Adding Christmas Spirit to your Home
Jean Rennick

Defined Tag: Christmas.

During the holidays, you can help to create a wonderful mood in your home by adding special touches around the house to bring holiday cheer and create a great Christmas atmosphere. Here are some simple low-cost ways to make the mundane more festive.

Begin by tying ribbons and bows around different things in your home. For example, tie a large bow along the back of chair or add streams of ribbons along the railings of any staircases. You could also attach them to smaller things such as doorknobs and candlesticks and even house plants, just get creative and let your imagination run wild. The one thing that is important to note when using bows and ribbons is that it is best to try to follow a particular color scheme or decorating pattern to help maintain a consistent look around your house. Here are some great color choices that work well when creating a theme for your home during the holidays. Traditional colors such as basic reds and greens along with shiny metallic such as gold or silver can help to create a wonderful setting. You could also make use of various floral or plaid patterns as long they to have a festive scheme to their design.

Some other ways to give things a Christmas feel are to put up things such as wreaths and mini wreaths on different doors around the house or keep things like holiday tableware on display where appropriate. You could also display pinecones or various fruits and berries along with any decorative plates. Reducing the lighting around your home also helps to add a Christmas ambience especially when combined with adding candles. There are many decorations that you can make use of, such as sleighs and sleigh bells, Christmas garland, gingerbread houses, decorative baskets and many more objects that we normally associate with Christmas time.

Here are a few more ways to add some holiday fare that are easily overlooked. Most of the techniques thus far appeal to our visual senses but another way to get into the Christmas spirit is to tantalize our sense of sound and smell. Simply playing a record or CD of Christmas music can have a great effect, even something such as having a Christmas themed movie such as Scrooge or It's a Wonderful Life playing in the background on the television helps to put us in a holiday mood. As for our sense of smell, having cookies baking or even simple sticks of cinnamon can help bring about strong warm holiday emotions. You could even buy various incense and scented candles that smell like freshly baked hot apple pie or one of many other wonderful scents to give your home a Christmas time aroma.

Lastly put up pictures and other reminders of past Christmases; also don't forget to display any holiday greeting cards you may have received recently as well as those of Christmas past. All of these simple touches can add a lot in bringing about those great feelings so many of us associate with this time of the year.

Jean Rennick is editor of <a href="http://www.GetCelebrating.com">www.GetCelebrating.com</a>, where you'll find articles and information on seasonal holidays, and everyday occasions.<br>
<br>