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Deck the halls with bells of holly, and lights, baubles, stars, fairies, mistletoe…

Presents, flowers, food… hang on, haven’t you forgotten something? Of course, it’s not really Christmas without the decorations. Acres of tinsel, pulsating lights, plastic reindeer and a twinkly tree. Just kidding (of COURSE we’re kidding – it’ll take a LOT more than another gruelling series of Colin and Justin for Latest Interiors to go all tawdry on you, don’t worry!). What will the festive homes of Brighton and Hove be decked with this Christmas? Let’s take a wee peek.

Extra large glass baubles, £10, by Betty Jackson. www.debenhams.com

A matter of taste

Right. First things first: Christmas decorations are highly personal. Clearly, for some people, Christmas means light bulbs and tinsel. For others, all it takes is a wooden nativity set and a satsuma for them to come over all Christmas-past. We’re not here to judge. But we DO have a particular take on Christmas style (of course). This year, we like simplicity – and quality. We’re loving a bit of luxury – but we also like homemade, too. Natural materials appeal to us. White, silver, and shades of plum, crimson, chocolate and burnt orange are flicking our seasonal switches. You may disagree, and hang your singing reindeer head over the front door regardless. In which case, good luck to you, you do not need our help. Jingle all the way, and all that.

Top of the trees

There is a straightforward choice for trees this year: Splash out on a sustainable farmed (preferably rooted and re-usable) spruce, or opt for stylish, modern pre-lit fake (also re-usable) in black, white or inky midnight blue. The natural option is the most ecofriendly, giving a traditional, welcoming look. Dress it up with baubles of clear glass, dried flowers and seeds, white feathers, twinkly metalwork and mirrors. Raid your local school fair (or bribe your own infants) for some quaint, home-made decorations. This year, we like stars for the top of the tree – but we’d secretly love a proper, vintage wax fairy. A fake tree, on the other hand, is blissfully easy and very sleek, needing little decoration to set it off – in fact, the pre-lit versions look great just as they are!

Lights, camera…

Which brings us to the vexed issue of lights. We’re still fans of the less-is-more approach, inside and out. Small, simple white lights are the absolute classic for trees and will give you years of service (easy to get replacement bulbs each year, too). External lights, unless you live in the countryside (in which case the rules seem to be reversed) are best kept to a discreet minimum. For a party night, bay trees by the front door or an ancient cherry tree look beautiful simply lit, but a flashing, illuminated Santa scaling your walls will burn unnecessary energy, annoy your neighbours and probably trigger the burglar alarm. Ok?

Red metal gift box, from £5, www.tch.net

Everything else

Don’t forget your Christmas flowers (two dozen crimson roses, two plum amaryllis or a bowl of unfussy, white cala lilies), and a lovely wreath (wooden, moss or home-made) to dress your front door. The best thing we’ve found this year is our new card-hanging system: simple twine to string across a room, and little wooden pegs to hang them with (supermarkets and stationers sell gold and silver coloured versions). And that, for this year at least, is that: No more Christmas features. We promise. Not until next October, anyway…

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 11:40 am and is filed under Interiors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.