Christmas Gems

Christmas Decorations

Nowadays we are spoilt for choice when it comes to Christmas decorations - from the traditonal red, gold and green and shiny, colourful baubles on the traditional Christmas Tree to the very modern minimalist, often white or black artificial Christmas Tree.  Those who are cash rich and time poor have a huge choice of ready made Christmas decorations in all styles in colours.  Those who have a little less cash or do not want to lay out large sums on Christmas decorations can easily produce home-made Christmas decorations that can look stunning and effective.

A few chunky candles on a pretty cake stand with mini baubles scattered around them look effortlessly elegant.  You can enhance this display by using scented candles of cinnamon or vanilla for that distinctive scent of Christmas.  You can make your own Christmas Wreath of evergreen twigs, either fir branches or conifers, decorated with holly and fruiting ivy, or you can make a modern version with creamy coloured flowers of carnations, white roses and dried poppies heads and eucalyptus leaves.  Four dinner candles inside a twig wreath decorated with evergreens and berried twigs from the garden would make a lovely centre piece for the Christmas table.

Not everyone has the time or inclination to make Christmas decorations and fortunately there are plenty there are plenty of Christmas decorations to be had in the shops, from garlands for the fire place to stunning wreaths to hang on the front door to make a lovely welcoming entrance.

Of course, the ultimate decoration and centre piece of all the Christmas decorations is still the Christmas tree and whether you have a real Christmas tree or an artificial one, the choice is huge.   Personally, I prefer a real tree, despite the chore of keeping it watered and still picking pine needles out of the carpet in July.  However, the artificial trees these days do look realistic and when we consider what they are charging for real trees, they are probably quite a sensible choice – a good one will probably last about ten years.

If you don't want a tree or don't have room for one you can always make a lovely Christmas decoration with just a few twigs and a couple of candles and one or two baubles.  Very often fir twigs can be had for next to nothing in the market or garden centre, they are quite often glad to get rid of the offcuts.