Archive for July, 2009
Decorating your Home for Christmas
Christmas is an extremely busy time of year. By the time you get you shopping done, gifts wrapped and your cookies and cakes baked, it’s likely you don’t have the energy left to put into extravagant decorating. Although less than energetic, you still want your home decorated for Christmas. After all, Christmas is just not the same without lights and decorations.
Decorating your home for Christmas doesn’t have to be stressful. There are many things you can do and items you can use to dress up your home for this wonderful season. One suggestion when decorating your home for Christmas is using ribbon. If you have a decorating theme for Christmas, regarding color, choose ribbon to correspond with your theme. You can tie ribbons to all sorts of items in your home such as chair backs, wreathes, basket handles, stair railings and even doorknobs. Ribbons and bows are very festive. A good idea is to choose ribbon which can be easily untied and retied. This way you can reuse the ribbon another Christmas season.
Using holiday tableware is nice when decorating your home for Christmas. Search your home for anything Christmas, plates, bowls, mugs, glasses, any piece of tableware that has a Christmas theme. Make sure to use these items each and every meal, every day throughout the Christmas season. Another good idea is to buy a few pieces each year. In time you’ll have enough tableware to serve the entire community.
Lighting is important when decorating your home for Christmas. During the month of December turn off your lights. Make use of your candles in every room of your home. Place candles on the dining table, on the coffee and end tables in the living room and perhaps place a nice scented pillar candle in the bathroom. Don’t just put them there for decorations but also make sure to light them each night. If you have a fireplace, make sure to light it and enjoy it. A fireplace creates a cozy atmosphere which is nice when guests are visiting.
Decorating your home for Christmas should always include a Christmas tree. After decorating the tree with your homemade ornaments and strung popcorn, use the leftover branches to make arrangements for your home. Put the greens in a basket or bowl, add pinecones, bows and ornaments. Use the branches to make swags to hang over doors throughout your home. Take the evergreen sprigs and place them around your home, on windows, on a bookcase shelf or on a ledge. Evergreen branches and sprigs certainly reflect Christmas. Not only do they look nice but they spread a lovely aroma throughout the home.
Christmas is a time for celebrating. It’s a time to pull out all the stops. Snow is always nice for Christmas. When decorating your home for Christmas, why not use snow, artificial snow to add a sparkle to your home. Sprinkle it on the dining table, the hutch or the fireplace. Use ornaments which reflect light and hang them around your home, from doors or even indoor trees and plants. This will definitely look dazzling at night as the candle light flickers off the ornaments. Decorating your home for Christmas shouldn’t be a dreadful task but a delightful experience. One thing to remember when decorating your home for Christmas is not to over-think your plan. Keep it simple because simplicity is elegant and beautiful.
Thanksgiving Home Decorating
Thanksgiving is a time of year in which families from all across the nation gather together and enjoy the presence of each other and give thanks for the fact that we live in this great country and have the means with which to celebrate in this manner. It is a great time that is representative of the hand of friendship that was extended to us in the past and the season of harvest.
Thanksgiving takes place during the autumn season, which makes it an ideal time to decorate in the splendid colors of fall. These colors are not the bright colors that represent spring and summer or the sparking colors that epitomize Christmas but the colors of nature once she has seasoned and matured a bit. The colors are nothing short of spectacular and provide an excellent palate upon which you can decorate your home.
The leaves and foliage of fall make excellent arrangements and garlands. If you want to hold onto the look for years to come and incorporate them into your regular fall decorating rather than simply enjoying them for one Thanksgiving holiday there are plenty of excellent and life-like silk leaf garlands that will make excellent additions to your home decorating contributions. The better quality you find in these the more likely they are to stand up to years of service and storage. The same holds true with any imitation items you purchase. Better quality typically indicates a much longer shelf life.
Fall fruits and vegetables also make excellent decorations when it comes to giving thanks and home decorating. In fact, the food from the harvest and the friendship of the Indians was the very reason for the first Thanksgiving why on earth shouldn’t it be included in your celebration of thanks?
Wreathes in fall colors are another excellent idea for decorating your home for Thanksgiving. It makes all who enter feel welcome and it is appropriate for the season. There is no such thing in this day and age as an all season wreath though there are many that can be adjusted to meet the needs of each season with simple steps. A grapevine wreath is a good start and can easily have seasonal things tied or attached to it in order to experience greater longevity.
Pilgrims also make an excellent addition to your Thanksgiving decorations. They were after all the original celebrants of this tradition that has become a holiday for this great nation. You can have your children help select or even make the pilgrims that you will be adding to your decorations as well as a handprint turkey or two. Not all home decorations need to be expensive or elegant. Sometimes the simplest decorations drawn by the hands of a child are the ones that make the most memorable impressions on friends and family alike.
Cornucopias are another great centerpiece and decoration for the Thanksgiving holiday. Not everyone has a large enough dinner table to accommodate one of these but they also work well on a buffet, a hall table, and almost any other location your heart can desire and you can manage to fit it in.
If all else fails however, the food for Thanksgiving is all the decorations that some at your table will need. Do not forget the meaning of this season a time to give thanks for all the blessings in your life and enjoy the food and the decorations but more importantly enjoy the friends and the family.