Christmas Colours

I admit, I am a planner. I write lists all the time and I hate last minute panic. But it also pains me talking and thinking about Christmas mid way through October. Yet on the other hand I do feel as the nights are starting to draw in, a little rush of excited anticipation. Maybe this is from working in buying where Christmas is planned 18 months in advance, perhaps I have always been this way. I recently visited Brugge and found myself in a Christmas shop which was a mix of everything really; traditional, non traditional, comical, tasteful, non tasteful, religious, animals, cartoon, scandi decorations ... well they pretty much had all bases covered.

This got me thinking about Christmas colours, obviously the typical red, green, gold and silver. But now other colours in glitter or metallic shades seem Christmassy and decorations come in pretty much every shade, perhaps with the exception of yellow, gold predictably replaces it. When I was younger we always had a 'real' tree at home, that was decorated very tastefully. Then upstairs my sisters and I had a tree we could decorate with anything we wanted which was always fun. As I have got older I have reverted to a more tasteful Christmas colour palette. I like to plan my wrapping theme in advance, which includes tags, ribbon, embellishments and paper. But I do really obsess over decorations and the tree. I allow myself to buy 6 new baubles a year (or should I say statement baubles not the filler types of baubles, I seem to get a pack of those every year). The last few Christmas' I have gone down the gold, silver, cream pearl, and brown colour palette route. This includes a mixture of glitter, gloss and matt, frosted, iridescent metallics, transparent glass decorations with clear yellowy white lights on a real tree. Never blue white lights, I feel that they look too cold.

Liberty London Christmas grotto displays

Browsing the shops for Christmas decorations never gets boring for me, I love looking at the displays and the items, some times getting a bit miffed because it looks the same as last years displays and they have simply pulled out and recycled old stock that didn't sell through. Mostly though I love it and like to spot a new quirk or trend that I like (or dislike):

- A few years ago one trend was putting things in plain glass baubles whether it was glitter, feathers, sequins or a bit of written text this sold well.

-I remember in the late 90's when that twigs and fairy lights in a vase, on the floor was the trend that refused to die and now they are sold all year around not just for Christmas.

-Not on the High Street erupted with so many personalised decorations a few years ago and they continue to be on the market...

-Feathers and pom poms are popular

-The copper/bronze/rose gold decoration is still in demand, it has peaked now but I have a feeling there will be still lots of it on the high street this year too.

-Birds, not just the traditional robin but peacocks and exotic flamingos.

- Woodland creatures, not just stags which have been everywhere for the last few years but hedgehogs, hares, foxes etc even toadstools

-The recycled ladder or drift wood tree (ok maybe this one is a bit Pinterest, not very real life).

It isn't just high end stores I like to look around at Christmas time, don't get me wrong I love Liberty and Fortnum and Maison, I make an annual pilgrimage to both stores. However, I still get a thrill going to my local garden centre looking at their creative and bonkers Christmas displays. I also often find myself in the Christmas aisle in supermarkets, I remember in 2014, believe it or not Asda had a few very nice decorations. Of course they quickly sold out and I kicked myself for weeks for not buying more. Out of all the supermarkets, I think Sainsbury's has the best homeware department (which is a whole new topic) but a selection of their Christmas decorations were good value and lovely too. Wilkos had a few gems in their range.

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