Go festive

Carol O’Callaghan offers decorating suggestions for those who want to give bling the boot this Christmas

WHY is it the holiday season is often anything but a holiday? It seems we run ourselves ragged for weeks in advance of Christmas with shopping lists, cooking plans, cleaning schedules and, above all, stressing and fretting.

Then there’s the decorating, running up precarious step ladders to try to pin swags of tinsel to the ceiling, whose glitter we’re picking off carpets and upholstery for months afterwards. So is it time to consider a new approach? Are you ready to abandon the emphasis on bling-bling and try something that doesn’t turn your house into Santa’s grotto?

Start by focusing your attention on specific areas such as the dining table and mantelpiece. These are the places that are noticed and lend themselves very well to decorating without changes or additions getting in the way of the purpose for which they were intended.

The mantelpiece with its roaring fire beneath will always draw the eye and it’s a fantastic platform on which to display candles, to drape a swag, or to place a selection of your favourite Christmas ornaments. Make it as minimalist or busy as you wish, but if you are opting for the latter, make sure you have a variety of shapes, heights and textures. A more minimalist approach, but one that is surprisingly warm, is placing just candlesticks of varying heights on the mantelpiece, and if backed by a mirror their flames will reflect creating a doubling effect of the candles displayed.

Where there’s an obligation to satisfy family expectations, mix Christmas cards, decorative snowflakes, stockings and Santa Claus ornaments, which will keep these items off other surfaces needed when entertaining.

For a little wit and fun drape fairy lights round an over-mantle mirror using all white for a grown up look and multi-coloured for fun. Finish with an ornamental greeting such as a ‘NOEL’ sign beneath. For a more tailored look, dress the mantel with a garland and spike it with some of your favourite foliage which you can spray paint in gold or silver. Magnolia leaves lend themselves beautifully to this treatment.

The dining table must be the most important interior feature at Christmas, after the tree, and can be easily adapted from formal layout for dinner to a casual help-yourself-buffet style. Seasonally themed wares in red and green, or with gold and silver detailing, can be utilised all year round diluted with plainer wares and clear stemware unless you’ve opted for plates and napkins with red-nosed reindeer emblazoned upon them.

Perk up your gleaming white wares and silver grey runners with napkins tied with red ribbons threaded through a tasteful tree bauble, continuing the theme on green stems foraged from the garden and placed along the centre of the table. The natural look really is hard to beat, and brings with it a quality that works with the interior and not screaming out against it. So if you want to make this your decorating theme this year, head to the woods for a Sunday afternoon of foraging.

- Next week: interiors gifts for friends. www.thegreatindoorsmagazine.com