Christmas trees and decorations and this is one of those subjects which could lead to a heated debate. But Christmas is a time for celebration and reconciliation, in theory at least if not in practice. Since time immemorial people have had some sort of celebration at the time of the winter solstice. The shortest day, and longest night, occurs around 20/21 December and from ...  Read the complete review

I have a huge problem this Christmas: friends, with children are visiting, and our house still looks like a building site! As everyone knows, most Christmas fun is around the dining table, be it playing games, eating, or drinking after our big meal. However our dining room is a complete mess. Half of the walls haven't got plaster on them, there is no carpet, no curtains, and no wallpaper. However, I plan to make this into a wonderful Christmassy room, and go completely over the top. I'm going to buy enough muslim to completely cover the walls. I'm going mainly for white, but I'm also going to get a couple of swathes of gold and red ...  Read the complete review