Decorating for Christmas is all about capturing the true magic and richness of the holiday. Infusing your personal style into the details conveys a welcoming, festive feel that is uniquely yours.
One of the finest and easiest techniques for presenting your home at its best during the holidays is to highlight its most attractive characteristics with rich colors, shimmering lights, creative vignettes and festive touches that harmonize to make the cold winter days all the more cheerful and bright.
Simply placing a cushion and warm blanket at your outdoor entrance will send a warm and inviting message to your holiday guests before they even ring the doorbell. Additionally, outdoor patios and decks, especially those leading off the family and dining rooms, shouldn’t be forgotten. Here I’ve added festive touches to encourage cozying up next to a roaring fire by placing a frosty winter-berry tree with a large silver orb beneath it. A vignette of two silver reindeer on a bed of snow completes the setting, and makes the outdoors as beautiful and cheerful as the indoors.
To maintain the harmony of a unified color scheme, I only “deck my halls” with embellishments that complement my existing decor. The traditional colors of Christmas—golds, silvers, rustic browns, whites, crimsons, and greens—are all neutral colours. Choosing just the right one for any area of the home and accessorizing to enhance, rather than force colour, will create a comfortable and easy visual flow to your home.
The foyer offers your guests their first impression of your style, and creating a warm welcome is always important. During the holidays adding festive vignettes are a must! I’ve chosen a snowy winter scene to greet our family and friends this year, consisting of a large snow-white tree adorned with a covey of birds, two reindeer looking on, and smaller, enchanting winter scenes throughout the niches and tabletops
Easing the chill and enhancing the comfort of guests and family extends throughout the home. Adding the small creature comforts as decorations to virtually any chair for the Christmas season is as easy as layering favoured chairs with a holiday throw cushion. In our family room, these “jingle” cushions from Pottery Barn and the “tea and warm socks” from Chapters/Indigo invite a cozy nap.
A “White Christmas” theme creates simple and elegant sophistication. The addition of glittery silver and shimmering lights to the white make for enchantment. In our dining room, I positioned a white winter-berry tree then placed winter animals such as reindeer, polar bears and penguins in a wintery vignette on the buffet with another as a table centerpiece.
