Decorating our home for Christmas is something we look forward to all year long. I won’t lie–we have A LOT of decorations. Sometimes I feel proud about that and sometimes a little embarrassed, but it’s what we love and our boys love it too.
A long time ago I was a young, fresh-out-of-college interior designer. I got my first design job at a dream-like place called Yessick’s in Chattanooga, TN. It was a retail home furnishings and accessories store housed in a reproduction old southern mansion. Remember that TV show from the 80’s –“Designing Women”? That was us.
My experience there laid the foundation for my career as a residential interior designer. I learned A LOT about the art of designing spaces and especially in decorating homes. The store always looked amazing, but when Christmas came–it was transformed into a magical Christmas wonderland.
It was then that I learned that “Making Christmas” takes a lot of time, effort and team work. I have carried that experience with me all these years later and we have a system that we use to get it all done as quickly and efficiently as possible. So, no matter if you have just a few things or a whole warehouse full like we do–these steps will help you transform your home into Christmas wonderland too.
Step 1. Bring it in and lay it all out.
You need to know what you have to work with. I lay them out on my kitchen table and countertops. I start with placing the things that have a designated space. Most of it never sees the same place year after year–partly because I can’t remember where I put it last year and partly because things in our home have changed and it no longer fits.
Step 2. Put up your tree (trees) garland, and wreaths.
Whether you use real or fake–getting this done will make you feel very accomplished and really make your home start feeling “Christmassy”. Our teamwork system has Super Rockstar putting up the trees and getting the lights on them. He absolutely LOVES this job and will be singing falalalala ( and a few other choice words) the WHOLE time he is doing it.
We all pitch in for decorating our three trees. Our boys decorate the one down in our rec room–they’ve actually gotten quite good at it over the years.
Super Rockstar usually handles our big one for which I am SO thankful.
I’ll tell you a little secret–I don’t like decorating Christmas trees. There. I said it. It is my least favorite part of Christmas decorating. I think it’s because it’s so intimidating. We’ve collected a lot of ornaments over the years. We have continued the tradition I grew up with of getting our boys a new one every year–they always love putting their own on the tree. We also have a surplus of decorative ones. I think he enjoys this part–since it doesn’t involve flighty light strands going in and out.
Which leaves a smaller tree in the front of our home where I hang all of my childhood ornaments. There’s only 18–so I feel like I can handle it.
Barney supervises.
And then takes a nap–it’s all SO exhausting.
We place wreaths wherever there is blank wall that could use a little something or sometimes we’ll replace a picture with one –just for the holidays. I scatter them around the house where I think they should go and Super Rockstar hangs them. It’s a good system.
Hanging all the garland down our staircases and on our fireplace mantel is my job. It is slow and tedious work–stretching it out, straightening the branches and making sure it hangs evenly. I leave the ribbon and bows on when I store it each year and those have to be fluffed up too. Playing our favorite Christmas music makes getting this step done tolerable. Otherwise–I’m not really sure how it would all turn out.
Step 3. Accessorize. Whether you have a Christmas village, a collection of Santa’s or just a random assortment of decorations that your great Aunt Martha left to you–find a place to display it. Clean off a shelf or any surface, and be willing to store away some of your year-round items to make room.
In progress: Finished:
I admit that successful accessorizing is a practiced art. It takes a basic knowledge of the design principles of balance and scale. But, with a little effort–anyone can do it. A good rule of thumb is to start big on the outside edges and then work your way in. For example–this is a snowman collection we have.
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Decorating Tip–Decorating a shelf
Super Rockstar did the honors this year and it looks amazing. Notice how he placed the larger ones toward the outside and then worked his way in toward the smaller ones–finishing off with a backdrop of adorable snowmen paintings he created. Once the items are placed you can add small greenery (Christmas trees) or poinsettias to fill in as necessary.
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This step is where having things all laid out on my counters in one room comes in handy. My method is to choose a few objects, decide where they might go best, and then find a shelf or counter (or dresser top) to display them.
I then fill in with greenery, poinsettias, leftover ornaments, and bows as necessary. I just keep doing laps around my house until it’s all done. I haven’t checked my steps on a fit bit–but I’m guessing its more than the daily recommended 10000.
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Decorating Tip–Colorful glass or plastic ornaments placed in a basket or sled make wonderful eye catching decorations. You can usually get a box for just a few dollars (or pick them up at garage sales for super cheap).
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Step 4: Finish. Once you have used up all your items–placed all the accessories, it’s time to do a stroll through your home and make sure each room has some Christmas in it. You’ll be able to see if anything is missing and can make a list and head to Hobby Lobby –they’ve had their Christmas stuff out since July and it’s usually 50-60% off. Also, there is some clean up involved–vacuuming the needles that have fallen off from the trees and garland (seriously–how exactly is there any still left on them?) and wiping up all the glitter from decorations that’s now all over your kitchen counters.
You now have a Christmas wonderland that you and your family will enjoy for the whole season.
Phase 3 is all about the outside. Stay tuned and I’ll tell you how we get it done.