White Christmas? Try cooler colours
Shake up tradition with punchier hues
If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas — dream on. That is, unless you’re willing to add a splash of purple, red, silver and gold.
According to HGTV’s Kimberley Seldon and design icon Debbie Travis, those are the cool colours of Christmas 2012, whether they appear on your tree, mantel or draped up the stairway banister.
“Traditionally speaking, when the economy begins to take a downward turn, colours go traditional like red and green,” says Seldon. “But we’re not all the way there yet, so we’re seeing non-traditional colours like purple. It marries well with silver and gold.”
Not to mention highlights of red and blue, adds Travis. “Purple is the biggest trend, blue is the winter look and red is a great accent colour. And you don’t need to get all new ornaments. Just remove the multicoloured ones and replace them with the trend colours.”
And they can be used everywhere. While the traditional wreath at the front door is a natural place to start, Christmas tones can also be used to liven up the mess of winter boots, hats and mitts, too, by decorating individual baskets with ornaments that match each family member’s interests.
In the living room, says Seldon, “think of the mantel. It’s possible to keep it fairly simple so it doesn’t overwhelm or to dress it up so that it becomes a centrepiece. You don’t have to go out and buy new ornaments. Go into the kitchen, pull out things that you haven’t used in five years and see them in a new way.”
And smell things differently, too. Using candles and room fresheners like Glade’s new Christmas-themed scents — Apple Cinnamon, Frosted Cookie, Nutcracker Crunch and Shimmering Spruce — adds another design element, she says, when tucked into centrepieces or in corners around a room.
“The most powerful memory is the scent memory, so depending on the scene you grew up with, smell is immediately evocative the minute you walk in. Christmas engages all five senses with music, smell, colours, touch and taste. You begin to add them to your life and you’re in the holiday mood by the end of the month.”
Just don’t try to do it all at once, warns Travis, who has a big family dinner as well as a “leftover party” on Boxing Day for neighbours, friends and their families.
“Plan out your decorating. Don’t try to do it the night before,” Travis says with a laugh. “It’s a big job, so make it an event. Take the kids for Christmas decor shopping, give them each a basket and choose a theme — it doesn’t have to be perfect. I love designing the Christmas stuff for Canadian Tire more than anything else.
“A lot of these icons you can pop on the tree would have been at Bloomingdales for $100 eight years ago and now they’re $2. So you can use them on the tree, but you can use them as hostess gifts or as decoration on a present, too.”
She also suggests replicating a look she recently spotted in a British window: Run a string or length of lights across a window and hang decorations along that, at intervals.
But perhaps her favourite place for ornaments is on the dinner table, where they act as place settings for family.
There, she places a decoration that best suits that family member and throughout dinner, asks each to recount a story about why that icon is meaningful to them. One year, an elderly aunt received a ballet slipper and told a heart-touching story about her childhood as a dancer.
“Everyone is so fascinated and they all want to share. We play games between every course of the meal, to make it longer and spread it out, in a more European way,” she says, adding, “anything to keep it noisy and festive and memorable.”