Christmas in my new house..........

[noideawottoget]

so, what do i need to do? i have a lovely new home (new to me, its over 20 years old in reality) with gorgeous balustrades down the stairs (perfect for garlands of something), a living room and dining room to decorate. what can i start collecting now in preparation for decorating in december. i have the standard tree, tinsel, some lights etc already. and also are there any fab new traditions i can start (dc's are 15, 13, 9 and 8 btw, only the younger 2 still believe)

[CishAndFips]

I will be watching this thread with interest. I moved to this house at the end of Jan. We're also getting married in sept so will first married Christmas. DS will be 4 so want to make it a really special one.

[Mrsgrumble]

Ah lovely. Amazon have really cute tree decorations you can make (little Scandinavian dolls type of thing) or try hobby craft and use gold leaf paint. You can also bu stuff on dot com gift shop - retro paper chains but they look great.

My little one is too small to do craft with yet !

What about making your own mincemeat and mulled wine?

A lot of people buy christmas duvets for children. Not expensive in Primark etc.

[LokiBear]

You need to look at pintrest. Just search for Christmas. I have a lovely new house too and I'm very excited about Christmas for the same reason. Although I'm hoping to decorate my lounge - diner before Christmas(as in I need to strip the walls and paint etc). I've worked out that I need at least 4 trees, a huge real tree in the lounge - diner (it's a big, l - shaped room), a tree in the storm porch, a slim styled one on the landing and a small table top one in the hallway. My old house was tiny so I've never been able to decorate it properly at Christmas before. In my head I am imagining a gorgeous festive house that looks like something out of an American film. In reality it will probably look like Christmas threw up on my house! I don't care though, I love it!

[noideawottoget]

we moved in 3 weeks ago. i already have christmas duvet covers, the boys have red tartan ones and the girls have red and blue with santa and presents and stockings on. its a small house, but i still want to decorate. living room is big so i have a 7 foot pre-lit tree to go in here, dining room is tiny though so need something small for in there. no space in hall, porch or landing, although i do have a dead tree in the front garden which could be festooned with outdoor lights (white lights of course), need something lovely to go down the gorgeous banister. the living room is magnolia and probably wont be done before christmas, however the dining room is my eclectic room, we have tree paper for one wall, 2 very pale grey, and one pale sage green, lots of multi coloured accessories, and the kitchen is being done in october so there wont be 2 fridge freezers in the dining room at christmas.

[misstiredbuthappy]

Ill be watching this thread for inspiration.

[MamaPain]

I'd start working out how you can decorate each room.

So you know you need a tree (make sure you take measurements of the room) so you can get the right size and you presumably have/know what kind of decorations you want for that.
You said stairs have nice banisters so a garlands and maybe some lights for there.
What about on the landing, room for a miniature artificial tree?
Do you have any fireplaces/mantles or mirrors where you can decorate with garlands etc?
Do you have many surface to put decorations on?
If not do you want to jazz up sofas with Christmas cushions or a christmas table cloth?
Do you want decorations or lights outside, plan how it would all work.
Any windows you can decorate?
Will you have a wreath on the door/anything else.

Then I guess you need to know if you want to buy or make your own.

Pinterest is good for idea on how you might do certain areas.

[noideawottoget]

great. ok, so i have a tree for the living room, but i want a slim one for the dining room. no fireplaces or mirrors currently, but there may be a mirror or two by christmas. wreath for front door yes, dinging room window can be decorated and has a nice deep sill for putting stuff on. patio door in living room so maybe something to go round that. lights maybe in window of downstairs loo (front of house) no space on landing. wall at bottom of stairs will have a mirror so lights and garland on there. would like to make a greenery wreath for banister. lights round kids windows and a small tree in each of kids rooms. plenty of surfaces for decorations. got throws for sofa and cushions, although need more. will put lights round outside of front door, and some on the tree stump in front garden. maybe some candle jars in the small porch

[AtlanticDrift]

Keep a look out for pinetrees nearby and then come the end of sept/oct you can gather them. I put mine in a binbag in hotpress with sone cinnamon oil. Then come December they are lovely and scented and perfect for decorating with.
Another thing to look out for in end of summer sales, is those outdoor garden lanterns. If you get plain wooden or silver they are ideal for christmas decorating. I have some on the front step and on various window sills at christmas

[noideawottoget]

oh i have a couple of silver lanterns. what is a hotpress?

[AtlanticDrift]

An airing cupboard. We call it a hot press in Ireland!

[noideawottoget]

oh right i see. i actually have one of them in my new house. i didnt in the old one.

[combust22]

Same here- I move on Sunday- I an looking forward to christmas in my lovely big home, with plenty room to entertain. My niece OH her will be staying with us from abroad, MIL, SIL & BIL visiting on boxing day, so will have seven for christmas day and ten on boxing day.

I had forgotten my new house ( well new to us) has a feature staircase too, so will be decorating those with swags or garlands.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

I decorate the bannister with those long pine garlands (I need to get more, those Christmas Shops that appear in shopping centres are goo)
When my DC were little, I couldn't trust them with a tree, we put the decorations on the bannister and it's continued.

We have a fake tree but if I spend lots of time faffing, it looks nice.

Candles - those battery operated ones for safety (there are some nice ones ) scented Yankee Candles, I put a huge white pillar candle on the side table

Glass bowl/ glass jar of brightly wrapped sweets

Dunelm Mill had some lovely throws and cushions last year ( I bought gingerbread man -red and brown- to go on our sofa)

Christmas Bedding - yes

We have an outdoor potted tree that gets decorated and our indoor fake tree,

New decorations are bought each year to add to the collection (each year you bring them out, you remember) and we always manage to break some

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

I don't put Christmas lights outside my house (some of my NDN do and they are visible through our closed curtains )

I have a pre-lit wreath (battery operated , lights can be set at static or flashing and have a timer . I set from 4pm-10pm)

Candles in jars - I collect large jars and buy IKEA candles to put in. Very festive

[bouquetofpencils]

Wilkinsons had red honeycomb balls and garlands reduced to 60p and 75p, very festive.

We are in our new house this Christmas too! Last year we made our tree our of different size packing boxes!

Picking themes for each room, look on amazon and eBay for cheap secs, and sales on dotcom giftshop. And Pinterest is fab.

[noideawottoget]

its a small house (lots of rooms but they are not big) i will be getting a big yankee candle this year, possibly the frosted snow one (i think thats what its called), living room is very mis-mash, lovely hand crocheted throws on sofa's, but have christmas blankets and a couple of cushion covers (need more), pictures for tinsel etc. have a variagated holly in my garden so i can see some of that being used nicely. will get greenery around etc. i cant wait lol

[OwlBeThereForYou]

70isa where is your wreath from? I'd love one with a timer! Sounds very fancy!
Determined to find Christmas bedding for our bed and DS' this year.
Also want to have dining room finished decorating and clear out all the crap clutter, so we can decorate it properly this year and host Christmas parties
We moved in last year, but being pregnant I only had the energy to sort the living room. I'm hoping we can get a new fireplace fitted before Christmas too!

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

Have a look at Pinterest for your balustrade decoration ideas. I spent ages there last year deciding on stuff for my new house. I ended up buying lots of large baubles and hanging them on long lengths of wired ribbon kind of between the posts.
There's lots of nice Christmas bunting around too.

[misstiredbuthappy]

I want a fireplace for this year you know the type with a built in electric fire would look so pretty and christmasy with one of those garlands on top (is that what they are called )

I also neen christmas bedding but cant seem to gind any ive tried Amazon and Ebay. Any ideas ?

I have some plain but pretty lights in my living room window and a wreath. dd also has one of those santa stop here signs

across the road from me (in view from my bedroom and living room ) four houses next to each other have lights in every window but none of them match and they flash all day and night, now I love christmas decs but these are awful. Kind of like National Lampoons Christmad but but with red, blue green, pink and purple thrown in.