our house at Christmas (Decorations & Trees in general)

Member Name: freud

Product:	Decorations & Trees in general
Date:	03/11/08 (217 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: love doing the Christmas decorating

Disadvantages: hate taking it all down!

I've always loved Christmas & the best thing for me isn't the present-receiving but having the house looking warm & Christmassy ready for our precious & rare family quality time.

My husband's self-employed & has just 25th December off work so it's a treat for myself & 2 daughters (aged 17 & 22) to have him all to ourselves for once.

I always put the tree up on 10th December, as this is my older daughter's birthday, and do the rest of the decorating over that week.

I bought a 7 foot pre-lit Christmas tree from QVC several years ago as great cost (but on easy-pay!) & it's been a great investment & should last for many years to come. Although it has a few hundred lights on already, I always add loads more because this is the main focus of our Christmassy house.

I'm not keen on tinsel but love lametta & star-foiled garlands which mirror the effect of the lights.
Every branch has decorations on it - some are ones my girls made or bought in the UK or abroad & others have been in the family for years which make them all so special.

Under the tree we put our collection of Disney Christmas soft toys that we've collected over the years & on the top we usually end up putting a star.

We have a nativity set which goes out each year & some illuminated stars on the walls, which give a soft glow to our lounge.
The top of the fireplace has gold 'peace', 'love' & 'joy' word candle-holders which look lovely with long tapered candles in - I light these on Christmas Day.

I love garlands so we have a number of leafy green ones in the hall, lounge & dining-room - all decorated with baubles, stars & lights. I saw some featured in a magazine a few years ago which are hung vertically & the effect is stunning.

My daughter made a new wreath 2 years ago for the front door which is super & better than any I've seen in the shops - once again the theme is stars (did you know I like stars?!). In the porch goes a simple 'peace', 'joy' & 'noel' set of words with a large sprig of fresh holly & berries.

The dining room is garlanded but the main focus is the table which I always want to look nice & usually we set this on Christmas Eve. I use a seasonal tablecloth with a gold runner & matching napkins, expensive crackers (but bought half-price in January!) & loads of candles. I invested in a kind of mirror-effect display which holds 18 candles, but when lit it looks like hundreds - fantastic!

I add some Christmas Yankee candles for that Christmassy smell & hang
a few special Christmas pictures on the walls - collected over the years & bought from local artists, put a little tree in the loo, add some Christmas loo paper (ho ho - from ebay) & leave my daughters to do their own trees in their bedrooms!

I don't really spend a lot of money at Christmas but DO spend the time making the house look Christmassy, cosy & welcoming as my Mum did when we were young.

Trouble is - you have to take them all down afterwards!

Summary: if the house looks Christmassy I'm a happy bunny