Decking the Halls for Christmas 2023

It goes without saying, but we are well and truly entering the most wonderful time of the year! Expanses of Christmas markets are popping up all over the country, it’s once again becoming socially acceptable to put Baileys in hot chocolate and let’s be honest, we haven’t been able to find the end of the sticky tape since last Christmas.

The warmth and joy that fills homes this time of year is infectious. Mince pies may have been filling the supermarket shelves since September, but now is the time to stockpile them and begin decorating your home for the festive period ahead. We have some creative and exciting ways for you to deck your halls this Christmas, allowing you to gear up for the festivities ahead.

Festive Foliage

For hundreds of years, humans have brought evergreens and foliage into their homes, traditionally to celebrate the winter solstice. This has been carried forward throughout history, with the Christmas Tree as we now know it, being introduced into homes throughout the UK by Prince Albert in 1840.

Filling your home with festive foliage is a great way to add splashes of vibrant and seasonal colour throughout living spaces. Why not try creating your own wreaths and garlands from shrubbery? You can collect whilst out on wintery walks, or simply from your back garden. House & Garden have a wonderful article on how to do just this in an easy step-by-step guide – you can click here to view it.

Image: House & Garden

Another great way to add splashes of festive greenery into your Christmas décor is by including it within present wrapping. Tie a sprig of fir or holly into some tasteful twine to add the perfect finishing touch to your Christmas wrapping this year.

Comforting and Cosy Candles

This is the most perfect time of year to fill your home with ambient candles and lighting. If you’re looking for dreamy winter scents, look no further than St Eval’s Christmas candle collection. Ranging from tea lights to festively fragranced tinned candles, items from this collection would make for a wonderful Christmas gift, or even a treat for yourself.

Image: St Eval

Cosy Christmas candle displays will add a little extra sparkle to your home, this festive season. Candlelight instantly changes the mood and character of a room, creating a softly warm and gentle glow. Nestle candles in amongst your festive dinner table setting or place a few hurricane lanterns by the fire side, to truly envelop yourself in a quaint and snug atmosphere.

These Ivyline Hampton Hurricane Lanterns from Olivia’s are the perfect finishing touch to a festive fireside. Just imagine being huddled up on your G Plan sofa with some merrily-scented pillar candles alight, a glass of deep red wine in your hand, with a roaring fire crackling in the background – Doesn’t that sound like absolute bliss?

Image: Olivia’s

Seasonal Soft Furnishings

This time of year is all about spending valuable time with our nearest and dearest, creating core memories and eating far too much cheese. With this in mind, it’s important to make sure our living spaces are extra cosy; this can easily be obtained through snuggly soft furnishings and seasonal fabrics.

We’ve had a look through our beautiful range of fabrics and leathers and have decided on which we feel are the most festive. Take a look at the Jay Blades X G Plan Albion in a Manhattan Burgundy and Linn Autumn Two Fabric Story. Albion is a softly curved Sofa collection, offering an inviting seat for one and all to take during the festive season. Manhattan Burgundy is a beautifully soft plain fabric that is ideal for nestling into, whilst Linn Autumn is a charmingly opulent accent fabric; this pairing really embraces the traditional colours of the Christmas period, celebrating rich reds and organic greens of holly bushes.

As this is a very social season, the Nevill Jay Blades X G Plan Footstool matches perfectly with this setup. Ideal for one or more people to pop their feet up, Nevill is the perfect practical centrepiece for a festive living space. If you’d like to take a closer look at the Albion and Nevill Footstool from our Jay Blades X G Plan Collection, you can do so by clicking here.

Albion Grand Sofa in Manhattan Burgundy and Linn Autumn Two Fabric Story. Nevill Footstool in Linn Autumn.

If you’re looking for some slightly smaller festive furnishings, we recommend our Spencer Storage Footstool and a collection of seasonal Scatter Cushion coverings. Swapping out your G Plan Scatter Cushion covers for ones that are more festively themed is an excellent way to change the mood and feel of your living spaces. For this time of year, we think Chantal Gold and Combarro Forest make a great pairing, reflecting twinkling fairy lights that neatly dress Christmas trees. Combarro Forest is also part of our Aquaclean Fabrics range, meaning if any Christmas tipple is accidently spilt on your scatter cushions, it can easily be cleaned off with just water.

Our Spencer Storage Footstool is also perfect for social situations, as the lid can be flipped to be utilised as a tray table. This is perfect to pop little bowls of nibbles on during a jovial soiree, or to hide away Santa’s stash of presents in until Christmas morning.

Spencer Storage Footstool in Chantal Gold. G Plan Scatter Cushions in Chantal Gold and Combarro Forest.

Quite Literally Deck the Halls

If you’re looking for something to do with the kids over the festive period, or simply want to get creative with your Christmas decorations, why not craft your own paper garlands? This is a wonderful and inexpensive way to create new and elegant Yuletide arrangements for your home. This could be anything from graceful paper angels, to star garlands made from paper bags, or even some good old fashioned paperchains. It’s time to crack out the glue sticks and get creative!

Gathered has put together a superb guide on how to create your own DIY paper Christmas ornaments, perfect to deck the halls from top to bottom, or even to gift as thoughtful Christmas presents. To elevate your home-made decorations even further, why not wrap Christmas lights and foliage around garlands of your paper displays? This will enhance the effortless grace of your paper decorations, whilst incorporating some extra Christmas tinkle.

Cheerful Christmas Crafts

As much as Christmas is the season of giving, it can often also be a very wasteful time of year. Approximately 40 million Christmas crackers are thrown away each year, and we aren’t talking about the kind of cracker that goes with cheese.

So, this year, instead of buying off the shelf Christmas crackers that can only be used once, why not invest in some reusable crackers? This is another cheerful Christmas craft for you to complete with the family! Not on the Highstreet has a wonderful range of reusable Christmas Crackers, but Keep This Cracker caught our eye in particular.

Keep This Cracker offers six reusable Christmas crackers that you can fill yourself. Made to look like gingerbread cookies and created from kraft board and with pet-friendly snaps, these reusable crackers are recyclable and compostable, making them ideal for every type of household.

Image: Not on the High Street

Wrapping up for Christmas 2023

We hope that this article has inspired some Christmas spirit within you; if you would like to order a selection of swatches mentioned within this blog post, you can do so by clicking here.

No matter how you’re spending the festive season this year, we hope you have a very merry time!