STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Cricket · Gucci

How do you decorate for Xmas/Hannukah?

erin · Chanel

RE: How do you decorate for Xmas?

jacL · Coach

I have a few Christmas decorations but they are sorta old and cheesy so I don't really use them. I put out a few Christmas candles and put up a fake tree with clear lights (1000 of them!) and either red and silver or red and gold bows and beads. I was actually wondering how it might look if I did red, silver, and gold this year--what does everybody think?? I really like those clear icicle ornaments, but can't bring myself to spend money on them when I just can't afford them. I have a few sentimental ornaments that I put on the tree--they kinda look out of place, but they are special so they go up anyway. I really like the look of placing ball ornaments in tall glass vases, with or without lights. So my decor is nothing special, really, but I must say, I am damn proud of my 1,000 Christmas lights (though it does make me a bit nervous)

Elle · Hermes

We put up a real tree - white lights and red, silver, and gold ornaments. We put a wreath on the front door. I also have various vintage Christmas decorations that I put around. And LOTS of candles! Oh, and we have some of those little houses that light up, so I build a scene on our hall table with fluffy white fabric for snow and all the little people rolling snowballs and carrying Christmas trees around town

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ranchera20 · Marc Jacobs

I love when we decorate for Christmas because every time I step into the house it feels so warm and cozy! And later I dont want to take off the Christmas stuff! Most of the stuff that we put up is stuff that we already had, so we dont spend that much.

We usually put up

-Fake christmas tree with ornaments my mom made when we were little

-We get a small table and put little houses that light up with fake snow all over the houses and tables. It looks like a little nieghborhood!

-garland on the rails going up the stairs

-wreath outside our door and ontop of the chimeny usually

-stockings hanging ontop of our chimeny

-what seems like hundreds of nutcrackers all together outside our kitchen on top of a counter

-And little holiday figurines all over the house!!

I actually felt a little warm while writing this!!! I cant wait now!!!

laken1 · Hermes

My Christmas decorations are all screwed up since I got divorced! I left half of my HUGE collection with my ex - I couldn't be so mean to his kids as to take everything. But I still have plenty left. My mom collects Santas & somehow I ended up with tons of Santas also - so I have about 250 santa ornaments. Well, my new hubby HATED that. So I'm trying to compromise & add different things to our tree. So now we are collecting all mercury ornaments - we added a bunch last year, including a leopard shoe (for me), a computer (for him) & lots from the Rudolph cartoon, a grinch, etc. For the past few years I have been using a 3 foot fake tree. This year I had decided to get a real tree for a change, but since we will be gone for 10 days during Christmas, this seems a little irresponsible - considering our cats will be at home (someone will check on them, but still - great time to knock over a tree). So i'm not sure what to do this year. I also have a collection of big snow globes & lots of misc Christmas statues that I have collected over 17 years, so I have LOTS of that kind of stuff. i'd love to decorate outside, but again, being gone for so long seems kind of like a waste to even go through the effort.

Christine · Coach

My FH and I put up a real tree (personal preference -- we love the smell & authenticity too much, and we have so much fun going out in the snow to pick the "perfect" one!) and decorate it with lots of mini lights, tinsel (that our cat loves to eat, grrr) and ornaments we've collected over the years. We have a beautiful velvet tree skirt that I shake needles off of quite often

We put a fresh, decorated wreath on the front door (these also smell amazing!)

We also have lots of candles, some sparkly, some plain, and we put them on our console table with fake snow and mirrored trays. We also hang the stockings. It's all so magical - I LOVE Christmas!! I still get that excited little-kid feeling sometimes. Seriously, I'm one of those people who wants to start listening to Christmas music in October!

Re: spending -- each year that goes by, we spend less and less, because of all of the things we still have from previous years. The mirrored trays, for example, will last forever unless we drop them!

Almost forgot - each of our bedrooms also gets special treatment with candles, special bedding, etc.

-- Edited by Christine at 12:29, 2005-10-25

jacL · Coach

Christine wrote:

Seriously, I'm one of those people who wants to start listening to Christmas music in October!

Oh, that is so me! I love Christmas music!

FashionPrincess · Hermes

I have a whole huge walk in closet specifically for my Christmas decorations and that doesn't include the 9ft tree and the 6ft tree. My whole house goes thru like this whole transformation. I start decorating on Thanksgiving. I think we all posted pics last year of our decorations, maybe we should again this year.

Cortney1982 · Chanel

I get so excited every year to decorate! Last year I put everything up on Thanksgiving! It all goes up usually day after Thanksgiving. I don't spend much every year, just get a little to add.

Tree: I have a fake tree and on it is colored lights, white fluffly garland, and a mix of ornaments that don't match but I still like how it looks. I've mostly been collecting snowflake, snowmen, and reindeer ornaments. I've got fancy and rustic all on the same tree and usually put the ornaments I don't like the best (mostly the bf's ornaments) on the back of the tree! And of course, the top is a lighted up star.

Music: If the tv's not on, I will be playing Christmas cd's. I prefer classic tunes than current music stars singing their versions since to me it doesn't sound Christmasy.

Interior decor: Lots of figurines, lights strung over entertainment center, desk, windows, etc. No string of lights left in a box! Now that I have a stairs, I will have to get a swag and lights to wrap around it! A few years ago I put together a huge fake evergreen centerpiece that has three pillar candles and ribbon, and strung beads on it, looks cool.

Exterior: lights, lights, and more lights.

And it's so depressing to take it all down when the holidays are over! I get so used to the decorations that I forget to take some down I willl notice a few days later!

jen · Kate Spade

Ahhh-we have three trees! One in the kitchen which has a fruit theme. Then one in the front room in the bay window which have a clear/silver crystal theme. The third is in the living room where we open gifts and it's all decorated in hallmark ornaments and colored lights. I LOVE Christmas so much!

shopgirl82 · Chanel

RE: How do you decorate for Xmas/Hannukah?

laken1 · Hermes

shopgirl, that is SUCH a great idea! I need a tree skirt & I think that would be a great tradition to add to my family. Thanks for sharing it.

Claudia · Gucci

Oh gosh, my mom loves decorating for Christmas. (me too lol)

Outside, we only decorate with big (not too big, but the ones that are bigger than the regular ones lol) white lights. We have this little garden type thing all along the side of the house so we put white lights all over it. It looks soo pretty! We have this christmas light tree that we put in our front yard.

Inside: A fake lil christmas tree with red lights next to the window. When you drive by the tree looks soo much bigger!

My mom puts candles everywhere. On the dining room table she puts a centerpiece. The bathroom goes through a whole transformation.

She adds stuff to all of our rooms as well.

I think that's it. I'm really excited about Christmas! What I love the most is being able to see the lights from my window before I go to sleep. Also, just being with all my family. All my extended family gets together. We are super family oriented. ok, tmi. lol

sage · Dooney & Bourke

We have an artificial tree, SO puts the lights on(lots of mini lights)with lots of care so they look just beautiful, we have a few ornaments, I buy one or two a year. And we have the "shiny s@%t" which is the tinsely garland stuff. Our Christmas decorations fit in a grocery bag and a shoebox. Oh, I have one Christmas decoration I leave out all year, a pottery Santa/wiseman/christmas guy who is blue and gold with stars on his cape and holding a wire star that looks like a wand. He is tall and thin and I think he looks like a wizard

PS We leave the tree up way too long because I love it. It makes me feel warm.

-- Edited by sage at 19:35, 2005-10-25

bumblebee · Coach

xmas is a big BIG deal in my family, so we've always pulled out all the stops with decorating. my mom's style is over-the-top and really bling-bling, with the tree done only in white and gold and all real pine wreaths everywhere, etc. and her enormous dickens village taking over the entire living room.

my decorating style is more sweet and old-fashioned, and i love vintagey xmas things that have a history. now that i have my own little apartment, i put up lights and these snowball light-globe things, and a big wreath on my front door that i will decorate with lights or small ornaments or whatever strikes my fancy that year and a big shiny bow. i collect vintage colored ball ornaments that i put everywhere--hanging on things, stacked in glass bowls, etc. i also have a collection of trees--some ceramic, vintage and new bottle-brush ones, some lighted, some not. i have this big old antique armoire, so i usually make a "forest" of my tree collection on top of the armoire. it looks really pretty.

i also have a lot of my grandparents' ornaments and decorations, so i love to pull those out every year. and i collect xmas books, too, so i fill one of my kitchen built-ins with those, and i have a silver ornament tree from crate & barrel that will usually go in my kitchen with about 12-14 really special ornaments on it (like my swarovski crystal snowflakes--there's a new one each year and they are all different and sparkly).

i haven't had a real tree in my apartment before, but i think i might do it this year.

Sandy · Kate Spade

My family is *so* obsessed with Christmas. Every Thanksgiving my dad puts up the outside lights... we do the whole big colored lights and Santa/snowmen/angel/etc. figures outside. This year my dad wants to get one of those hugt 6' tall inflatable snow globe with Santa inside things . My house probably looks so tacky, but I love it. The trees go up on the first Friday in December. The main tree is in the front picture window in the living room... it's (ready for this?) a 6' fiber optic fake tree with colored lights . We have random ornaments we've collected through the years, all with sentamental value, hung on it. The second tree is also fake... it's my sister's. It goes in the family room in a window facing the back year. She decorates it with a blue theme... blue lights and blue and white ornaments. The last tree is mine. I call it my Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It's 3 feet tall and it's silver... with tons of bare spots. I put it in the basement (where my living room/bedroom is) on a table. I put the tiniest colored lights and bulbs on it, and I wrap the base with my blue baby blanket (a la Linus... "all it needs is a little love" )

We have this whole big ceramic village that goes under the main tree. My parents have been collecting the pieces for years. I took a ceramics class when I was 12 or 13 and made some Christmas scenes, and my mom still has them. They go on the sofa table along with other Christmas stuff. The kitchen is snowman themed... except for the table. My mom keeps the table set all the time through the season (but Heaven forbid we actually *use* the Christmas plates before Christmas ). We had a formal-ish table, so we had formal place settings. Now we have a more casual table so we're getting new place settings, probably snowmen to keep up the theme. There are various figures and such spread out the entire house. Christmas music is playing at all times.

Nothing in my house goes unChristmas-ized. The bedrooms, the bathroom, tha mailbox... you name it, we have some red and green and garland slapped on it . I love Christmas at my house

ETA: Now that I read this... my family's Christmas sounds so gaudy. It's really not... even though there are a lot of colored lights and such, everything comes together and looks beautiful. Except, maybe, for the blue lights on my sister's tree .

-- Edited by Stephanie at 23:09, 2005-10-25