Part 2 of my holiday rituals is all about decorating and surrounding us with all things Christmas.  This process for me starts in about September and settling on a theme for the year.  This could be based around a colour, a set of colours, a piece of art, or really anything that inspires me.

This year’s theme actually occurred to me last Christmas and the idea of using rustic elements – twigs, twine, wood, glass and metal.  It morphed over time into more of a birds/owls and woodland theme based on a pack of paper napkins I found.

So November is prep month – checking what I already have in the Christmas boxes, a list of what I might need to buy and, of course, how I can get my craft on.

I bought a number of birds of different kinds from all sorts of different stores.  Some to hang on the tree, some to place about the place with a bird house and a lovely candle holder to use as a centre piece.

For the crafty bits, I bought some unbleached calico and hessian as well as iron on sheets for fabric.  I made a couple of cushions, place mats and some wall art using these bits and pieces.

Decorating day is always the first weekend in December.  Although this year the 1st of December was a Monday so I went with Sunday, 30 November.  This seems a good time to start our Advent.

And this is a taste of what I came up with this year.

It’s all about trees, owls, other woodland creatures, reds, greens, gold, silver and white…. paying homage to European winters and woodlands, berries and snow.

Happy Holidays!