5 Timeless Christmas Decorating Ideas From Turner Pocock

"Bunny and I are huge fans of Christmas and have taken our daughters to see the lights in Burlington Arcade and Regent Street since long before they cared. This was with a promise that the fairies had sprinkled them across London and we needed a little trip to Manolo Blahnik"...

1. KEEP IT NATURAL

We both come from families where big country Christmases were the norm with a team approach to decorating. My great grandmother was German so we were not allowed to decorate until Christmas Eve, but when we finally did the whole family got involved. The children decorated the huge tree and my mother would be found in a barn making wreaths and garlands with pickings from the farm from scratch.

Thanks to our backgrounds, we both go hugely over the top each year. However, with decorating our top tip would be to stay relatively natural feeling where you can and then add flashes of colour of a bit of kitsch where it suits.

2. INVEST IN A LUXE WREATH

The first Christmas impression is the front door and the wreath. If we can, we would always order a fresh one from a florist. Grace and Thorne create beautiful ones, as does Clifton Nurseries and Wildwood London.

However, if you live outside the capital most good florists do them. It makes such a huge difference to the dusty old one you have pulled out of the attic with the bent wire ribbons and missing berries.

3. COLLECT HEIRLOOM BAUBLES – AVOID THEMED DECORATIONS

Inside the house, decorating the tree is a true passion of ours. We like to collect a few new decorations each year, themed trees are not our thing. Keeping a natural feel never fails to look gorgeous.

You can’t really go wrong with some plain twinkly glass, antique mirror, wood and a bit of subtle sparkle. Cox & Cox and The White Company do this brilliantly.

Keeping the tree personal so it doesn’t feel like a hotel tree is critical. To do this we always add some old favourites and some children’s decorations. Each year we like to find a few artisanal pieces to make the tree come alive and mark the year; this year’s choice is The Edition 94’s hand marbled ceramic baubles.

4. SWING BY THE COVENT GARDEN FLOWER MARKET FOR A FRESH GARLAND

When it comes to garlands and other decorations around the house we like to keep it as fresh and floral as possible – a trip to Covent Garden flower market just before Christmas is vital. We try to do our garlands from scratch. Starting with an ‘empty’ pine garland or simply just a rope, you tie and twist lots of little pieces of more interesting foliage throughout the snake. Thistles, berries, tiny battery fairy lights, a bit of gold and silver spray all normally look wonderful. At Christmas there is enough twinkle that anything looks fabulous. To top it off, fairy light studded Ivy winding through bannisters and large vases of berried twigs around the house look magical at night when all of the other lights are off. You can almost see father Christmas sneaking up the stairs!

5. THAT'S A WRAP!

Wrapping is the last, or perhaps the first (depending who you are!) thing that can be truly decorative. The TurnerPocock studio normally has a theme, this year we are going for this awesome fir tree paper with fluro fabric ribbons.