Each and every year I get more enthusiastic and more Christmas crazy than I did the previous year at the sheer thought of decorating my home for the festive season. If it was up to me, I would simply have a Christmas tree and lots of twinkling lights in my living room all year round. This could be a sign that I need more greenery and candles in my front room, as I have none. But I actually think it’s simply that I just love the process, the transformation and the ability to recreate a completely different ambience in the very same room we spend most of our time in.
This year my husband forbid me from buying any new Christmas decorations, as we struggle to store those that we do have and have spent hundreds on decorations each year for the past three years. So I acted with restraint and only bought the Merry Christmas garland and my new reindeer. Oh and a mini Christmas tree to go in the window of Allegra’s nursery.
Admittedly the garland is a bit literal for my style, however we have a very large empty space on the wall behind our sofa and I thought this would be perfect to fill it. I have been contemplating how I want this space to look for almost a year now and still haven’t been inspired enough to commit, so the garland is a temporary feature. But I must say, I don’t mind at all.
Our tree is artificial. I used to be a bit of a snob in terms of Christmas trees as I grew up in a household where we had a real tree every year. I remember the scent of pine and the dreaded needles that would get stuck in my hands and feet. I have grown accustomed to our artificial tree, in fact I actually quite like it. It’s just easy to manipulate for decorative purposes and I don’t have to worry about it losing its needles and becoming bare or ever being sparse.
The tree decor is very simple, red, white and gold with some large feature gold baubles. I think the velvet ribbon adds a nice, slightly more special touch to the tree. However wrapping this ribbon is an absolute nightmare. Our tree topper is completely make shift. I think we found an old piece of gold ribbon from Somewhere a few years ago and have just used that year in year out, as for some reason it’s the one thing I keep failing to purchase. The lights are white, I think next year I may swap the lights to warm white. But they do the job for now. I find myself YouTubing every year how to wrap your Christmas lights on the tree. I have always seen my parents simply wrap the lights round the tree in a spiral. However, for this tree we separate the tree into two triangles and then zig-zag the lights from top to bottom. There’s also the option of wrapping the branches in lights, but for that you need a lot of lights!
We then embellish each window with these festive winter garlands and it’s really as simple as that. The mini tree I purchased for Allegra’s room was simply to have some outward facing lights. I wouldn’t want our neighbours to think we are ba humbug. And where we live people take great pride in dressing the exterior of their homes in Christmas decorations. Because we live in an apartment dressing the outside of our home isn’t possible so having some lights in the windows I felt was important.
I love the tradition my husband and I have decorating the tree every year. We listen to Christmas music, sometimes salsa and we have drinks and make a big thing about it! However this year we were extra excited because of the new addition to our little family. She fell asleep while we were decorating, so I was dying to see her reaction to this foreign object in our living room when she woke up. Miraculously she was not fussed in the slightest. Just goes to show that our efforts as mothers can often be more for us than they are for our children. But as long as one of us comes away feeling good, I think that’s OK!
