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Holiday decor!

Runcarla

Veteran

Planning starts early (after Canadian Thanksgiving in October) but I try to resist putting up Christmas decorations until December 1st - when the outdoor stuff happens. The transformation indoors is more gradual with the tree going up the week before The Day. This year, I’m a little early. DH and I took advantage of a warm (10degC) day to work out-of-doors. DH put up the lights (strings of white outlining the eaves - thank heavens we live in a one story house!) and after he rejuvenated a Red Osier Dogwood by cutting it back, I made my holiday planters using the twigs, cedar greens, and recycled materials from previous years (birch logs, pine cones, gold balls, burlap ribbon.)

The last few days have been all about a big house cleaning, but I did make one little seasonal montage in my music room.

We have no snow (a neighbour was actually mowing his lawn yesterday) but several inches are forecast for the weekend - just in time for the Christmas parade. I will do some more decorating next week and plan to use some holly from my garden. I generally stick with natural greenery, and a silver and gold theme. A few years back I stripped the prisms off a chandelier I found left for dump collection. I washed them up and now use them to supplement my tree ornaments. This year I’m thinking of a smaller tree -around 3-4 ft, on a table - like the first Christmas trees in Victorian days.

Did you decorate for the US Thanksgiving? Have you started on Christmas yet? Do you celebrate Hanukkah or another seasonal event? Keeping things traditional, or changing things up? Please share ideas and photos.

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31 replies

Latest reply was from rachylou

Cardiff girl

Veteran

oooo,l like your outdoor planters.They are really good ,lm impressed!l approve of your colour theme as well.Nothing up here yet,l always wait until December then it’s red,green and silver with a scandi/traditional vibe.We have a tree in our kitchen diner and one in the front bay window with swags over both fireplaces and up the staircase and plenty of warm white fairy lights and candles to give a cosy vibe.Not expecting snow though,it’s very rare to have snow here at Xmas,February is the coldest month.

Anonymous

Nice! My decorating is limited to "above cat level" so pretty minimal! I'm on an owl theme this year

Eta- I really really appreciate the people that put lights up though, to make my commute less dark and dreary!

Anonymous

I've had the area outside my front door decorated for winter since the beginning of Nov. It's been cold enough, with a dusting of snow here and there so it looks good. A bit planter with natural stuff, much like yours, and my front balcony window boxes are full of natural greenery and giant oversized gold balls. Mini lights are wound around the black metal balcony railing, and I'm working on the interior right now. I've already done the base-winter switch out of pillows, throws , candles, etc and now will be adding in my true holiday stuff. I LOVE decorating for this time of year. I redid the master bathroom in dark red and teal for the holidays with a mini poinsettia, teal towels, dark red shower curtain, a winter-esque picture, and other assorted fun pieces. And of course, Frasier Fir hand soap No pics - no bandwidth today to photo, download to computer , edit and repost.

rachylou

Veteran

Your planters are very cool. I bought some taller lighted trees for the front yard. I’m debating when to put them up.

Style Fan

Veteran

I love your planters, Carla. Lisa's decorating sounds beautiful. We are in transit so unfortunately no decorating. I miss holiday decorating. It has been a few years.

Eliza

Veteran

Carla- I love your your decorations. Totally inspirational. Haven't done this year yet, but am always happiest with the palette of your planters. Beautifully done.

Kate

Veteran

Your outdoor planters are beautiful, Carla. I love the simplicity of the crystal reindeer under the bell jar.

We will start this weekend. DH strings our 30 ft. crape myrtle with white lights. It's gorgeous and the best part of our Christmas decorations. Quite a project too.

I'll also put up the big wreath on the front door, plug in the candle arches in the windows upstairs, and set up a small (6-ft.) artificial tree I have that's decorated with all natural ornaments, pine cones, nuts, tiny birds' nests, wooden ornaments, etc., that I've collected for years. It's my auxiliary tree. Normally we put up a 10-foot tall live tree in our bay window, but since we will be traveling in Europe from Dec.13th - January 7th, I have reluctantly decided to forego the big tree. Sob!

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

We've usually done smaller table-top trees. I'm thinking of a bigger one for this year, and want to get an artificial one in sales at the end of the year. In our little apartment, just a few decorations go a long way, but with so few tables/shelves/other flat surfaces, I'm having a hard time figuring out where to put them!

Ps. The one thing that is up is this star. Used to have a cheap white paper “ball” lampshade til someone was being silly with a mop handle and smashed it by mistake. He will grouse about the star, but it’s his own “fault”, lol.

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Helena

Veteran

So beautiful Carla! Very inspiring!

My outdoor planter was destroyed by a wind storm yesterday I'm hoping I can resuscitate it today! In the meantime, the tree and mantle are done, my Mom's favourite little reindeer has a place of honour, and our Nativity set is out (even though everyone but me is an atheist in this house lol!)

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Janet

(website)

Veteran

Aw, nice!

Some years I am very minimal with decorating, especially if we will be away for the holidays. Not much point in doing a lot of decorating if we won’t be home to see it! And in all honesty, some years I’m just feeling it less or more. Some years I swear I’m not doing all of that work, and before you know it, I’ve got all the decorations out and I go big, LOL.

It’s a very mixed emotion time of year for me — my dad died the week before Christmas, and even 28 years later, it’s hard, and my mom passed in November, not long before Thanksgiving. And last year we said goodbye to our little pug Sophie the day after Christmas. So I can be a little melancholy this time of year. Sometimes decorating helps; sometimes not.

Our house is not visible from the road, so we don’t typically do much outside decorating. It’s a lot of work, and with my husband’s schedule and unpredictable weather, some years it’s just not in the cards to do outdoor lights.

I do all the indoor stuff. When we do decorate, we get a real cut tree about 7-8 ft tall and I do the trimming. The tree goes in the atrium of our dining area — the living room and dining room are one big open space so it is visible to the whole first floor, and you can see it through the front windows as you come down our driveway.

I grew up with multicolor lights so I defaulted to that for years, but in the last few years I’ve done white lights along with the eclectic assortment of ornaments and decorations I’ve accumulated and inherited.

After mom passed, I kept the smaller artificial pre-lit tree (maybe 3 ft tall) that she and I bought together for her when the old artificial tree became a bit too much for her to handle. I put that one on a console down in our den and decorate it with a bunch of mom’s ornaments. It’s nice to have the glow of that when we sit down there with a fire in the fireplace and watch movies (we have a tradition of watching the Lord of the Rings movies every year at the holidays!). On the years when I’m going minimal because we are traveling, I forgo the big real tree in the atrium and just use “mom’s tree.” Last year for the first time, the lights stopped working, so I’d like to remove the old lights and keep using it, just putting on our other lights instead.

I also have half of my family’s vintage Christmas garden supplies (my sister has the other half), so for years when I’m super motivated, I build the little village/garden, complete with little houses, a pond, bridge, etc. I have the old train and tracks too, but that’s a bit more of a production — maybe someday when we have grandchildren! LOL

Anonymous

I am in love with the season that extends from the end of Halloween to the day after January 1st. I am obsessed with lights, colors, glitter, and happiness. Most people would look at my House and see Christmas decorations. I see red glittery decorations, red poinsettias (as many as I can afford), a fake tree, and lots of lights. I especially love it if the lights change color. Everything about this makes me happy.

My friends whine and complain about Thanksgiving being the forgotten Holiday, but what decorations are there for Thanksgiving? Brown? A brown turkey? How is that going to make me happy?

I decorate with what makes me happy. I don't care if others perceive it as Christmas decorations and then make snide comments behind my back (or to my face even). This is the only time of year that I shed my conservative nature and go all out.

The House and my Office are fully decorated. Red glitter is the theme this year.

Adore your decorations. Elegant.

Runcarla

Veteran

@Cardiff girl - Bay windows are MADE for Christmas trees! Maybe add some pics to this thread later?

@suntiger - been there...

@Lisa p - my fellow lover of natural decor (and gold balls) - LOL! Other folks do it, but it does seem so Canadian (see TG’s pics). Let’s see your pics added to this thread.

@racheylou - PUT UP THE TREES! (For suntiger)

@Stylefan, and Kate - DH would like to spend a Christmas abroad one of these years and we are collecting ideas!

@FI - the local grocery store sells mini rosemary Christmas trees (about 2 feet high) after the holidays you can use it for cooking. Anything like this in Berlin? You can hang ornaments from a small tension rod positioned inside a window. Fishing wire, coloured string, or ribbon cut to different lengths.

@torontogirl - lovely decor, and what a sweet nativity! When the DS’s were little we had LEGO and popsicle stick mangers, and one year a mandarin orange crate was pressed to serve as a shelter! My heathens enjoyed facilitating the voyage of the kings from some distant spot in the house towards the scene.

@Janet - My FIL suffered a stroke in his sleep on Christmas night. He never recovered, and died two months later. He was a pilot in the RAF during WWII, and we remember him every Christmas Eve when the Canadian public radio station (CBC) plays a recording of Frederick Forsyth’s ‘The Shepard’. It is one of our traditions. Rather than give in to rollercoaster emotions, I have embraced Christmas/Solstice as a bittersweet holiday, and a good time for reflection. We learn of Jesus’ birth, but know his fate. The days are dark and cold, and though it feels like forever, light and warmth are on the way.

@sterling - I DO love your ‘Go Big or Go Home’ attitude. Spread the joy! Please do share pics.

Joy

Veteran

I would love to be able to decorate like a Crate and Barrel catalog. I put out antlers, crows and pumpkins for Halloween in October and they fit in until Thanksgiving with a few tweaks
I have not started decorating for Christmas yet but plan to this weekend. The “tree” will be a large potted Norfork Island pine. I like to use natural stuff when I can. Your holly bush is a gorgeous decoration on its own.
I try to keep it simple with a small real tree, dining table top , front door and mantle and a few holiday dish towels in the kitchen. We have very little space to store seasonal things, so I avoid most holiday items in favor of using what I have. A wedding gift silver water pitcher holds cut greens in December and flowers most of the year picture frames hold multiple pictures...crows, Swedish tumpkins, and birds/nests for. various seasons.

Anonymous

I’m in pre party decorating mode and snapped a few pics today ....the teal/red/chartreuse colour scheme was borne from necessity ( I have a teal chair and a huge chartreuse velvet ottoman thing and needed something to tie them together that wasn’t gold or silver ) . I’m loving it and am now officially obsessed . I can’t really see what I’ve posted here - it’s taken me this long to figure out how to post from my phone - duh - and these are just little snippets of areas in the condo .

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Anonymous

And I’m part of the contingent that finds Christmas bittersweet , if sweet at all. Decorating makes me very happy , but the actual holiday time can be lonely and not that of a Rockwell painting . We have a very small family now and Christmas makes me think of my parents and a life that seems so very long ago . In use the time to focus on other people - and to give away ( donating ) as much as I can at this time of year .

Style Fan

Veteran

Everyone's decorating is lovely. The holidays are a bittersweet time for me as well. I try to focus on donating as well.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Virtual hugs to all of us who struggle with a bit of bittersweet at the holidays! I think it’s inevitable as we get older and experience more loss and change in our lives. I think that for a few years our focus turned more towards the younger people in our lives, like my stepsons, but now they are grown and often do their own thing at the holidays (visiting wife and girlfriend’s families, plus getting a rare chance to see their mom).

The change can provide an opportunity to make new traditions and rituals, but we haven’t really settled into anything yet, and that’s fine. We try to simply enjoy the present!

And now I am looking forward to getting back home and doing a little holiday decorating.

Helena

Veteran

I have just joined the bittersweet contingent this year. It helps to have (relatively) littlees in the house, as it's motivating the make the best of it. My dad will have the worst time; his first Xmas alone after 49 years of marriage, but he will stay with us and my kids are super-excited to have him read "the Night Before Christmas" and see them on Xmas morning ... so I am hoping that will buoy his spirits a little. Love and hugs to you all xoxox

Carla, that's so funny about the kings' journey - I used to inevitably find C3PO or someone like that had joined the shepherds in their adoration!

rachylou

Veteran

All right man. Neighbour has thrown down his gauntlet once again. Black Friday and the switch has been thrown!

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Style Fan

Veteran

Wow, Rachy!!!! We had a neighbour who decorated their house in a similar way but he moved. We miss seeing his bright lights when we walk down our very dark laneway.

Helena

Veteran

Rachy, that is something!!!

Runcarla

Veteran

He missed a spot!

rachylou

Veteran

Right guys? Lol, Carla! Right?!

Anonymous

Love everyone's decorations- but especially Rachy's neighbor
My neighbors, who can usually be counted on for elaborate (but gaudy) displays, didn't put anything up yet

JAileen

Veteran

We have a cul de sac near us that goes ALL OUT. Every house decorates in a huge way. A Scrooge-like guy lived on the corner and apparently was pressured to put up lights, so he did. He hung a package of lights from one of his trees. They were lit, still in the package.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I have a little update. While we were in TX, my hubs and I talked about how nice it is to have outdoor lights strung up, but how much work it is. We made the 3-day drive back home and arrived a few nights ago, greeted by several lit trees in our yard and lights strung on the gazebo in our side yard that we got married in! My husband had arranged with a local company to install all the lights before we arrived home so I would be surprised. It was a wonderful Christmas surprise and I so enjoy seeing those lights when they come on after dark.

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Runcarla

Veteran

@Janet - he’s a keeper!

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Carla, he is! For more reasons than I can count. I am a lucky woman.

JAileen

Veteran

We have a fake tree and also a live tree. We got a fake tree after a mishap with the tree stand, water and the hardwood floor.

Our real tree, a Colorado Blue Spruce, was a volunteer in the front yard. We transplanted it to the back yard when it was about six inches tall. It is now seven or eight feet tall, and so perfect it looks fake. I just adore this tree. I think it’s a Fat Albert. We have the lights on a remote so we can turn them on from the comfort of our kitchen.

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