Christmas tree. The tradition was started by my uncle when I was about 1 {mum, you can get in and correct this, if you are reading} and it never really left us. No, we are not Christians or remotely religious for that matter but hey, you don’t ask me when I get home a philodendron if I am a thingamajig, do you? A Christmas tree is for everyone who enjoys winter, cocoa, warm shawl and fur fuzz okay? {This bit I will talk about in the Other Things section} So if you are up for some early Christmas cheer- no matter what religion, caste, creed, colour or country you belong to- grab your coffee and hop along. In here, today, I am talking about Christmas tree decor, holiday decor ideas, a few rules that you might find useful, some brands that you may like to check out for gifting or decorating and some snippets of my living room tour, should you find it inspiring! Ahoy.

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You know, so I have been decorating Christmas trees for a long time now but it’s only in the past couple of years that I learnt the nitty-gritty of it all. Why do some trees look so gorgeous and some well, a little wanting? {for the lack of a better word} The same length, same tree, same ornaments and same light but how on earth do some of them look absolutely story book-ish and why can’t my tree look like that
So in 2013, I did a little research and found out that we often do the most basic mistakes when it comes to decorating our Christmas tree. I have spoken all about it last year on my blog, and I am brushing the points again in case you missed it. Oh and you can follow me on Instagram for live tips and holiday decor. I decorated our tree this year with live updates on instagram and snapchat and it’ll give you some real time how-to bliss.

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Coming back, here are the basic rules for having a fab Christmas Tree and they are pretty simple

a) Lights first
b) Never spiral, always diffuse lights and push towards the trunk too
c) Follow symmetry while hanging ornaments {rule of triangle, where in each group or colour should form a triangle} You can read it up here
d) Make sure the ornaments are visible. The trick is to push some ornaments to the end of the leaves near the stem and keep some half way in the leaves. In addition, if you have ornaments that are long like an icicle or a glass hanging, itโ€™s best to push it towards the stem
e) Keep the garlands in spiral or hang them in a scalloped fashion. You can also run them from top to the base.
f) Hide the stand. A crate, a skirt or a basket does the trick

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This year I have added a bit of crochet to the Christmas tree- well, it wasn’t part of the plan but i hung it from the high branches so it falls right above the mid section, where most of the heavy baubles are hung.

Balance

There is one thing though, which I did not speak last year- balance. Because the tree gets narrow as it goes up, you’d want to hang a few heavy ornaments on the higher leaves too- this ensures visual balance.

Also, if your ornaments are heavy and the leaves bend, push them towards the stem. If you have a faux tree, bend the leaf upwards. This will prevent fall and breakage.

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This year around, we added two Christmas trees in our living room- well, when it comes to Holidays, I think you can go a little overboard. For the other one, which is a smaller tree and sits on the table beside our day bed, I have added an enamelware pitcher as base and added fabric ornaments only. Because our main tree is about 6 foot tall and decked with mercury glass and vintage glass, I have kept the other one pretty simple. A very important point here- do not crowd your tree with too many elements just to fill up. Stick to 2 or 3 colours at the max. Here is the main tree

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You know, when it comes to Christmas decor I think you can add a whole lot of depth to your space with little touches. For example? add in a little pop of red here and there. Allow a few trees to grace the corners. Add a vintage shiny collectable too your table or just add a few festive poinsettias. Really, you don’t have to spend much or even invest in new stuff to make your home look beautiful. Barring this tree, and that too because our old tree has given up, I haven’t bought a thing in here. Oh, wait, the basket for the main tree actually. The red and white cloth is not French linen but dusters that we easily get in our grocery shops. Turned them to cushion that is all!

This is how our living room looks

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Other Things

The other day however, a little girl who stays right next to my house asked me if I was Christian when she bunked in for a while at mine. I was pretty baffled at the question. All these years and I never quite thought about it. Do we really need a religion to experience something beautiful? To celebrate seasons? Oh boy! So I asked her are you Christian? she said, “nope, Im a bohra. My friends at school teases me that you came from Pakistan, so you should go back.” I was horrified. She is in 5th standard for God’s sake! I told her that she is as Indian as her friends are and hey, you can also have a Christmas tree. What are they teaching these days? Where are they learning all this rubbish from? And here I am wondering if reindeer exists. This needs to stop. This colour, creed, immigrant rubbish should really stop. Probably that’s what I want for Christmas.

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Signing off on a bitter happy note and charging towards the bedroom.

If you have any questions on Christmas tree, tree decor or holiday decor, shoot your questions in the comment section and I’ll be happy to help you out.

It’s 8:47 on a saturday, I must atleast go and chug a few beer or i’ll be an outkast. With a K.

Off XO
Rukmini

2 thoughts on “Christmas Tree decorations, Living Room Tour and Other things”

  1. Hi.. thank u so much for such a detailed blog..n i have gone through d last year one too..very useful..

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