How to Plan Your Christmas Decorations Around Your Lifestyle

By: Jennifer Landers

A fun and convenient way to make home and holiday all come together when you decorate is to make your home a holiday reflection of who you are. Plan your decorating around your lifestyle so you do not have to feel like you are going out of the way to do something laborious for the holiday. Keep it simple and make plans that are easy to execute and will work within the way you do things. You can take an idea and showcase your talent or tell a great story about the holiday when your home decorating reflects your lifestyle.

Take a section of a room at a time and evaluate what you want to do with it. Open spaces are the areas in the room where you can fill in with your decorations without making the room feel and look cluttered. Remove things that you do not want to include in your decorations until after the holiday and store them in a closet or another room. This will free up more space for you to work with.

Lighting is very important. Use the available light you already have to highlight the decorations. Take advantage of the natural light and available light from the fixtures in each room. You can change the entire mood of a room with a simple light bulb color change or when you add an inexpensive color filter. A film of colored cellophane available from a local craft store set on a simple frame can do the trick. They are easy to use and can add texture to room and make the whole thing pop with excitement and Yule tide warmth. If your lifestyle is easy going and laid back, then your holiday home should be an extension of that as well. Now move through the entire home the same way.

When you take a slow deliberate look at what you already have in the house, it is easier to avoid that cluttered look and a feeling that the colors do not match. Remember the furniture and the paint on the walls are already the main reflection of you so let them work for you. Let the colors do the work for you.

For instance If you decide to use a winter sports and combine it with angels as a basic decorating theme, you now you have your baseline theme and you have your visuals. Take a look around the home but use your critical eye to see things. What focal points do you already have at home? Is it special colors, pieces or art, music? You probably already have everything you need to finish the job. You might only need to add holiday trim with lighting, such as soft background decorations. Do something that will make your home fun to look at throughout the entire season. Make it easy to maintain without much effort. When you make a holiday statement that is an extension of who you are, it looks great and you enjoy the results. Remember keep it simple and enjoy the whole process. Your lifestyle already dictates who you are and what you do. If you are a high energy, always on the go and make decisions on the fly kind of person, delegate almost everything and get feedback from those you delegate to. If your lifestyle is more of what I like to call the contemplate, meditate and negotiate method, you might need lots of time. Your lifestyle does not have to change just so you can have a great looking home for the holiday.

Set aside short blocks of time during the week to delegate and coordinate is the best solution. Set an appointment with yourself to look into what needs to be done and who is going to do it.

Floral decorations can be planned by making arrangements far enough in advance so all you need to do is be home for the delivery or pick up what you need on the way home one day. Locating trimmings for the home can also be done on line. If you take 10 minutes to set up your plan you have almost everything done already.

Bookmark a couple of sites that are dedicated to holiday decorating and there you have it. Use them to be your electronic elves. Most local businesses have online links and can take care of most of the things that you cannot take the time to do. You still might have to make a few calls but when you already have specific information about what you want you will get better customer service.

Most of all make realistic plans to spend quality time getting things done. Don’t panic. Relax and keep the holiday spirit in the front of your mind. Set up a holiday email book with the list of folks who will do the work with you. This list might include family and friends and retailers where you shop.. Now just sit back and delegate. Some of the tools at your disposal include links and websites that already have the visuals you want to accomplish.

Set a realistic time table to get things done. You should remember that if you start planning in early December you will only have about a week or two to get things done. If you start to keep track of things by the end of October you will have ample time to prioritize what need to get done and decide on how long it might take to do it.

Think of it in terms of a festive event. Kind of like a house warming, instead it is a holiday decorating. Invite some friends over, hand out holiday favors for those who come to help. Something simple, or even treat everybody to a nice lunch or a, special dessert will do. One way to approach the holiday is to remember that you can have a great theme home without all the hassle of trying to make your home look like a big production. The holiday windows theme can be accomplished in one hour. The poinsettias can be set out in just a few minutes and the memories of the joy and fun you had because your holiday decorating was a reflection of your lifestyle can last a lifetime.