Christmas Trees - Decorating With a Difference

The Christmas Tree is the central point of your decorations so why not try something different this year. How about going for one of the new 'Upside down' trees? These are designed to hang from the ceiling, so you can only really do it with an artificial tree as a fresh one wouldn't survive for long, and you would be cleaning up needles for forever and a day. If you are thinking about having one of these, do be sure you identify the space where you're going to put it first as you need to have moving around space in your room. They can be very effective hanging in a stair well, and they are unlikely to knock anybody's head off there.

I like to do something a little unusual with the ornaments too, you can go with traditional baubles and decorations, but how about going with a color theme, just one or two colors that you can link together with ribbons in a matching shade. Over the years we have bought special personalized Christmas gifts of baubles with family and friends names on them. We all get together to dress the tree and each person gets to position their own ornament; it's an extra excuse to get together for a party at Christmas.

If you need a tree that doesn't take up too much space, you can go for a corner tree. I really like these, they are designed to fit into the corner of a room so that they take up minimal space but still look like a fantastic tree. They give the impression of being a great deal bigger than they really are. Then there are the colored trees which make no effort to pretend that they are real, white, silver, gold, even reds and purples can be used to blend in with your decor and taste.

You can use ribbons in lots of ways on your tree, either as garlands or to create hangers for your decorations. I like to make a few bows and rosettes too. Red and Gold, Green and Silver are both lovely color combinations or you could go for a rich purple and gold. Though we traditionally 'dress' the tree in baubles, gold and sparkling lights you could go for a more natural look and use swags of cloth with pine cones, fruits, nuts and berries to give accents of color and make your tree look festive.

Something I like to do is put a large glass globe on the top of the tree with a light inside it. This gives a real 'star' effect, especially if the globe you use has stars engraved on it. You could use all kinds of things on the top of the tree, instead of the traditional star - a favorite toy can participate in the celebrations on top the tree, just make sure it isn't too heavy. We always put the lights on the tree first, then add the decorations so that they make the most of the tree. Smaller lights in just one color are much more elegant if you want a themed look, if you like your trees to look like a box of rich jewels, then lots of colors twinkling amidst the branches look good.

Whatever you decide to do with the tree, make sure it fits in with your idea of Christmas. The tree is such an significant part of your Christmas celebrations, it should be your idea of Christmas for you and your family, not a picture perfect interior design.