It’s happening earlier and earlier every year, that itch and twitch I get to decorate the house for Christmas. While we always wait until after November 12th to decorate, typically I have December 1st as the decorating GO day. But, probably due to Instagram, Pinterest and holiday advertising I find myself ready to decorate earlier each year. So far, I have a few items here and there, but the tree itself will be going up this weekend. On Saturday I’m having a holiday gathering at my house, and I can’t wait! There’s something so special about friends coming together around a Christmas tree, don’t you think?
I don’t have a long list of criteria for holiday decorating, but a few of my tips include:
1) Stick With a Colour Theme
If red plaid is your jam, you will find a ton of great decor items in stores already! Accent it with gold and you’ve got a beautiful, traditional holiday look to work with every year. I had a love of purple and silver for several years, and this year I purchased new decorations for the tree in my new favorite colour – seafoam green – and probably overspent on seafoam green and gold wrapping paper to match. Having clashing colours creates chaos in an already more-crowded-than-usual-room.
2) Less is More
About that crowding…While having every cute holiday decoration on your mantle makes you grin, when Christmas trees and gifts start to crowd out a living space, the decorations can start to look more like clutter. Pick your favorites to display near the tree and then consider adding a touch of decor to other rooms (don’t forget the bathroom!)
3) Celebrate the Senses
Bring out cozy warm blankets and create ambiance with a warm fireplace to help put everyone in the holiday spirit. Use scent to help bring everyone back to their childhood Christmas (it’s crazy how scent does that!) with fragrances like pine or berries. Don’t let cooking smells or uh…crowded-room-smells ruin your Christmas vibe! Febreze products work well to not only eliminate those smells but also leave behind scents that aren’t overpowering.
In fact, Realdoug E. Fresh and Doug The Pug have created a cute and fun video to highlight the #12Stinks of Christmas! Yep, it’s a thing and once you watch the video you’ll agree on how very real those stinks are for all of us!
Follow Febreze on Facebook and Twitter for product tips and info throughout the holiday season and new year! Happy holiday gathering, decorating and of course cooking in the days and weeks ahead. What decorating tip (mine or your own) do you adhere to during the holiday season?
What a cute video 🙂
Great tips! We usually don’t decorate til December 1.
These are great tips. I will definitely keep them in mind when I decorate come December.
We go with the less is more theory of decorating too. I’m actually not a big fan of Christmas (I know, I know) so I try to keep it contained and minimal.
Sticking to a colour theme! We usually do red/gold/silver.
I decorate after Remembrance Day and I change my colour scheme every year.
I like and follow 2 of your tips – 1. Stick With a Colour Theme, which I use silver and gold 2. Less is More, I don’t put unnecessary decorations out because I don’t want my house to seem cluttered
I don’t follow it but I really should – the whole less is more! We’re working on getting rid of the piles of stuff in the house and christmas is no exception!
Love your tree and I agree stick with the same color scheme. you dont want it looking tacky. I go for a few different colors and stick with it throughout my decor. and totally love that video!!!! 🙂
I don’t have a colour theme – just bits of what we’ve collected over the years AND some ornaments will be added even if they clash because they’re important to us.
Thanks for the tips!
Great tips! I follow the less is more idea when decorating as well.
I failed at the less is more, I moved from a huge house to a tiny one. I’m using almost 3/4 of my decorations but I love every inch I decorated.
No Christmas until Dec 1! 😉
I refuse to start decorating before December!
I try to stick to a color theme as well as follow the less is more rule.
We go like you say, less is more. Our house is not that huge now so if we put too much up it looks too crowded. We go with less.
Less is more !!
I go with the Less is More and Celebrating the Senses – using Scentsy and having Christmas music on.
I love all things Christmas and usually decorate very early. I would say make sure you do a thorough clean before you begin to decorate. Nothing worse than feeling smothered by a dirty house and all this new (albeit, pretty) clutter.
I stick with the less is more theme; I don’t like clutter. 🙂
I have a five year old who is anxious to start decorating. We’re considering a real tree this year so we will probably wait until December 1st to put that up, but I may get out the Christmas village this weekend. I’ve had burgundy and gold decorations for what seems like eons, I keep saying I’m going to get new ones but it’s so expensive!
I’m a last-minute lazy decorator :0 I collect vintage glass ornaments from yard sales during the year (can’t resist them). So I decorate my small tree with mercury glass pretties, and also string some on garlands, and put bulbs of a similar colour palette on display in a pretty bowl. I keep the tree and the ornaments near the top of my Christmas decoration Rubbermaid bin, so I can grab them when the urge to decorate finally hits me.
I like your tip Less is More. I tend to follow that tip every year when decorating. I don’t like too many decorations….in my small home it would look tacky.
I try to adhere to a single color through the house for the decorations. But each year there is always a new hip color that i want to have!! This year it is turquoise!! 🙂
Thanks for the great tips. What a fun video.
I have a couple little artificial trees that I put up (just acquired from moving around a lot), and each little tree has a colour theme. Also, love the house smelling of cookies and cranberry scents.
I do agree that less is more. I love decorations but do need to restrain myself.
Cute video! Less is More is our thing this year with the kids out on their own for a couple of years now we are doing less and less each year.
I definitely follow the less is more tip. Too much stuff just looks cluttered and I honestly don’t have the space.
We stick to a colour scheme, red and silver
I definitely try to keep in simple and super festive for decorations but my tree is more of a mess theme wise due to all the home made decorations my kids have added to the tree. A little bit of chaos makes my Christmas feel normal!
Great tips, agreed less is more for sure
Definitely the less is more one. I found we were getting way too many decorations and it was getting out of control. Scaled it back a lot and it looks so much better.
I try to stick to a color theme as well. I don’t always put out all the Xmas stuff I have accumulated over the years.
I keep it simple and focus on a few key pieces, like decorations in the main hallway and the tablecloth.
We are going to decorate this week with the kids, thanks for the tips!
I definitely go with less is more. My house is small. I don’t have the luxury of going all out decorating my home without making it a tripping hazard with cords etc. and making my house look even smaller with extra clutter.
All great tips.. but I have never really followed a colour scheme..I guess I just love my theme I use each year and build on.. I am more a keepsake , memory person, I treasure all the thing my kids have made and given so they adorn our tree and other places.., we make traditional popcorn/cranberry strings ect.. This year is the earliest I have started with decorating! The boxes came out this weekend! Probably due to that we bought an artificial tree this year…
I celebrate the senses, always a holiday scented candle burning in the kitchen and winter-inspired scented soap in the bathroom. I’d love to put up the tree early but we have a cat who loves to chew on the needles.
My decorating tip is also yours-Less Is More. Although I do tend to want to display all my decorations at once I don’t want it to look like Santa’s Place-that only works at Santa’s house! I try to rotate decorations one year in-one year out so it always looks fresh and inviting.
I like to keep things simple. I add some red and white to the decor, hang some festive light, and let my kiddo display her xmas crafts where ever she likes 🙂
These are fantastic tips to remember and I enjoyed the cute video! 🙂
I too try not to clutter at Christmas. I love to go with a theme and work from there!
I have always gone with the “Less is more” way.
I absolutely love Christmas and love decorating. I do like to stick to the rule less is more but I don’t have a colour theme really just whatever I feel like that year I let the kids decorate how they like it.
I agree with less is more. I like to keep them natural and not plastics.
I like your tip about the senses – it’s important to cater to all the senses during the holiday season 🙂
We stick to less is more. We put out family favourites and decorate our tree the same way.
Less is more is my go-to tip! I love the holidays and the decor – but it can get overboard quickly
I let my kids have fun with it… They really help decorate by creating and putting their crafts wherever they would like. One day I will have beautiful decor- but for now, its plastic and construction paper- and I love it! 🙂
I do love your celebrate the senses tip, i LOVE scents- especially the warm scents of the holidays!
just have fun with it don’t stress so much about getting things to match if you like it use it
We decorated last weekend because it is the last weekend we aren’t completely booked up! Ahh!
Cute vid and great tips!
I love your tips. Picking a colour theme is so hard for me because I just LOVE colour.
I love the less is more tip! so true!