After a late and crazy Thanksgiving weekend I am looking for ways to slow down, simplify and reduce stress and anxiety. So this holiday season, whether you are tired of putting up elaborate Christmas decor, have time constraints or simply want to make life easier, here are 10 tips to decorate for the Christmas holidays with existing ornaments and gifts from nature!
Greens and natures gifts from a walk in the country, or your local tree lot-via sjarmerendejul blogspot
- Hang your favorite ornaments around the house-from chandeliers, curtain rods, bulletin boards, around mirrors and off of art.
- Fill containers and plates, glass or otherwise with ornaments, pinecones, cranberries, tangerines, pine branches, white lights…let your imagination run wild.
Fill glass containers with x-mas lights, pinecones, branches & use all your candles-via Julie Mulligan, Floral Style
- Add scent to help create a magical holiday feel- stove top with bubbling citrus, cinnamon and cloves; fill bowls with citrus and cloves; bake Christmas cookies; create Xmas sachets by filling socks (use the feet) with pine needles and sew closed (put in corners and drawers etc.).
- Put up your Christmas tree lights around door frames, mirrors, mantles and save the time involved with the whole hassle and expense of a Christmas tree.
- Use all your candles- create tablescapes by mixing in greens, berries, pinecones, ornaments, and silver and gold. After all, what we love about holiday decor is the glow and the sparkle, right?
- Use your new or old Christmas cards as ornaments on branches, taped on walls as art, artfully arranged on shelves and mantles.
Show off your Christmas Cards creatively-via Martha Stewart
- Make your own ornaments with paper, photos, and your imagination! And, of course you can always string popcorn and cranberries; hang pinecones with ribbon etc.
- Use letters from blocks, cards, scrabble games etc to spell out messages that are meaningful to you, and place around the house-ie; joy, peace on earth, love to all, Silence is golden etc…After all, it’s great to remember what this season is really all about!
joy is a great attribute to share-here via Houzz
- Take a walk in nature with your family and bring home dead branches, pine branches, berry branches, pine cones, nuts etc. to decorate throughout your home.
a little scent and natures abundance-via 3bp.blogspot.com
- Ask tree lots around your neighborhood for free greens. Most of them are too happy to give them away. Use these in vases, center pieces, pushed through your strings of lights that are draped around your mirrors, mantles and door frames. Add the pinecones, berries or existing ornaments and you get the scent, the look and feel of Christmas easy peezy!
Comments
49 Comments
-
Love the picture with the little life trees and pine cones. It inspires me to take a walk with my daughter this afternoon to collect cones. Merry Christmas.
-
Author
There is nothing like a little time in nature to make you feel at peace…especially during a hectic time of year like now. Enjoy your walk, and enjoy your decorating Barbara, Happy Holiday’s to you and yours
-
-
Great ideas, and a wonderful way to re-invent the holiday spirit. Thanks for inspiring us, again!
-
Thanks for your lovely words Beryn, Happy Holiday’s to you and yours!
-
-
Just love this!!! Thank you for sharing. I want to use alot of these ideas!!! It’s my favorite time of the year!!!
-
I can see these working in your home Viola…especially those wonderful smelling pinecones in bowls (your wood bowl) with a few greens in your home
-
-
Some of those are very clever indeed! Thanks for sharing them, Irene.
-
I am going to show my 2 kids this blog post tonight. I know they will be super inspired and creative. All I need to figure out between now and then is where I can find a local pine tree to go scavenge under! Really looking forward to my house smelling all pine scented. Thanks!
-
So beautiful, Irene! and inspirational…I will share this with my sisters and daughter who all love to decorate for Christmas and are so creative, always looking for new ideas! your video is lovely!
-
Great tips and ideas and I can adapt some of them for Chanukah too. I love your photos, Irene. You really are a wonderful photographer!
Susan Berland
A Picture’s Worth
http://susan-berland.com-
Absolutely Susan. The silver tree branch with candles is actually a menorah. And, natures beauty and bounty are appropriate to celebrate love anywhere, are they not?
-
-
Thank you Irene for your creative video. It reminded me how much I USED TO get really into the Christmas spirit and want to decorate, play, shop, bake, just everything festive. Over the years I’ve just focused on work so much and feeling I’m doing it alone (B/C I am) I just kind of gave up. Your video has inspired me to do a couple of things to express that festiveness again this year!
-
Creating beauty for others, or simply for yourself is always uplifting. The scent of pine also uplifts your brain…good for business…so go for it!
-
-
These decorations are so beautiful and natural, Irene, they would make any home more beautiful, whether or not the celebration is Christmas. We don’t decorate for any holiday, but the elements of nature would certain bring beauty into our home. I love the little pine cones, and I know we have some right outside our house. (Somebody stopped by husband the other day and asked if she could take some of our pine cones–guess she was decorating, too!)
Happy holidays to you!
Judy Stone-Goldman
The Reflective Writer
http://www.thereflectivewriter.com
Personal-Professional Balance Through Writing -
Beautiful video! Although I don’t participate in the holidays, I really enjoyed your use of branches, leaves, fruit, cones, and candles. It was lovely how you brought “nature” into your home. You created some stunning table displays too.
-
I absolutely LOVE how you use ornaments in places other than the tree! Such simple, beautiful designs. And the smell of fresh greens in the home is one of the best parts of this season. Thanks, Irene!
-
What beautiful ideas! I love the icicle hanging from the branches, the use of ornament and of the old cards. Great ideas, thanks Irene.
-
Gorgeous images, creative and inspiring, Irene. I also love the message to slow down and enjoy. I am not much of a holiday person (in fact I have gone into silent retreat for the week before xmas over the last several years, going out for walks in Nature and listening in and doing some end of the year cleaning in my house and spirit. Now I will prob want to bring some of that nature in. You have made beauty so easeful. Thank you
-
Ahhhhhhhh…there is NOTHING like a silent retreat is there Vicki. I love going on them. And beauty is another way to uplift the spirit, the soul and make our eyes very happy! So yes, I think a little bit of nature can only enhance your retreat…truly
-
-
I love the ideas here. So refreshing and alive. Much better than the same old, same old. Lovely
Julieanne Case
Always from the heart! -
To me the message was the message! All the decorations were just decorations for that message. After the kids left and since my husband is a bah humbug type person, I’ve not got into decorating much for the holiday. But looking at your picture I realize I need to do it for me- the heck with everyone else! Thanks for your beauty.
Candace Davenport
http://www.ourlittlebooks.com ~ Little Books with a Big Message-
You go for it girl! Yes, and as I said above, the scent or aroma of pine is uplifting. And beauty in and of itself always uplifts
-
-
Thanks Irene! You’ve blown some life and fragrance into the idea of putting at least a little Xmas decor up. Well, maybe a little more.
-
These are such great ideas – and I love how you have put pictures with several of them. I am so NOT creative that I really need that visual representation. We don’t plan to do any decorating this year as we will be traveling for nearly a month, but these ideas are ones that I might try anyway. Many of them will be perfect all winter!
-
Thanks, Irene. Wonderful tips to keep things simple and beautiful, and each suggestion generates several more. Happy holidays!
-
I love bringing nature inside, recycling, slowing down, taking walks. And your photos are inspiring! Happy Holidays to you.
-
I love the tips and the pictures! We just moved so as I was unpacking boxes I kept thinking, “Do I really need to unpack Christmas?” Of course, with a 9 year old the answer is “Yes”! So we did the tree and just made it simple and fun. Thank you for the tips 🙂
Brandy -
Such understated elegance–Beautiful~~~~
Love the natural look in so many of the scenes~~
thank you as always~~ -
Thank you for such beautiful ideas, Irene. Have always loved decorating from nature and loved the branch with the icicles reflecting the lights and the candle glow. My grandkids love to turn out ALL the lights and just leave that lit.
-
Love keeping the holidays simple and abundant. A great reminder of what matters. Happy Holidays to you and yours dear Irene.
-
Happy, Happy, Happy Holiday’s to you Jen! Wishing you all the best in the New Year, and hope to get together then!!!!
-
-
Awesome blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers?
I’m hoping to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or
go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m totally confused .. Any tips? Many thanks!-
wordpress, that’s what this is
-
-
I personally Believe that posting, “10 Simple Ways to Decorate for Christmas-via Santa Rosa
Interior Design | Irene Turner “Little Bits of Beauty™”” ended up
being correctly written! I personallycan’t see eye to eye along with u even more! Finally looks like I actuallyuncovered a website definitely worth reading through. Thanks for the post, Lena -
“10 Simple Ways to Decorate for Christmas-via Santa Rosa Interior Design
Pingbacks
-
[…] irene-turner.com via Lori and on […]
-
[…] Yvestown, Irene, wonderful We love you too! Please […]
-
[…] Image From: irene-turner.com […]
Trackbacks
-
Christmas Decoration 2011…
[…]10 Simple Ways to Decorate for Christmas-via Santa Rosa Interior Design | Irene Turner "Little Bits of Beauty™"[…]…
-
christmas party…
[…]10 Simple Ways to Decorate for Christmas-via Santa Rosa Interior Design | Irene Turner "Little Bits of Beauty™"[…]…
-
wine furniture…
[…]10 Simple Ways to Decorate for Christmas-via Santa Rosa Interior Design | Irene Turner "Little Bits of Beauty™"[…]…
-
artificial christmas tree…
[…]10 Simple Ways to Decorate for Christmas-via Santa Rosa Interior Design | Irene Turner "Little Bits of Beauty™"[…]…
-
christmas card…
[…]10 Simple Ways to Decorate for Christmas-via Santa Rosa Interior Design | Irene Turner "Little Bits of Beauty™"[…]…
-
Great website…
[…]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[…]……
-
Cool sites…
[…]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[…]……
-
Recommeneded websites…
[…]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[…]……
-
Visitor recommendations…
[…]one of our visitors recently recommended the following website[…]……
-
Links…
[…]Sites of interest we have a link to[…]……
-
Awesome website…
[…]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[…]……
