TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1) From My Desktop
2) Decorate Using a Theme This Christmas
3) About “The Home Dec Lady"
45) Legal Stuff


The holiday season is quickly approaching and you can feel a quickening in the air. Once Halloween is over, it's officially the holiday season and the whirl of holiday activities begins. I wanted to send out this newsletter in order to give you plenty of time should you want to put some of these holiday decorating ideas into play.

I love decorating with new holiday themes, so I thought this month I would give you a few of my favorite theme ideas. You can use one theme through the entire house or if you have used themes before and have purchased items and decorations for them, you can use a different theme in each room.

Many people love to decorate at Christmas time and I hope you find some new ideas and inspiration in this newsletter.

There is no creative exercise this month, as I'm sure most readers are thinking of seasonal shopping, cooking and decorating ideas. For that reason also, I won't be sending out a December newsletter.

May you have a wonderful and memorable holiday season. I'll see you in the New Year.

Your Friendly Neighborhood (even if I am half way around the world!) Home Dec Lady,
Gloria

Decorate Using a Theme This Christmas

Decorating with a theme brings some change and excitement to your holiday season. You'd like to do this, but don't have any idea where to start? Well read on and before you know it, you'll have a themed home that looks like you hired a pro to complete it.

Choose a theme

First things first. Choose a theme. If you want to get the family involved, have a brainstorming evening to choose a theme and make decisions about the decorations.

Are you really ambitious and want to do a whole house or if you are new to theme decorating do you think just one theme tree or room will do?

What do you have for a budget? When you have a tight budget, making a plan will go a long way to helping you pull this all together and within your available finances. Do you want to make a lot of the decorations as a family project or would you prefer buying all the decorations needed? This will have an impact on the amount and type of decorating you intend to do. Set a budget limit and then start thinking about the theme.

Some Themes and Ideas to Consider For Children

If you have children, your themes may be geared to their tastes. Here are some themes families with children may enjoy creating:

Build around the "Nutcracker Suite"

This is a great theme if you have both girls and boys, as I did. Girls will enjoy the ballerinas and the sugar plum fairy while young boys will get into the wooden soldiers. I actually found some Christmas lights that were red drums and wreaths decorated with these and some wooden soldiers were used as night lights in the boys room for several years. Decorate a tree with ballerinas, fairies and wooden soldiers. Use nutcrackers as mantle and tabletop centerpieces.

Make a Candy Store Theme

One year all our decorations were build around candy. Our picture window was decorated with jars of candy canes, ribbon candy, gum drops and peanut brittle placed on holiday fabric. We also added gingerbread men and decorated Christmas cookies. We found some plastic candy cane garlands along with some lifesaver candy garlands which we used to outline the window. I wish I had kept some pictures of that window as it looked great from the outside. We had the neighborhood kids outside looking in at all hours.

To continue with the theme, we also made gingerbread houses to use as table and mantle centerpieces and decorated the tree with large bows made with ribbon printed with a candy theme. We used plastic wrap squares to wrap up candy and tied them with red and white ribbon to use as ornaments. We also used a ton of candy canes to decorate the tree along with red and white lights.

A theme which works well with small children is dolls and teddy bears. Remove books from shelves. Fill them with teddy bears or line them up on the stairs. Dolls can be put into doll carriages that are decorated with ribbons, garlands and lights for the season. Decorate your dolls and bears with Christmas clothes and ribbons.

Small bears and dolls can be attached to the Christmas tree along with bows made from a toy print ribbon. Plaid ribbons also seem to fit well with this theme.

A small dollhouse decorated for Christmas along with Ken and Barbie can be used as mantle or tabletop decorations.

Several Themes for Adults

A Natural Christmas

Going back to nature is a great theme for Christmas. Nothing smells better than fresh spruce or balsam wreaths and garlands. You can buy these all made or you can make them yourself.

Wind garlands around staircases and put them around doorways. Place Christmas lights in your plants and hang kissing balls and mistletoe.

For tree decorations go to nature for inspiration. Use birds and butterflies as your theme. There are many stores that sell these and a tree decorated with these ornaments along with some birds nests will fit right in with your natural theme.

Fruits and vegetables will make great mantelpiece and tabletop centerpieces. Poinsettias, holly and other fresh seasonal plants such as Christmas cactus and cyclamens also add to the theme.

A Victorian Christmas

I've always thought Victorians really knew how to decorate for Christmas. They always went all out and never left a spot undecorated during this season.

Velvet is big in a Victorian theme. Put velvet bows on your stair newel post, attach them to sticks and put them in your plants. Natural spruce garlands and balsam wreaths look great here. Roses always go with this theme.

Colors that work with a Victorian look are pink and burgundy along other jewel colors such as emerald,topaz,royal blue and royal purple.

For a Victorian tree, wrap balsam potpourri in lace squares and tie them with narrow velvet ribbons to use as ornaments. Starch small lace doilies and these also make great looking ornaments. Victorian Christmas cards can be used as ornaments or on mantel tops. Candles were used on Victorian trees and we found some great strings of candle Christmas lights. Although not strictly Victorian, we used bubble lights on our tree and it fit right in with out theme.

If this idea appeals to you, there are some great websites dedicated to Victorian theme decorating including this one.

A White Christmas Theme

Base your theme on Christmas songs such as White Christmas, Silver Bells and Caroling Bells

This is an easy theme to follow and can be done inexpensively.

White bows and silver bells are obvious. Bells can be strung and used as a garland. White bows and white lights can be used to decorate your plants.

For your tree, cut paper snowflakes, use white bows, silver bells, snowmen, white doves, icicles, white beads. Clear or white lights are best on this tree.

For centerpieces, spray pine cones with white floral spray and sprinkle with glitter. Use white poinsettias, pine cones and plenty of snow to keep to the white theme.

Speaking of floral spray, there is a spray available called "Crystal Frost". When sprayed on windows and mirrors, it creates a frosted look Jack Frost would envy. You should be able to pick this up at your local florist or craft store. If not, you can always find it online.

If you feel the white theme is too bare for you, you could always bring in one other color to spark things up to your liking. You could add red cardinals and red bows to your tree. Add some holly or red poinsettias to your white centerpieces.

You could bring in some green or blue ornaments if this is a color you prefer. Whatever you do, one other color is sufficient. More than that and you lose the white theme altogether.

So there you have it, half a dozen themes to choose from. Hopefully this will spark your imagination and creativity and move you to create a gorgeous scene for your holiday decorating.