Deck the halls with boughs of holly! It is that time of year where trees, decorations and lights come out. Trouble is, I don’t like the traditional Victorian style decor of Father Christmas, chubby angels and general red and green shiny baubles. Fortunately, there are now lots of different styles of decor you can consider.
Traditional Victoriana
This is where it all started commercially . Queen Victoria’s German husband, Prince Albert, brought over some of his family traditions of candles, cake and small gifts opened on Christmas Eve. Along with sugared almonds, Christmas pudding with charms inside to find, Christmas crackers and cards and even the turkey, are all symbols of this heritage. The decorations are usually red, green and gold and are traditional in figurines and scenes.
Country Cottage
The theme is often around fir cones, carved wood and winter fruit. There are some lovely traditional wooden decorations that are often lit by tea lights. This theme offers a soft, natural style that matches most decor and is neutral. Great for travellers or renters.
Minimalist Elegance
A friend in New York loves really modern decor and finds it difficult to buy plain, modern Christmas baubles. This is where the artisan and design markets are worth seeking. In the end she bought plain decorations and smart Alessi and Littala. https://www.iittala.com/giftguidechristmas
Gold, Silver and White
Gold and silver are always lovely and can be augmented with icing sugar colours as we have done. We bought several decorations in a sale when living in Switzerland years ago. The Swiss seemed to be buying the traditional style and we were happy to get beautiful German and Polish decorations in pale blue, ice pink and dove grey. Years later and after some breakage, we still love them. In our past French apartment, we had gold and white elegant decorations in the lounge. In our cosy dining room, we added fun gold and green baubles.
The Off the Wall
Then you get the weird and wonderful! I have seen cocktail glasses, surfboards, handbags and a range of strange but often fun decorations. We did buy lovely American cupcakes, a miniature coffee machine and other fun kitchen decorations for the kitchen. I prefer to use them sparingly but then so what, it is Christmas and if you can’t go mad with decorations now, when can you!
