November is a busy time for me, to say the least. I spend most of it perched atop ladders as my company designs and installs Christmas decor for luxury hotels, stylish bars, and beautiful restaurants across the UK.
The thirty days of November fly by in an absolute flurry of stringing twinkling lights around giant trees, adding an abundance of foliage to huge lengths of garland to be draped around grand staircases, hanging hundreds of wreaths in windows, and embellishing everything with red berries, velvet bows, and glass icicles. All of this is to create the perfect Christmas decor backdrop for hotel guests to enjoy the festive season and hopefully provide a little bit of magic and that special feeling you only really get at Christmas time.
December arrives, and as the larger commercial projects near completion, my focus, like most people, turns to how I’m going to decorate my own home for the holidays. My company got its start because I’ve always loved decorating my own home for Christmas. While the projects we work on have grown much larger over the years, here are some of the go-to tips for decorating a Christmas tree, and how I always rely on them to bring that 5-star hotel look home for the festive season.
1. Don’t Be Scared to Mix Fresh and Faux
Mix it up this Christmas to brighten up your space.
I often use faux garlands and stylish wreaths as a base structure for designs; their strength and durability mean you can create eye-catching shapes and the most dramatic cascades that will hold up throughout the festive season. I’ll then add in fresh foliage, offcuts of real Christmas tree branches, hazel, willow, and masses of eucalyptus; this adds texture and really elevates the full look. With anything fresh, it will, of course, dry out in December, but for me, this looks really beautiful and absolutely adds to the charm.
That said, faux greenery and branches have come such a long way in the last few years, with the best-quality ones looking astoundingly real. The top-quality ones are a bit of an investment, but you’ll use them year after year again, and the same goes for your Christmas tree. I’m often asked what’s better — a real or an artificial Christmas tree? To be honest, I don’t have a definitive answer as I use both types depending on the tree’s situation.
I absolutely love using real trees for their scent. Still, in my own home (a Victorian terrace in London), we’re quite tight on space in the living room, with the only available location for the tree being within the bay window, right next to our living room’s only radiator. A few years of trying with real trees and being basically needle-less by mid-December, and nine years ago, I bought a high-quality, ultra-realistic artificial tree, which is still going strong. Like my garlands and wreaths, I’ll add real foliage, branches, and twigs, and even some ivy tendrils foraged from the garden to my artificial tree. If these additions look a little too dry towards the 25th of December, I often swap them out.
If you are going for an artificial tree but want that realistic look, always remember to cover up the metal tree stand. I see so many beautifully decorated trees that are, to me, slightly let down by the fact that the metal legs of the stand are still on full display (well ahead of them being obscured by an abundance of wrapped-up gifts, of course).
There are so many great tree skirts on the market right now, but you can also use other items to hide that stand, and that takes us to our next tip.
2. Always Be Playful
There's nothing quite like a playful addition to add character and charm to your Christmas tree.
I always like to add unexpected elements and items that will delight and surprise people in my trees, and particularly around the base of the trees.
One of my hotel clients, the stunning Kimpton Blythswood Square Hotel, was the former headquarters of the Royal Scottish Automobile Club, so we like to place vintage-style ride-on cars at the foot of the trees, a nod to the building's history, which also adds a sense of playfulness. I think that’s such an important aspect of creating Christmas magic, you want everything to feel luxurious, but you also want to have a bit of fun with it.
Play with scale, place ginormous baubles beside trees, huge holiday bows atop your Christmas wreaths. We tend to use a lot of stripes; there’s something so jolly about them. Buy lengths of velvet fabric to swag and drape much like you would ribbons; this amplifies that luxurious feeling and adds a sense of drama to your decorations, which is always a good thing.
Don’t forget the tree topper as well, it’s such a great opportunity to delight — we’ve used everything from antique armillary spheres, neon flamingos, hanging model seaplanes, giant mirrored moons, and the cutest little hot air balloons to top off the tree.
An unexpected pop of red, this stunning Christmas Tree Topper Bow plays perfectly into the holiday bow decor trend and looks beautiful while doing so this festive season.
You can't go wrong with a traditional wreath. This lovely find from Habitat is the ideal blend of luxury and heritage in one. Plus, who doesn't love a contrasting combo?
What says 5-star more than a gold topper? This Anna + Nina Radiant Bow Tree Topper from Anthropologie is sure to turn a few heads and make a statement this Christmas.
3. Think About Key Moments and Complement Your Spaces
Intention matters when decorating your home this Christmas, so be sure to think things through.
When we’re decorating a hotel for Christmas, we like to think about how guests journey through the hotel and where the key moments are for them to be wowed by the decorations, and I think that’s a great way to approach decorating your own home.
Planning to host a dinner party? Have a think about your guests' journey: an abundance of exterior lights can, of course, create an impressive first impression, but when your invitees enter your home and make their way to the dining table, are there areas that could be made a little more merry? Sometimes it’s the simplest things, like a few beautiful glass baubles grouped on a console or coffee table, or even a vase of red berries on a sideboard, that really add to that festive wow factor.
When choosing your decorations, consider how you will complement your existing home décor. I really look at the space I’m decorating and work to enhance the interior design and architectural features, ensuring I’m not competing with or even overshadowing them. What’s the mood and overall feeling of the space? If your Christmas decorations work in harmony with the decor of a room you’ve already poured a lot of love into, then you’re on the right track.
That said, it’s also important to have a bit of fun, and the festive season provides the perfect opportunity to be exuberant and cheerful. Have a think about what you want and need from your home over the Christmas period, and then really just go for it. The biggest luxury is being able to spend time in a space that you’ve decorated perfectly for your own tastes and that you absolutely love.