Decorate a Home for the Holidays

Not everyone has an inherent talent for dressing a home for the festive season. If you struggle deciding how to decorate your home for the holidays, here are some ideas and tips to make it easier.

28/11/2017

On the whole, South Africans tend to show restrain when decorating a home for the holidays. It's difficult to go 'full on' with winter-themed decor when the sun is shining and it's hot. But we do like to put on a bit of a display to celebrate the festive season, especially when there are young ones involved.

If you struggle to dress your home for the holidays, we put together some tips from around the Internet that will bring joy to children and make your home feel festive and bright.

Everything in moderation

I love anything that twinkles and shines and tend to go a bit overboard during the holidays. But it's not about overloading the home with bling; you can create a wonderful festive atmosphere with just a few tasteful accessories. Smaller festive decorations can be used to create a wonderful vignette on a coffee table, shelf or fireplace mantel, and these will add just as much festive flair as tinsel thrown everywhere.

Create a festive display

In a smaller home it's easy to pile on the decorations, so much so that it becomes difficult to move around. Create a beautiful holiday display in one area, that can be viewed from living areas without intruding on everyday living. An entrance hall or staircase is a great place to hang and display assorted decorations, and will greet guests as they walk into your home.

To decorate a festive display all you need are a few garlands of evergreen interspersed with shimmering baubles, a colourful wreath and a small, decorated tree.

 

 

GOOD TO KNOW: Create your own festive garland using ivy or fresh creeper strands from the garden, or cut long lengths of Eucalyptus to make a scented garland. Tie together with string and adorn with leftover or slightly damaged tree ornaments.

Let the tree be the main feature

If you put up a Christmas tree every year, whether real or artificial, let this be the main feature when decorating a home for the holidays. When dressed with beautiful ornaments and shimmering tinsel, the Christmas tree will be a focal point and set a festive atmosphere for the entire house.

Choose tree ornaments that tie in with the style of decorating in your home. With so many beautiful tree ornaments to choose from it's so easy to overload the tree, so decide on a theme and colour and keep it simple.

Twinkle, twinkle

Fairy lights are a staple for decorating a holiday home, and LED lights mean that you don't have to worry about starting a fire! LED fairy lights don't heat up as much as incandescent globes and can be used indoors and outdoors. When buying lights for outdoors, make sure they are rated for exterior use.

Many LED fairly lights are battery operated -  being low-voltage and can run for a long time on a battery - which means you can hang these anywhere. Create your own magical display using fresh, green garlands, strings of tinsel and baubles.