Preparing for the Holiday Season
The holiday season is a time when we can take great pleasure in enjoying our homes to the fullest. Well considered smaller touches of the season can be so valuable to help you enhance your interior spaces so you can enjoy the festive season with family and friends.
In this post, we are going to go room-by-room and consider the essential elements that will work wonders to help you make this Christmas one that best celebrates the delights of your home.
Starting with the Dining Room
The dining room has a big part to play in the Christmas festivities and comfort is key. Comfortable dining chairs are essential. In my own dining room, I have 6 slipcovered parson chairs and I took things a step further by layering in some faux sheepskin rugs to the seats of all my chairs to add in texture and to up the coziness factor. (*it’s also a great way to prevent your seats from getting stained if you have kids and pets ;) This look will also carry us into the winter.
To set a warm and inviting atmosphere, well-chosen lighting will have a desirable effect. The dining room is the perfect space to add in a show stopping chandelier, wall sconces or simply plenty of candles dotted around. Our tree is placed in our dining room and I made sure to adorn it with plenty of lights. We have your standard LED warm white Christmas lights. I recommend at least a hundred lights per every foot of tree. Our tree is 7.5 feet tall and I have 900 lights on our tree. I then like to add in twinkling lights, I have 600 of those on this tree and the glow of the twinkling lights in the evening is just magical.
To further enhance the celebrations, a fully stock hot chocolate station will be popular with both kids and adults. I set up my antique bakers table and hutch with all the accoutrements needed to make a delicious hot chocolate with candy cane sprinkles of course. :)
Christmas mugs collected over the years hang on a mug tree.
A canister of cocoa powder, a milk frother is a must, marshmallows and let’s not forget the candy cane sprinkles! And if you have a sweet tooth like me, I also like to hang a candy cane off the side of the mug too.
I have owned this set of Christmas dishes for over 20 years. To create a festive table, you can use your everyday dishes too and add in festive placemats, napkins, etc. This is one of the reasons I love white everyday dishes. You could use the white dinner plate, purchase enough dessert/salad plates that are festive and layer on top. Finish off with a festive placemat and napkins. You could also use your everyday napkins and pick up some festive napkin rings. Creating a festive table doesn’t have to break the bank. I also recommend you dust off your fancy stemware. We use our stemware even on Christmas morning. The kids love to enjoy their orange juice with a splash of sparkling water in our stemware.
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Living Room
The living room or family room, wherever you tend to truly embrace the relaxation of Christmas time, gathering together to revel in the comfort of our warm and cozy retreat. I mentioned comfortable seating in the dining room and well I strongly encourage you to invest in a cosy sofa or armchair to help transform this restful haven for the holidays and beyond.
We recently completed a room makeover in our living room and I upgraded our Ikea Farlov sofa with a custom slipcover that is in a performance fabric making it kid and pet friendly. I also purchased two cozy armchairs with deep seats with coordinating ottoman and this has become the best seat in the house. This is also time to consider if extra occasional seating and side tables are needed. I like to have a side table by all seating to provide opportunity to lay down a drink, phone, book, snacks, etc. Furniture is often moved around to accommodate the tree, it’s worth taking the time to experiment with arrangements. I’ve been known to move our tree a few times to get the space just right. The process of reorganizing furniture will also make it clear where extra lighting may be required.
Little can compare to a roaring fire on a frosty night, to draw everyone closer together and create a welcoming scene.
While considering larger changes, a coat of paint can make the room feel completely different- whether simply refreshing the current color or changing the mood completely with a striking new shade. We have a series of Whole Home Color Palettes available for purchase and download. For $20, you can download one of our Whole Home Color Palettes and I also provide advice on where and how I would use these colors. You can check them out here.
Small changes such as adding layers in tactile textures to seating in the form of pillows and throws are quick and easy ways to enhance your living/family room for the holiday season as well as into winter.
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Bedroom
Christmas is the time of year to recuperate so there is no better moment to consider if beds and linens need replacing. The gift of a good night’s sleep would certainly be welcome at Christmas to start the year refreshed. Remember to all test the comfort of your guest beds.
Sumptuous bedding also helps ensure a peaceful night’s slumber, along with ensuring that the bed is a cozy place to spend a relaxed Christmas morning opening presents together or retreating at the end of the day. Consider a few choice additions in premium natural textures to create an enticing, cozy, relaxing bedscape.
Lazy weekends are a time to linger a while longer in bed and little luxuries remind us to make time for ourselves throughout the year. Enjoy an early morning coffee/tea in bed, a stack of books next to your bedside table, soft bedside lighting and lots of pillows and cozy throws to entice you to linger just that much longer in the quiet of the morning.
In children’s bedrooms, making a little effort goes a long way towards creating a mesmerizing Christmas build up and memories for years to come. Each bedroom has a wreath and candle in the window, the beds are adorned in Christmas flannel sheets, a festive throw pillow and throw. A basket of holiday books help to set the mood by reading magical Christmas bedtime stories with them.
My kids love their festive flannel sheets. It’s the same ones we’ve been using since they were little and even now, as teenagers, they are excited to see them on their beds at bedtime. We also love our diffusers and essential oils at bedtime. You can get your own diffusers and oils by signing up here.
Kitchen
A room at the heart of all the preparations, the kitchen is the never more industrious than at Christmastime. From baking shortbreads and decorating sugar cookies with the kids, gingerbread house building to multiple side dishes being prepared for the main event, everything needs to be functionally beautiful. Over the festive period, when the kitchen is at its busiest, everything is needed to hand and suitable workspace and organization is key.
I like to hang a wreath in a safe spot in our kitchen, adorn our window ledges with white ceramic houses and bottlebrush trees. Festive tea towels hang over the handle on the range. In terms of presenting food at the table, decorative serverware that can be taken from oven to table eliminates the need for serving dishes and cuts down on the number of items needing washing up.
Aside from preparations for the main meals, we indulge in a beautiful Christmas day brunch prepared by my husband.
A simple store bought wreath embellished with some real greens, a set of bells and a velvet ribbon hangs on a door in our kitchen.
Hallway
The warmth of Christmas can instantly be felt in a cozy entrance or hallway. It sets the anticipation for the rest of the house and evokes a familiar comfort. An inviting and relaxed mood begins with considering how to partner functionality with welcoming touches.
To prepare your entry or hallway for the busyness of Christmas, a new rug or a patterned wallpaper can add that wow factor. Storage comes into its own during winter with heavy boots being pulled on and off for long walks and foraging adventures. To save on storage, practical bench storage can be used to store mats, scarves, toques, slippers as well as extra layers and blankets.
Small changes can also help make the entry ready for Christmas. Replacing worn out door mats, reviving a tired-looking door with a fresh coat of paint or replacing a light fixture can give this space a new lease on life. Make the most of a console table in the run up to Christmas with a welcoming festive display.
I hope you found this post helpful. This is my stress free approach to decorating our home for the holiday season. I’m all about simple, beautiful and cozy.
I think it’s important to not get sucked in to seasonal themes and stay true to your vision and your home’s vision. I don’t decorate the same way every year- I won’t do what I did this year again next year. I think this allows us to enjoy our Christmas decor that much longer vs buying new every year. With that being said, this post is the formula I use year after year to create a festive home for the season.
