Christmas décor

Liji Varghese

Thinking of beginning your Christmas decoration? Worry no more, as we get you some simple, trendy and pocket friendly ways to make your house come alive in the yuletide spirit. 1. To begin with, distribute work among all members of the family. You can also call up your friends to help you out or in case you plan to throw a décor party. 2. Pull out last year’s stuff and see if any item can be reused, but in a different way. Keep everything together so that you don’t have to search for things once you get started with the job. House Decoration 1. See whether the walls require a make over. If you do not want to spend on painting, another option available is wallpapers. Get wallpapers that will go with the festive mood. 2. Use netted golden, white curtains on the door and windows. Tuck the curtains to the sides to give your room a more spacious look. Hang small stars, silver or golden balls in between the curtain rods. 3. Use ribbons, bows, candles, wreaths, stockings and popcorn strings around the house to make the celebrations come alive. Place a big star in the centre of the house and hang red stockings filled with candies on the widows, doors and staircase railings. While placing candles make sure that no inflammable material is in near proximity. 4. Hang wreaths on the doors to make your guests feel welcome. You can also place small wreaths and holly on the walls. Since its not easy finding the traditional holly, you can always make it at home with small red balls and green leaves cut out of paper. 5. Place a Christmas tree alongside a small manger depicting the birth of Christ near the entrance of the house. Opt for an artificial tree in case it’s difficult to bring in a natural one. For the manger, all you require is some dried grass, cardboard, few toy images and a bit of creativity. Use cotton and thermocol balls to give a ‘snow effect’ to your house. 6. Pull out new dishes from your cupboard and lay out the menu on the table in a creative way. Use a centre piece on the dinning table to make it more attractive. No need to get a new centre piece if you don’t have one, a crystal bowl filled with candies or fruits placed next to a candle stand can solve the purpose. 7. Print short Christmas carols, poems and stories on chart sheets. Tear off the ends to give it a rough look and place it on the tables or pin them on doors with bows. 8. For the exterior, all you require is a big Christmas tree, stars and fairy lights. In case you want to put in more creativity to your decoration, then place a snowman towards the entrance of your house. All you need to do is get two or three different sized balls (depending on how big you want you snowman to be), wrap it in plain white paper and then cover it up with a thick layer of cotton. Place two big black buttons as the eyes on the smaller ball and a red cone made out of thick glace paper as the nose. For the hands use a branch of the tree. Make your snowman wear a red scarf and paint a big smile on his face. Christmas Tree decoration Though a natural Christmas tree is the best option, yet in case you fail to find one, go for similar looking Swiss pine, Grand Fir or just use a big potted flowerless plant. 1. To begin with, arrange the fairy lights from the base of the tree and from inside out i.e. from the inside branches to the outer edges. Keep the lighting simple as too much will over power the bright green colour of the tree and make it appear dull. 2. Hang candy canes, small Santa caps, stockings filled with gifts, fairy ornaments, baubles etc. on the tree. Place these ornaments from inside out to give a feel of depth to the tree. 3. Other than the small stars, place a brightly light big star on the top of the tree. 4. Place different sized boxes filled with candies or Christmas toys besides the tree. You can later give it to your guests as a take away gift. 5. Tear cotton into tiny shreds, add glitter to it and scatter it around the tree. You can also use fake snow spray, soap flakes or sodium polyacrylate to get the snow effect. Increasing the life of `Real Christmas tree` If you are using a real Christmas tree, then make sure that you take care of the tree properly or it will wither even before Santa comes knocking on your door. 1. A freshly cut Christmas tree should be immediately placed in water. Keep checking water levels as a freshly cut tree takes up to four litres of water in the first 24 hours. 2. Special preservatives such as sugar, aspirin etc. are not required to keep the tree fresh as it requires only clean water for a longer life. 3. Place the tree in a cool area. Avoid placing it near a fireplace, heaters or potential sources of warm air.