My style is “70 years of buying and receiving Hallmark ornaments”! It’s the ones where you remember who gave it to you and when, which ones were passed down and whose tree one remembers it from. It’s probably an “age” thing, but it’s my “style”!
As the decades pass by, I find myself editing holiday decor more and more, moving toward the quieter aspect that is Winter and of me as well. Joyful but in a treasured way. Time becomes more precious, and so does the elemental.
So true!! When I was a young mum of three toddler daughters (each 2.5 years apart) I decorated inside the house for every holiday. Even St. Pattys Day (as fast as it comes and goes😂) and my girls loved it. But after about a decade in a half, once the youngest got to HS, I slowly stopped doing the sillier ones like Valentines and Fourth of July and now I only do Christmas. They’re all graduated and adulting, and I always did it for them so yeah it got to that point. And to be honest this is the first year I just put our gorgeous realistic snow flocked up, plugged her in and that’s it. It’s beautiful without anything at all. Just somewhere pretty in the house for me to put all the gifts we get for everyone we love on both sides.
@candyce6233: I bought a gorgeous snow-flocked tree a few years ago and quickly realized there was no room for ornaments! I was actually just thinking, "I should just put up the tree, plug it in, and skip the ornaments"!
Same here. I have 7 really fun snowmen decor, and 2 themed mugs on a vintage kidney shaped wooden desk. It’s covered with a beautiful snowmen tapestry runner. I have no Christmas decor elsewhere, outside of snowmen salt & pepper shakers. I’m displaying all of them throughout Winter.
We have been leaning more of a “wintering” from November to April (we live in central upstate NY) rather than Christmas. Our decorations are mostly Traditional/ Organic Farmhouse with a little bit of vintage/retro throwbacks for nostalgia for my husband and I who both grew up in lower income 80’s homes as little kids. Our decor leans heavy into plaids, red and greens, snow, cardinals, holly and berries, a sweet light up winter village we add to each year, natural evergreens and simmer pots, and vintage treat and drink recipes and warming spice foods all winter not just for a month. We’ve removed every nod to Santa or elves or gifts in decor as we are trying to lean into being givers as we see needs all throughout the year so that gifts are no longer a part of our “holiday month”.
IDEA: Make a fun video about celebrating Festivus (from Seinfeld TV Show). You could have decoration tips, tablescapes for The Airing of Grievances dinner, Feats of Strength furniture, etc.
As norwegian i would add in with the scandi is real stuff.. real wood, real wool, homemade decor and branches. Tradionally xmas/jul was our harvest feast and we decorate with food and stuff from the woods. Its why you se mushrooms on the tree and nuts and apple.. and gnoms everywhere 😂❤
My tree style is tacky/retro. When my kids were little I would let them pick out their own ornament every year. We have french fries, a fire truck, bacon, football helmets, various homemade ornaments and ornaments with school pictures.Where others see tacky, mismatched chaos, I see memories.
While I attempt to curate tablescapes in other spaces, most treasured are my two trees overfilled with lifetimes and generations of ornaments and trinkets.....some with popsicle sticks and glitter glue, to hand blown glass ornament from travels, to the tacky "tinsel" icicles that bring my mom and grandmother back to me....I hope everyone has some joy this season
Oh my gosh...you said Retro and I think 50s! Then you say 90s and I'm like "Uh...that was yesterday rt?" 😄 I definitely decorate the tree with that Collected Over Time look. But I keep it from being overwhelming by one, having a smaller tree and two, each year only selecting about half of what I have to actually put up.
I do think a lot of that was more 50s, 60s, 70s. Tinsel and silver is certainly from those years, no? Nineties in my area was like wooden figurines and big plaid bows and lots of those wreaths with the green plastic shredding.😅
Finnish and Swedish here. The folk charm is right on the mark for Scandi holiday decor. Keep it neutral and add deliberate red to draw attention. Great video Nick.
OK-I'm a grandmother now. My decorating requires every Christmas decoration that can be made out of pasta, toilet paper rolls, doilies, salt dough, jelly jars, pipe cleaners, and treasured broken ornaments from their parent's youth. Including the plastic light up Santa from the 1980's.
I prefer the traditional style in my home because I love having a tree that is also a record of our history. There are the vintage wooden German-style ornaments from grandma, the little drummer boy ornament because my brother is a drummer, the $1 compass that I turned into an ornament because my husband is an Eagle Scout, the Hallmark picture frame ornaments, the ornaments I picked up on those family trips, etc. I also purposefully acquired a lot of wooden and non-breakable ornaments because my family has a ton of small children. My few delicate ornaments all live in the upper half of the tree. Our living room furniture has plaid upholstery and the fireplace mantle is stone, so traditional is best for us.
Scandinaviian Christmas is usually very traditional however not the American way-meaning it is more restricted , Real Christmas tree, wooden materials, alf/santa if used in decor will usually be knitted -glass ornaments, candles and we usually have a candle with numbers counting down days, or advent candles ----colors are dark red, green, gold and silver -Scandic decor can also be very contempery with designer items like stars from George Jensen and few colors
All the Scandi decor I grew up with had bright, vibrant reds. The greens were always darker & muted, more pine green than grass green. But yes, I agree about lots of wood & natural elements. Straw ornaments, tons of candles & greenery. My great-grands (first gen American) always said "It was about being cozy, warm, fully of joy & being with family." My grandma grew up in a German & Swedish fusion home & the holidays had so many baked goods, tons of handmade & blown glass ornaments, candles everywhere, red ribbons, pine bows taken right from the woods, gnomes instead of elves, & the German tradition of hiding a pickle ornament in the tree. I always loved the juxtaposition of the German blown glass ornaments & the straw ornaments with their red ribbons... gingerbread ornaments & pine cones with red ribbon tied to them (found by the kids in the woods) & construction paper chains made by the kids too.
I agree, Scandinavian christmas is heavily traditional. I think the main theme of christmas (at least here in Denmark) is cozyness and family; we cherish handmade paper ornaments done with/or by children, making the advent calender light decorations (so many candles!) and lots of baking and cooking. And I believe just about every household has an elf or the christmas goat or pig made out of straw. We love the natural and rustik aspect, be it homemade or store bought.
@@Goejsendkone of my friends was here on exchange and she didn't understand all the candles everywhere. She thought they were menorahs and thought "Guess this is a Jewish neighborhood" until she realised that every house had candles like that. A bit of a culture shock
I spent some time in Denmark as a child and lots of my decorations are danish. I agree, lots of red, green, gold. Not to forget that the danish Christmas trees are wrapped in red flag garlands! I feel like what people here see as scandi Christmas decorations (all beige and natural tones) has nothing to do with reality in Scandinavia!
Where is my style, "Vegas Tacky?" I love my Christmas blow up Santa and the matching blow up penguins. They go perfectly with my yard full of Garden Gnomes.
I have worked seasonal retail at Crate & Barrel, two different cities in Texas, and they are truly the happiest place on earth for adults. The Christmas season is not work there but fun!
I'm 72. We moved from warm dry calif, to cold, damp basement upper Midwest. Not knowing how not having a Dehumidifier could effect basement storage, anyway lost alot. So for Christmas I bought new ornaments representing my 4 children. When the 1st gran came I started the same. Now years later each person adds their ornament to my tree. We have a living family story tree. Everything tells our stories. We laugh, cry at losses, remembering the Christmas pasts. And when grams no longer here, each family member takes what's theirs and will add to their "Family story tree."
My decor is generally Scandi, and although I previously embraced the traditional Christmas decor, as my child grows (now almost an adult) I cringe at the thought of my house looking like Christmas threw up on it. Last year most of my decor stayed in boxes, and we had very natural decorations on the tree. The only decor I laid out was a gun metal candelabra with some greenery. My family loved it and were fully behind it.
When I put my tree up I would put 3 sets of colored lights on and 2 or 3 sets of white lights. It made a nice balance in order to see the ornaments. ❤️
The 5 design styles for Christmas is chock full of information. My house is the last style. We have a mid Century Modern style house and I’ve been married 48 years and still have ALL of our decorations. Takes forever to decide which ones to use each year.
I have a traditional style home...and have been married 42 years...still have most of our decorations from 1981 forward, and yes it takes forever to decide which ones to use each year...we estimate that even though we have a good size tree I use about 1/5th of the ornaments, but it is fun to have choices. (And every ornament has a story)
This makes great sense. I have been putting less and less up every year because I’m so done with the over the top Christmas decorating. But I think it’s because it doesn’t fit my decorating style and I don’t like taking down the stuff I love to make room for the cheesy stuff. Thanks for this!
@@onetuliptree I hope he makes a part two to this video! 👏🏼 I don’t feel like art deco would go under retro seeing as that seems to be more recent decades.
Hot Mess is actually the best Style. Even at its worst it shows sincerity and real meaning. It does not look like the boring red and green stuff in the window at the craft store.
I've just moved to a new country and don't have any decorations and now, thanks to your video, I realize that I do have a particular style and will shop accordingly instead of randomly picking up the shiny things that catch my eye. I'm also pleased to note that some companies are now producing LED lights in the traditional colours again which I find much more pleasant to look at.
In the IKEA video you asked about mushrooms Nick, and I will say mushrooms have been a part of Scandinavian Christmas decor long before cottage core, before even tik tok was around. The traditional Advent candle holder is usually filled with white moss and little decorative mushrooms- that's the way my mom always do it and that's why you see white moss in every flower shop in Sweden around christmas.
This was a great video for inspiration. I find that decorate different rooms in different styles as I love so many different holiday traditions.However, I will mention that I choked on my morning coffee when Nick said that Retro was the 70's, 80's and 90's. However, he did mention that retro is more about the era in which you grew-up. For me, retro is always 50's, 60's, as that is my early youth. It just struck me as funny and a bit of a reality check on my true age rather than my perceived age. There was also a full sized tree in a large ginger jar, which was amazing. I also have found that I like the tree trunk collars that are out in force this year. Another, viewer said that they find that they are editing their things for the holidays, I am doing the same. Saving the special ornaments and decor that we love and parting with the rest. Thanks for a great video Nick, and Happy Holidays to everyone.
I host the family Christmas blow out on Eve every year. Today is my day to relax, delete all the to do lists off my phone, finally enjoy Christmas and maybe watch some Christmas themed video's like this all day. I think I have things from all these different styles, but mostly traditional. Merry Christmas 😊
Nick is one man i can't seem to fit in any specific box. It's ironic that his career is based on specific decorating styles. I mean that as a compliment. You are excellent at what you do yet have a "do you" attitude about life. A refreshing individual indeed. MERRY CHRISTMAS NICK❤🎄🎁
Our Christmas decorations are mostly silver and white, always have been my entire life, and they’re mostly my grandmother‘s ornaments. I like it because it doesn’t really become overwhelming and it leaves breathing room for adding the occasional new addition in a bolder colour.
I love my retro Christmas stuff. Most of it came from my grandma and my mom. And as a cat owner, I highly recommend the ceramic light up Christmas tree.
What's funny about that is maybe 15 years ago, no one wanted to buy the extra ceramic trees my BFFs mom n gramma had made. Everyone scoffed at how "old" they looked. Who knew they'd get so popular that they'd be on big box store shelves a decade later. (Yes, a decade. I started seeing these 5 or 6 years ago.) In hindsight, I should've taken one of her gramma's for myself. At least those ones were made with love.
I got made fun of for using Mercury Glass ornaments on my tree about ten years ago and now they're one of the best sellers this time of year in my antique booth. 🤷🏻♀️
As a minimalist I put out 3 decorations. The ceramic tree I had as a kid, a peppermint candle, & balsam candle. Boom….done 😂 I do love IKEA’s Christmas decor & one year I may break down & buy the hanging stars.
Minimalism is appealing to me more and more for everyday life but I don’t think I can give up my Christmas decorating!! I’m already beginning to think about Christmas again now that the year’s more than half way through 🤣 But for anyone who doesn’t love the fuss that sounds perfect
@@EmL-kg5gn Minimalism (in my opinion) isn’t about getting rid of everything, but keeping only what you love & what is useful. You can minimize items that you no longer want & keep the Christmas decorations if they make you happy! Unless you are an extreme minimalist it doesn’t have to be all or nothing ✌🏼🎄
My holiday decor varies from year to year. I have glass ornaments that belonged to my grandparents circa 1950's. I love putting them on display. They have some fading and crazing that gives them such an intriguing look. Subtle and nostalgic. Mostly I chose to stick to natural element's mixed with nostalgia.
I love the nostalgic vibe of a Traditional Christmas decoration. Having ornaments on the tree that bring happy memories from Christmas past is very important to me. Christmas Crackers are also a nostalgic custom that we have done since I was born and are Important to my family still no matter the age. It’s nice to decorate the fireplace with Christmas Stockings that are also part of our family tradition they are always filled with stocking stuffers. Whatever anyone does for the Holidays, May it be Happy, fun and full of love and May the New Year bring us all, Peace, Love and Happiness where ever you are around the world and no matter who you are. Happy Holidays to Nick and your viewers world wide! ⛄️❄️🎄🤗❤️🇨🇦
I’m retro with a touch of traditional. You see more ornaments of the tree than the branches. The ornaments and lights on the tree are always colorful, but the rest of the house decorations are red and green, maybe a touch of silver and gold.
My Danish family members start with lots of real greenery, then add candles and homemade ornaments. My stern grandpa could be seen every December making little decorative animals out of straw. There's also an emphasis on the celebration of light and the return of the sun.
I love this! I am a combination of traditional/vintage/Nordic/French (is this a thing?)/cozy. Each space in my small house has its own style because I love it all (it's been slowly accumulated over the years plus hand me downs) and it works with my regular decor. I stick unexpected things everywhere like little presents (like a tiny village inside a bookcase). I also decorate with books. David Sedaris' "Holidays in Ice" for instance. Love your videos, love your sense of humor. You deliver lines so seamlessly that you almost take a second to say "wait, did he just say what I think he said?!" and then laugh.
I love that you included the retro/eclectic style. I love Christmas and have inherited a lot from my family. I host a big brunch every year. I have a silver tinsel tree in the living room as well as a coloured light tree full of tacky homemade kids ornaments in the rumpus room. A giant Christmas village, coloured glassware, Christmas mugs, colourful patterned tablecloths from my grandmother. I rarely buy anything Christmas and it's all from 70s,80s,90s. All that is me and I love all things cheezy Christmas!!!
None of these styles you showcase mention plants or flowers. Norfolk Pine, amaryllis, cyclamen, paperwhites, christmas cactus, azalea and most importantly - poinsettia.
Thanks Nick! Happy Holidays to you. Loved this video. Unlike some, I am not going to whine about my style not being on your list. I live in an old house in an old city and collected Mardi Gras Christmas decorations before I moved to NOLA. This year I will light up the house and tree with the collection and keep everything up until February 13th. One decorating session, three holidays covered including New Years!!!
I was anxiously waiting for the part where you would talk about the fabulous Mid-Century Modern Aluminum Christmas Tree, with the electric color wheel (red, green, yellow, and blue) aimed at it from a concealed location behind a chair.
Overall the interior in our current home, a circa 1969 condo, is somewhat Modern/Eclectic in warm & cool neutrals with pops of color from turquoise/teal, purple, and coral. In other homes I have lived in over the years I did lots of "Traditional and Victorian" elements in my holiday decorating. Lately, I have been embracing a bit of "Retro Holiday" for this condo. On my dining table, I put my mother's pastel glass ornaments from the 1950's on a large old silver tray that was also hers, along with bottle brush trees similar to some she used. I found some old and new, natural and glittered bottle brush trees in neutral and pastel colors. I have teal, white, silver & gold ornaments, along with snowflakes on my tree. This year I thrifted some purple glass ornaments to tie in with purple amethyst crystal specimens I keep out all the time. And, I added paper snowflake garland in a huge picture window to go with a large paper star my daughter sent me from Germany 15 years ago. Somehow this little bit of "Modern/Minimalist/Retro Eclectic/Scandi" works in our space, because it all relates by color and a repeat of elements.
Love vintage Christmas… 20s to early 60s. The retro shaped reindeer that almost looks art deco, plastic window candles, blow molds, and even Evergleam trees.
We can keep old decoration and if we feel that we want to remember our childhood , we could use it for decoration . This could be rare , but it has a great meaning .
I grew up in a rustic cabin in the mountains. So I love to include some country/rustic elements into my decor. I love the look of handmade ornaments These things are comforting to me.
Started decorating like my style last year. No red. I used all cedar and greenery. Black, wood, amber glass, olive green. I love it. It makes it so I don't have to overhaul the whole house. It's kinda Scandi/ modern organic.
Agree on the " no red " ! My parents' home was traditional inside & out & they had exquisite taste . However , even tho' there was no red ever used , my mother insisted that at Christmas red was needed as it was traditional even tho' it clashed terribly w/ all the beautiful furnishings . To this day , I still am traumatized by red anything !! 😂 ( ❤ 🤥 )
Loved this, my husband and I are having our first Christmas as a married couple in our new home and decorating for the holidays and the style we want is something we’ve been exploring
Our style has changed again and again over our 60 years of marriage- part of the fun of Christmas and decorating in general. Life happens-moves and the geography and the culture of each region, children, inherited objects, new ideas as tastes change- just look forward to the joys of your life together. Happy holidays!
I’m dark Dickens in the living room and bedroom, and Scandinavian in the kitchen and eating area. Guest room and bathroom are more pinky and Anthropologie cute. My house has BPD and I love it.
The end of the year holidays are steeped in tradition, so decore-wise, the traditional style doesn’t look out of place in most places. The season is a great opportunity to blend any style with traditional styles.
We’re doing the modern/minimalist style this year, mostly because we don’t want to dig out the big Christmas bin from the garage. Bought a few simple gold and silver ornaments and a small tree with white lights. It’s just right and really elegant.
I used to do such vibrant decor for Christmas and 2 years ago really wanted a change. I found a set of ornaments and based the whole new design on that. It's a very wintery, muted silver and gold theme. It's soft and quiet now and it's been so beautiful to look at the last 2 years. It blends in very well with my dark academia/steampunk design in the house. Bonus is my kids actually really like it!
I have a traditional house, but I decorate in a mixture of traditional and antique Mid Century Christmas decor. I just make sure and keep the color stories the same for each room
Loved going close to our tinsel “icicles” on the tree as a kid and with a charge of carpet static electricity they’d reach out to me! 😂 Great video Nick, brought back some good memories!
I grew up in a retro Christmas household in the 90’s but our “retro” was the 50’s and 60’s when my parents grew up. I mean, we were the only family I knew with bubble lights on our Christmas tree and big multi-colored C9 bulbs outside. But I also grew up in a 1964 brick ranch house, so it kind of fit. My personal style leans somewhere between traditional and Scandi. I also have some kitsch too. I collect putz houses, which are little vintage paper Christmas village houses. But my tree mainly has red and white ornaments with some natural woods and metallics thrown in. I have a few birch bark ornaments which I love and a few birch trees are ago, my family made paper birch bark little Christmas trees using birch bark we harvested ourself off of fallen birch trees. I also have quite a few owl Christmas ornaments (they were my college mascot). I have some fluffy Sherpa ones and a birch bark one, and this year I added a little faux fur one. A lot of my decor and ornaments come from cheaper sources and I can’t really have anything breakable because I have a cat, but the plastic faux glass ornaments are actually getting really convincing, especially if you go for a satin or frosted finish. I’ve also DIYed dollar store ornaments to make them look more expensive. I’ve added fake snow to cover up cheap looking plastic and used ribbon to cover up bad seams on some otherwise cute red and white fair isle sweater ornaments. Every year I add a few things to my tree and de-clutter a few out that I feel don’t fit my taste anymore. It means I keep more of what I really love and keep things somewhat fresh.
As my first time decorating my own flat for Christmas this was super helpful! I was somehow missing this "warm" feeling that I got at my parent's place during Christmas and your video helped me point out why :)
Hygge. Cozy. Scandinavian holiday décor should be cozy & feel like the room is giving you a warm hug. Warm fire, lots of candles (candle wreaths & the candle powered mobiles), pine bows, straw ornaments (a Yule Goat is required), gnomes, & lots of pops of red or another bright, fun color. For a twist, fuchsia works nicely. St. Lucia's Day is Dec 13th, TODAY! That's the kickoff to the season in Scandinavia. I personally think it's an ideal day for decorating if you haven't already & aren't waiting for Xmas Eve. But honestly, whatever you deem to be COZY is what's wrong for a Scandinavian holiday. I have a mix of Scandinavian, German (the root of most English & therefore American traditions), Dutch, & Scottish holiday traditions because those are the cultures imparted to me from my family. We put straw ornaments on the tree, gnomes are holiday friends, we hide a glass pickle ornament on the tree for visitors to find & receive a cookie, we have several pairs of decorative wooden clogs that are placed outside bedroom doors for St. Nick, watching movies is essential & Xmas is from the 24th through the 26th, plenty of tartan to go around, and New Year's Eve is always a big deal... just as it has been for Scots for centuries.
I appreciate the diplomacy in this video instead of the usual this is in and this is out from other "design" channels. It shows you are considerate of the array of styles to choose from that make peoples house a "home".
Back when I was in high school (and we will NOT discuss exactly when that was!), a friend of my mom gave us several boxes of old glass ornaments for Christmas. She was downsizing. So we inventoried, dusted some off, and attacked others with glass cleaner (actually vinegar), trying to decide how many we could fit on our tree. It was a treasure trove of age and beauty; some simple, some more complex, all amazingly beautiful. I would have chosen the silver and gold pieces, but not my mom, who went more for blue. Needless to say, the tree that year was stunning. It's too bad that those boxes of history have disappeared in the intervening years. So I am drawn to antique shops, thrift stores, and any other places that just might have someone else's throw-aways available for adoption. I wouldn't say that my style is either traditional or any other style you covered, but I admit I'm usually fond of genuine antiques - which incluldes anything older than I am.
The retro style you’re describing actually started sometime in the late 40s/early 50s. I have pictures from my parents’ childhoods where their trees were covered with tinsel. The glass ornaments shaped like animals, characters and fruit are actually much older, from the 1800s, but people still cherished them because they’d been handed down. When all the very shiny, very bright, or very frosted ornaments came in during the 50s and 60s, along with the big bubble lights, a lot of people packed away those character ornaments or sold them. They came back in with the Victorian Revival movement in the 1980s, which was so popular it spawned a magazine called “Victorniana” you can still find in used book stores. It also spawned the giant floral dresses with poofy sleeves and platter collars for women, and the movement to quit tearing down or Maximizung old Victorian houses in psychedelic colors and shag carpet, but instead restoring them. Except most people didn’t do thorough restorations; they’d often use drywall instead of plaster and lathe, and often would do a generalized “Victorian” use of colors and textiles, rather than trying to figure out their particular house. Not everyone. But pretty often. And it spilled over into being able to buy “Victorianish” curtains and wallpaper and sheets (and clothes) at discount stores. And those awful cement geese with clothes, which eventually even appeared on dishes! But those glass ornaments and the Victorian Christmas decorating style saw a big revival then. I have one or two authentic Victorian glass shaped ornaments, and then at one point had probably 3 dozen reproductions. Only maybe half survived my son’s childhood. I was particularly sad to lose the reproduction Santa on a sailboat (schooner?) that was a foot tall, and the Santa that was a crescent moon, with his beard and tassel on his hat streaming behind him.
My style is secondhand leaning towards traditional. But, if you want to go with the scandi style, or Swedish it's essential to hang an advent star in your windows, preferably one in every window. Or alternatively an adventsljusstake (sort of an electric triangle shaped candelabra).
My home is very rustic boho and my Christmas decor is a mix of natural materials, lots of greenery, and retro antique store finds/hand-me-downs. I love traditional decorations but they would look way too formal in my funky little ranch house! Great video, thanks for the Christmas cheer!
Really enjoyed your comments on all the styles. I did notice safety problems with a couple of examples. In the Traditional section: having a garland, real or artificial, around a stove is not a good idea. Later in the video (Scandi section?) I saw 3 candles, one very tall, under a greenery swag. Remember when placing candles that heat rises and candles, even small ones, get very hot.
I seem to have developed my own style since I have a lot of large Traditional Furniture in my Home. So to soften/lighten things up I have added lots of Rustic decor to go into my style. Lots of cream colored pieces, jute rug’s, rattan baskets and a little B/W Buffalo prints and burlap here and there.. My new flocked tree has some sparkly and some rustic - cream, brown, green, gold and silver ornaments with burlap picks and soft white lights along with realistic looking greenery garlands. I love it and get many compliments. I have always gravitated towards traditional but sometimes it seems to heavy so now I call my style Traditional Rustic.😂
I don't have a specific design style qhen it comes to decorating for Christmas but, according to this video, my home fits into the traditional Christmas style for sure. I'm really into warm and cozy styles so it makes sense. Edited to add: I also really love the minimal design style shown in this video. Beautiful!
We own a small 1882 Victorian home that is furnished to match and we decorate for the different seasons and holidays accordingly. But when it comes to Christmas 🎄 we do the colors scheme of rainbows and have a new yearly ornament from Willow Tree. Most of the decorations are Victorian in design, but we make exceptions with ornaments to show our own personality and of course our son's and life's milestones.
My living and dining rooms are decorated in a formal style but with a unique color scheme. The family room has a much more casual feel and more colorful decorations.
Hi Nick, I helped decorate my son's tree. I went traditional and yes, symmetry is key! I used red & green with a plaid tree skirt. When I decorated my tree, I went champagne gold, classic gold & silver ornaments on a flocked faux tree and used a cream colored tree skirt. I placed cream colored throw pillows on the sectional as well.
OMG! You mentioning retro style and decorations from my childhood reminded me of the Richard Scarry chain garland we had on our tree in the 80s! I hadn't thought about that garland in years! Might see if my parents still have it so i can get it off them for our tree!
My design style is Boho, and I have a 20" (50cm) tall tree that's my Earring Tree. I have a ton of earrings shaped like tiny Christmas ornaments. I decorate the tree with them, and on my way out the door to work this time of year, I grab a pair and wear them to work.
We have a family friend who collects nativity scenes. She's got them from a variety of countries (Vietnam, Ethiopia, Nepal, and many more) and styles. Her most recent addition was a COVID-19 style nativity scene. The 3 Wise Men were nurses in PPE, bringing hand sanitizer, masks, and TP, the farm animals were wearing masks, Joseph and Mary were 6ft apart from the manger on those little social distancing circles, and baby Jesus was holding syringes of vaccines. Great conversation pieces.
As I am giving my apartment an Art Deco makeover, I was hoping that style would show up in this video(a follow-up video probably couldn't hurt anything). One thing that has been acquired during this process is a nice antique hutch for the storage of bongs and other reefer paraphernalia.
My Christmas decor is a combination of folk and traditional. I have a lot of crafty-talented family members-so most of their ornaments are featured. Also, I’m fortunate to have wood turners in my family so I have a ton of wood tones. I don’t care for Christmas decor… so if it’s not on the tree you have to squint to see the Christmas
I’m partial to the “celestial” theme- dark blue, gold, silver with stars and sometimes angels with suns and moons
That sounds moody and cozy and lovely!
You somehow omitted my design style, "Hot Mess!" Great ideas as always. Thank you and have a wonderful holiday season, Nick.
😅😅😅
It’s all a hot mess to me. Except for fresh greenery.
😂
You mean “Eclectic”!
😂😂😂
My style is “70 years of buying and receiving Hallmark ornaments”! It’s the ones where you remember who gave it to you and when, which ones were passed down and whose tree one remembers it from. It’s probably an “age” thing, but it’s my “style”!
I like minimalism, so I'm in need of a Charlie Brown tree.
Aw, I own all the Peanuts holiday specials that I grew up with on DVD. Go find yourself a Charlie Brown tree to love.
As the decades pass by, I find myself editing holiday decor more and more, moving toward the quieter aspect that is Winter and of me as well. Joyful but in a treasured way. Time becomes more precious, and so does the elemental.
Yes, same here!
So true!!
When I was a young mum of three toddler daughters (each 2.5 years apart) I decorated inside the house for every holiday. Even St. Pattys Day (as fast as it comes and goes😂) and my girls loved it. But after about a decade in a half, once the youngest got to HS, I slowly stopped doing the sillier ones like Valentines and Fourth of July and now I only do Christmas. They’re all graduated and adulting, and I always did it for them so yeah it got to that point. And to be honest this is the first year I just put our gorgeous realistic snow flocked up, plugged her in and that’s it. It’s beautiful without anything at all. Just somewhere pretty in the house for me to put all the gifts we get for everyone we love on both sides.
@candyce6233: I bought a gorgeous snow-flocked tree a few years ago and quickly realized there was no room for ornaments! I was actually just thinking, "I should just put up the tree, plug it in, and skip the ornaments"!
Same here. I have 7 really fun snowmen decor, and 2 themed mugs on a vintage kidney shaped wooden desk. It’s covered with a beautiful snowmen tapestry runner.
I have no Christmas decor elsewhere, outside of snowmen salt & pepper shakers. I’m displaying all of them throughout Winter.
We have been leaning more of a “wintering” from November to April (we live in central upstate NY) rather than Christmas. Our decorations are mostly Traditional/ Organic Farmhouse with a little bit of vintage/retro throwbacks for nostalgia for my husband and I who both grew up in lower income 80’s homes as little kids. Our decor leans heavy into plaids, red and greens, snow, cardinals, holly and berries, a sweet light up winter village we add to each year, natural evergreens and simmer pots, and vintage treat and drink recipes and warming spice foods all winter not just for a month. We’ve removed every nod to Santa or elves or gifts in decor as we are trying to lean into being givers as we see needs all throughout the year so that gifts are no longer a part of our “holiday month”.
IDEA: Make a fun video about celebrating Festivus (from Seinfeld TV Show). You could have decoration tips, tablescapes for The Airing of Grievances dinner, Feats of Strength furniture, etc.
As norwegian i would add in with the scandi is real stuff.. real wood, real wool, homemade decor and branches. Tradionally xmas/jul was our harvest feast and we decorate with food and stuff from the woods. Its why you se mushrooms on the tree and nuts and apple.. and gnoms everywhere 😂❤
The same here in DK😊Mosses, nuts, plaided hearts and stars. Also goats made from straw and lots of candles and greenery😊
I think the goats came by Norway originally. but that might have been when they were ours.@@petrine5
My tree style is tacky/retro. When my kids were little I would let them pick out their own ornament every year. We have french fries, a fire truck, bacon, football helmets, various homemade ornaments and ornaments with school pictures.Where others see tacky, mismatched chaos, I see memories.
You have accomplished memories! Good for you!
While I attempt to curate tablescapes in other spaces, most treasured are my two trees overfilled with lifetimes and generations of ornaments and trinkets.....some with popsicle sticks and glitter glue, to hand blown glass ornament from travels, to the tacky "tinsel" icicles that bring my mom and grandmother back to me....I hope everyone has some joy this season
We take our kids to get a new ornament every year too!
Oh my gosh...you said Retro and I think 50s! Then you say 90s and I'm like "Uh...that was yesterday rt?" 😄 I definitely decorate the tree with that Collected Over Time look. But I keep it from being overwhelming by one, having a smaller tree and two, each year only selecting about half of what I have to actually put up.
I do think a lot of that was more 50s, 60s, 70s. Tinsel and silver is certainly from those years, no? Nineties in my area was like wooden figurines and big plaid bows and lots of those wreaths with the green plastic shredding.😅
lol Sure! Whatever decorating the way you did when you were kids means to you!
Retro is definitely mid-century with silver, all pastel and tinsel.
What are your favorite stores for traditional Christmas decor?
@@debra1819 As a boomer growing up in Illinois in the 50's , it was the shopping trip to Marshall Field's in Chicago . 🎄
This is the only time of year when More is not enough!
Finnish and Swedish here. The folk charm is right on the mark for Scandi holiday decor. Keep it neutral and add deliberate red to draw attention. Great video Nick.
OK-I'm a grandmother now. My decorating requires every Christmas decoration that can be made out of pasta, toilet paper rolls, doilies, salt dough, jelly jars, pipe cleaners, and treasured broken ornaments from their parent's youth. Including the plastic light up Santa from the 1980's.
You are the essence of Christmas! Rock on!
Sounds like a dream of a Christmas. Enjoy it. 😊
I prefer the traditional style in my home because I love having a tree that is also a record of our history. There are the vintage wooden German-style ornaments from grandma, the little drummer boy ornament because my brother is a drummer, the $1 compass that I turned into an ornament because my husband is an Eagle Scout, the Hallmark picture frame ornaments, the ornaments I picked up on those family trips, etc. I also purposefully acquired a lot of wooden and non-breakable ornaments because my family has a ton of small children. My few delicate ornaments all live in the upper half of the tree. Our living room furniture has plaid upholstery and the fireplace mantle is stone, so traditional is best for us.
Scandinaviian Christmas is usually very traditional however not the American way-meaning it is more restricted , Real Christmas tree, wooden materials, alf/santa if used in decor will usually be knitted -glass ornaments, candles and we usually have a candle with numbers counting down days, or advent candles ----colors are dark red, green, gold and silver -Scandic decor can also be very contempery with designer items like stars from George Jensen and few colors
All the Scandi decor I grew up with had bright, vibrant reds. The greens were always darker & muted, more pine green than grass green. But yes, I agree about lots of wood & natural elements. Straw ornaments, tons of candles & greenery. My great-grands (first gen American) always said "It was about being cozy, warm, fully of joy & being with family." My grandma grew up in a German & Swedish fusion home & the holidays had so many baked goods, tons of handmade & blown glass ornaments, candles everywhere, red ribbons, pine bows taken right from the woods, gnomes instead of elves, & the German tradition of hiding a pickle ornament in the tree. I always loved the juxtaposition of the German blown glass ornaments & the straw ornaments with their red ribbons... gingerbread ornaments & pine cones with red ribbon tied to them (found by the kids in the woods) & construction paper chains made by the kids too.
I agree, Scandinavian christmas is heavily traditional. I think the main theme of christmas (at least here in Denmark) is cozyness and family; we cherish handmade paper ornaments done with/or by children, making the advent calender light decorations (so many candles!) and lots of baking and cooking.
And I believe just about every household has an elf or the christmas goat or pig made out of straw. We love the natural and rustik aspect, be it homemade or store bought.
@@Goejsendkone of my friends was here on exchange and she didn't understand all the candles everywhere. She thought they were menorahs and thought "Guess this is a Jewish neighborhood" until she realised that every house had candles like that. A bit of a culture shock
I spent some time in Denmark as a child and lots of my decorations are danish. I agree, lots of red, green, gold. Not to forget that the danish Christmas trees are wrapped in red flag garlands! I feel like what people here see as scandi Christmas decorations (all beige and natural tones) has nothing to do with reality in Scandinavia!
@@caesar98 LOL - that was me when I visited Iceland during Christmas time
Where is my style, "Vegas Tacky?" I love my Christmas blow up Santa and the matching blow up penguins. They go perfectly with my yard full of Garden Gnomes.
You rock! I bet the kids passing by love it!
I have worked seasonal retail at Crate & Barrel, two different cities in Texas, and they are truly the happiest place on earth for adults. The Christmas season is not work there but fun!
I'm 72. We moved from warm dry calif, to cold, damp basement upper Midwest. Not knowing how not having a
Dehumidifier could effect basement storage, anyway lost alot.
So for Christmas I bought new ornaments representing my 4 children. When the 1st gran came I started the same. Now years later each person adds their ornament to my tree. We have a living family story tree. Everything tells our stories. We laugh, cry at losses, remembering the Christmas pasts.
And when grams no longer here, each family member takes what's theirs and will add to their "Family story tree."
Oh my - the beige Christmas decorations are just depressing. Just for a few weeks go with red!
My decor is generally Scandi, and although I previously embraced the traditional Christmas decor, as my child grows (now almost an adult) I cringe at the thought of my house looking like Christmas threw up on it.
Last year most of my decor stayed in boxes, and we had very natural decorations on the tree. The only decor I laid out was a gun metal candelabra with some greenery.
My family loved it and were fully behind it.
Not a fan of the beige baby aesthetic either then I suppose? ua-cam.com/video/irkGaz59oDY/v-deo.htmlsi=MHNERkpeQwd59Zap
When I put my tree up I would put 3 sets of colored lights on and 2 or 3 sets of white lights. It made a nice balance in order to see the ornaments. ❤️
You really can't have too many lights at Christmas!
The 5 design styles for Christmas is chock full of information. My house is the last style. We have a mid Century Modern style house and I’ve been married 48 years and still have ALL of our decorations. Takes forever to decide which ones to use each year.
I have a traditional style home...and have been married 42 years...still have most of our decorations from 1981 forward, and yes it takes forever to decide which ones to use each year...we estimate that even though we have a good size tree I use about 1/5th of the ornaments, but it is fun to have choices. (And every ornament has a story)
This makes great sense. I have been putting less and less up every year because I’m so done with the over the top Christmas decorating. But I think it’s because it doesn’t fit my decorating style and I don’t like taking down the stuff I love to make room for the cheesy stuff. Thanks for this!
I was hoping for an Art Deco Christmas lol but great selection, Nick!
Oh Art Deco Christmas would be beautiful!
@@onetuliptree I hope he makes a part two to this video! 👏🏼 I don’t feel like art deco would go under retro seeing as that seems to be more recent decades.
These days a lot of the Contemporary recommendations would apply.
@@Nick_Lewis I hadn’t thought of that. Good idea!
Love Art Deco!
Hot Mess is actually the best Style. Even at its worst it shows sincerity and real meaning. It does not look like the boring red and green stuff in the window at the craft store.
Yay, a new video! It must be 12:20 p.m. 😜
I've just moved to a new country and don't have any decorations and now, thanks to your video, I realize that I do have a particular style and will shop accordingly instead of randomly picking up the shiny things that catch my eye. I'm also pleased to note that some companies are now producing LED lights in the traditional colours again which I find much more pleasant to look at.
We do like shiny things!
In the IKEA video you asked about mushrooms Nick, and I will say mushrooms have been a part of Scandinavian Christmas decor long before cottage core, before even tik tok was around. The traditional Advent candle holder is usually filled with white moss and little decorative mushrooms- that's the way my mom always do it and that's why you see white moss in every flower shop in Sweden around christmas.
When I think “retro” - the first thing that comes to mind are those big bulb colorful lights.
I loved them as a kid. Especially the twinkle ones. Sigh ....
I honestly never thought about holiday decor matching your style. I just assumed as holiday decor was whatever you acquired through hand me downs 😂
This was a great video for inspiration. I find that decorate different rooms in different styles as I love so many different holiday traditions.However, I will mention that I choked on my morning coffee when Nick said that Retro was the 70's, 80's and 90's. However, he did mention that retro is more about the era in which you grew-up. For me, retro is always 50's, 60's, as that is my early youth. It just struck me as funny and a bit of a reality check on my true age rather than my perceived age. There was also a full sized tree in a large ginger jar, which was amazing. I also have found that I like the tree trunk collars that are out in force this year. Another, viewer said that they find that they are editing their things for the holidays, I am doing the same. Saving the special ornaments and decor that we love and parting with the rest. Thanks for a great video Nick, and Happy Holidays to everyone.
I host the family Christmas blow out on Eve every year. Today is my day to relax, delete all the to do lists off my phone, finally enjoy Christmas and maybe watch some Christmas themed video's like this all day.
I think I have things from all these different styles, but mostly traditional. Merry Christmas 😊
Another option for the retro/eclectic is the hot pink and lime green combo as an alternative to red and green. Very funky and fabulous.
I was just thinking as I was looking around at my Christmas decorations and said, I definitely like traditional stuff and very nostalgic.
Nick, I appreciate the way you explain everything and give examples....helps SO much those of us who are decorating impaired.
Nick is one man i can't seem to fit in any specific box. It's ironic that his career is based on specific decorating styles. I mean that as a compliment. You are excellent at what you do yet have a "do you" attitude about life. A refreshing individual indeed. MERRY CHRISTMAS NICK❤🎄🎁
Our Christmas decorations are mostly silver and white, always have been my entire life, and they’re mostly my grandmother‘s ornaments. I like it because it doesn’t really become overwhelming and it leaves breathing room for adding the occasional new addition in a bolder colour.
I love my retro Christmas stuff. Most of it came from my grandma and my mom. And as a cat owner, I highly recommend the ceramic light up Christmas tree.
What's funny about that is maybe 15 years ago, no one wanted to buy the extra ceramic trees my BFFs mom n gramma had made. Everyone scoffed at how "old" they looked. Who knew they'd get so popular that they'd be on big box store shelves a decade later. (Yes, a decade. I started seeing these 5 or 6 years ago.) In hindsight, I should've taken one of her gramma's for myself. At least those ones were made with love.
I got made fun of for using Mercury Glass ornaments on my tree about ten years ago and now they're one of the best sellers this time of year in my antique booth. 🤷🏻♀️
As a minimalist I put out 3 decorations. The ceramic tree I had as a kid, a peppermint candle, & balsam candle. Boom….done 😂 I do love IKEA’s Christmas decor & one year I may break down & buy the hanging stars.
😂3 decorations and a Poinsettia plant here.
@@onetuliptree I love it!
Minimalism is appealing to me more and more for everyday life but I don’t think I can give up my Christmas decorating!! I’m already beginning to think about Christmas again now that the year’s more than half way through 🤣 But for anyone who doesn’t love the fuss that sounds perfect
@@EmL-kg5gn Minimalism (in my opinion) isn’t about getting rid of everything, but keeping only what you love & what is useful. You can minimize items that you no longer want & keep the Christmas decorations if they make you happy! Unless you are an extreme minimalist it doesn’t have to be all or nothing ✌🏼🎄
@@TraceB That’s very true. Thanks for the reminder!
My holiday decor varies from year to year. I have glass ornaments that belonged to my grandparents circa 1950's. I love putting them on display. They have some fading and crazing that gives them such an intriguing look. Subtle and nostalgic. Mostly I chose to stick to natural element's mixed with nostalgia.
I love the nostalgic vibe of a Traditional Christmas decoration. Having ornaments on the tree that bring happy memories from Christmas past is very important to me. Christmas Crackers are also a nostalgic custom that we have done since I was born and are Important to my family still no matter the age. It’s nice to decorate the fireplace with Christmas Stockings that are also part of our family tradition they are always filled with stocking stuffers. Whatever anyone does for the Holidays, May it be Happy, fun and full of love and May the New Year bring us all, Peace, Love and Happiness where ever you are around the world and no matter who you are. Happy Holidays to Nick and your viewers world wide! ⛄️❄️🎄🤗❤️🇨🇦
I’m retro with a touch of traditional. You see more ornaments of the tree than the branches. The ornaments and lights on the tree are always colorful, but the rest of the house decorations are red and green, maybe a touch of silver and gold.
Lol. Cannot believe you showed us a style with tinsel that you SO hate. Lol. Cheers🎄. Merry Christmas (St.) Nick.
My Danish family members start with lots of real greenery, then add candles and homemade ornaments. My stern grandpa could be seen every December making little decorative animals out of straw. There's also an emphasis on the celebration of light and the return of the sun.
I love this! I am a combination of traditional/vintage/Nordic/French (is this a thing?)/cozy. Each space in my small house has its own style because I love it all (it's been slowly accumulated over the years plus hand me downs) and it works with my regular decor. I stick unexpected things everywhere like little presents (like a tiny village inside a bookcase). I also decorate with books. David Sedaris' "Holidays in Ice" for instance.
Love your videos, love your sense of humor. You deliver lines so seamlessly that you almost take a second to say "wait, did he just say what I think he said?!" and then laugh.
I love that you included the retro/eclectic style. I love Christmas and have inherited a lot from my family. I host a big brunch every year. I have a silver tinsel tree in the living room as well as a coloured light tree full of tacky homemade kids ornaments in the rumpus room. A giant Christmas village, coloured glassware, Christmas mugs, colourful patterned tablecloths from my grandmother. I rarely buy anything Christmas and it's all from 70s,80s,90s. All that is me and I love all things cheezy Christmas!!!
None of these styles you showcase mention plants or flowers. Norfolk Pine, amaryllis, cyclamen, paperwhites, christmas cactus, azalea and most importantly - poinsettia.
My Christmas Cactus has coral/purple/pink, and it goes with some of my decorations!
Thanks Nick! Happy Holidays to you. Loved this video. Unlike some, I am not going to whine about my style not being on your list. I live in an old house in an old city and collected Mardi Gras Christmas decorations before I moved to NOLA. This year I will light up the house and tree with the collection and keep everything up until February 13th. One decorating session, three holidays covered including New Years!!!
I was anxiously waiting for the part where you would talk about the fabulous Mid-Century Modern Aluminum Christmas Tree, with the electric color wheel (red, green, yellow, and blue) aimed at it from a concealed location behind a chair.
We had one of those as my dad worked for a large aluminum manufacturer. It was cool for one year, then we all wanted a real tree again.
Overall the interior in our current home, a circa 1969 condo, is somewhat Modern/Eclectic in warm & cool neutrals with pops of color from turquoise/teal, purple, and coral. In other homes I have lived in over the years I did lots of "Traditional and Victorian" elements in my holiday decorating. Lately, I have been embracing a bit of "Retro Holiday" for this condo. On my dining table, I put my mother's pastel glass ornaments from the 1950's on a large old silver tray that was also hers, along with bottle brush trees similar to some she used. I found some old and new, natural and glittered bottle brush trees in neutral and pastel colors. I have teal, white, silver & gold ornaments, along with snowflakes on my tree. This year I thrifted some purple glass ornaments to tie in with purple amethyst crystal specimens I keep out all the time. And, I added paper snowflake garland in a huge picture window to go with a large paper star my daughter sent me from Germany 15 years ago. Somehow this little bit of "Modern/Minimalist/Retro Eclectic/Scandi" works in our space, because it all relates by color and a repeat of elements.
Love vintage Christmas… 20s to early 60s. The retro shaped reindeer that almost looks art deco, plastic window candles, blow molds, and even Evergleam trees.
I love your platform and humor! Take It or Leave It, It’s Your Home. I’m a Traditional Woman.
We can keep old decoration and if we feel that we want to remember our childhood , we could use it for decoration . This could be rare , but it has a great meaning .
Tinsel for the win! But not angel hair and not the cheap sort that sheds all over the place 👍
Miniatures I knitted: a red mitten, a red ski hat, a candy cane & a red stocking. That’s all I use as I burned out on Xmas decor years ago.
I grew up in a rustic cabin in the mountains. So I love to include some country/rustic elements into my decor. I love the look of handmade ornaments
These things are comforting to me.
Started decorating like my style last year. No red. I used all cedar and greenery. Black, wood, amber glass, olive green. I love it. It makes it so I don't have to overhaul the whole house. It's kinda Scandi/ modern organic.
Agree on the " no red " ! My parents' home was traditional inside & out & they had exquisite taste . However , even tho' there was no red ever used , my mother insisted that at Christmas red was needed as it was traditional even tho' it clashed terribly w/ all the beautiful furnishings . To this day , I still am traumatized by red anything !! 😂 ( ❤ 🤥 )
Brass reindeer , wood , silver , ceramic . Even mason jars one can turn into vases or any craft decor ect .
Loved this, my husband and I are having our first Christmas as a married couple in our new home and decorating for the holidays and the style we want is something we’ve been exploring
What you develop now will define Christmas for the rest of your lives, and for your future children. Choose with care!
@@karenk2409 woah that's a lot of pressure! (True though 😂)
Our style has changed again and again over our 60 years of marriage- part of the fun of Christmas and decorating in general. Life happens-moves and the geography and the culture of each region, children, inherited objects, new ideas as tastes change- just look forward to the joys of your life together. Happy holidays!
I’m dark Dickens in the living room and bedroom, and Scandinavian in the kitchen and eating area. Guest room and bathroom are more pinky and Anthropologie cute. My house has BPD and I love it.
The end of the year holidays are steeped in tradition, so decore-wise, the traditional style doesn’t look out of place in most places. The season is a great opportunity to blend any style with traditional styles.
We’re doing the modern/minimalist style this year, mostly because we don’t want to dig out the big Christmas bin from the garage. Bought a few simple gold and silver ornaments and a small tree with white lights. It’s just right and really elegant.
This was so good! It explained why ikea Christmas decor almost works in my house but not quite.
The silver artificial tree with the color wheel was my childhood. I don't want to repeat that :D
I used to do such vibrant decor for Christmas and 2 years ago really wanted a change. I found a set of ornaments and based the whole new design on that. It's a very wintery, muted silver and gold theme. It's soft and quiet now and it's been so beautiful to look at the last 2 years. It blends in very well with my dark academia/steampunk design in the house. Bonus is my kids actually really like it!
I have a traditional house, but I decorate in a mixture of traditional and antique Mid Century Christmas decor. I just make sure and keep the color stories the same for each room
Loved going close to our tinsel “icicles” on the tree as a kid and with a charge of carpet static electricity they’d reach out to me! 😂 Great video Nick, brought back some good memories!
I remember that!
I grew up in a retro Christmas household in the 90’s but our “retro” was the 50’s and 60’s when my parents grew up. I mean, we were the only family I knew with bubble lights on our Christmas tree and big multi-colored C9 bulbs outside. But I also grew up in a 1964 brick ranch house, so it kind of fit. My personal style leans somewhere between traditional and Scandi. I also have some kitsch too. I collect putz houses, which are little vintage paper Christmas village houses. But my tree mainly has red and white ornaments with some natural woods and metallics thrown in. I have a few birch bark ornaments which I love and a few birch trees are ago, my family made paper birch bark little Christmas trees using birch bark we harvested ourself off of fallen birch trees. I also have quite a few owl Christmas ornaments (they were my college mascot). I have some fluffy Sherpa ones and a birch bark one, and this year I added a little faux fur one. A lot of my decor and ornaments come from cheaper sources and I can’t really have anything breakable because I have a cat, but the plastic faux glass ornaments are actually getting really convincing, especially if you go for a satin or frosted finish. I’ve also DIYed dollar store ornaments to make them look more expensive. I’ve added fake snow to cover up cheap looking plastic and used ribbon to cover up bad seams on some otherwise cute red and white fair isle sweater ornaments. Every year I add a few things to my tree and de-clutter a few out that I feel don’t fit my taste anymore. It means I keep more of what I really love and keep things somewhat fresh.
As my first time decorating my own flat for Christmas this was super helpful! I was somehow missing this "warm" feeling that I got at my parent's place during Christmas and your video helped me point out why :)
Hygge. Cozy. Scandinavian holiday décor should be cozy & feel like the room is giving you a warm hug. Warm fire, lots of candles (candle wreaths & the candle powered mobiles), pine bows, straw ornaments (a Yule Goat is required), gnomes, & lots of pops of red or another bright, fun color. For a twist, fuchsia works nicely. St. Lucia's Day is Dec 13th, TODAY! That's the kickoff to the season in Scandinavia. I personally think it's an ideal day for decorating if you haven't already & aren't waiting for Xmas Eve. But honestly, whatever you deem to be COZY is what's wrong for a Scandinavian holiday.
I have a mix of Scandinavian, German (the root of most English & therefore American traditions), Dutch, & Scottish holiday traditions because those are the cultures imparted to me from my family. We put straw ornaments on the tree, gnomes are holiday friends, we hide a glass pickle ornament on the tree for visitors to find & receive a cookie, we have several pairs of decorative wooden clogs that are placed outside bedroom doors for St. Nick, watching movies is essential & Xmas is from the 24th through the 26th, plenty of tartan to go around, and New Year's Eve is always a big deal... just as it has been for Scots for centuries.
I appreciate the diplomacy in this video instead of the usual this is in and this is out from other "design" channels. It shows you are considerate of the array of styles to choose from that make peoples house a "home".
Back when I was in high school (and we will NOT discuss exactly when that was!), a friend of my mom gave us several boxes of old glass ornaments for Christmas. She was downsizing. So we inventoried, dusted some off, and attacked others with glass cleaner (actually vinegar), trying to decide how many we could fit on our tree. It was a treasure trove of age and beauty; some simple, some more complex, all amazingly beautiful. I would have chosen the silver and gold pieces, but not my mom, who went more for blue. Needless to say, the tree that year was stunning. It's too bad that those boxes of history have disappeared in the intervening years. So I am drawn to antique shops, thrift stores, and any other places that just might have someone else's throw-aways available for adoption.
I wouldn't say that my style is either traditional or any other style you covered, but I admit I'm usually fond of genuine antiques - which incluldes anything older than I am.
The retro style you’re describing actually started sometime in the late 40s/early 50s. I have pictures from my parents’ childhoods where their trees were covered with tinsel. The glass ornaments shaped like animals, characters and fruit are actually much older, from the 1800s, but people still cherished them because they’d been handed down. When all the very shiny, very bright, or very frosted ornaments came in during the 50s and 60s, along with the big bubble lights, a lot of people packed away those character ornaments or sold them.
They came back in with the Victorian Revival movement in the 1980s, which was so popular it spawned a magazine called “Victorniana” you can still find in used book stores. It also spawned the giant floral dresses with poofy sleeves and platter collars for women, and the movement to quit tearing down or Maximizung old Victorian houses in psychedelic colors and shag carpet, but instead restoring them. Except most people didn’t do thorough restorations; they’d often use drywall instead of plaster and lathe, and often would do a generalized “Victorian” use of colors and textiles, rather than trying to figure out their particular house. Not everyone. But pretty often. And it spilled over into being able to buy “Victorianish” curtains and wallpaper and sheets (and clothes) at discount stores. And those awful cement geese with clothes, which eventually even appeared on dishes!
But those glass ornaments and the Victorian Christmas decorating style saw a big revival then. I have one or two authentic Victorian glass shaped ornaments, and then at one point had probably 3 dozen reproductions. Only maybe half survived my son’s childhood. I was particularly sad to lose the reproduction Santa on a sailboat (schooner?) that was a foot tall, and the Santa that was a crescent moon, with his beard and tassel on his hat streaming behind him.
My style is secondhand leaning towards traditional. But, if you want to go with the scandi style, or Swedish it's essential to hang an advent star in your windows, preferably one in every window. Or alternatively an adventsljusstake (sort of an electric triangle shaped candelabra).
I really liked this one! Thought it was super unique to show Christmas decor in different styles and it was helpful!
My home is very rustic boho and my Christmas decor is a mix of natural materials, lots of greenery, and retro antique store finds/hand-me-downs. I love traditional decorations but they would look way too formal in my funky little ranch house!
Great video, thanks for the Christmas cheer!
Really enjoyed your comments on all the styles. I did notice safety problems with a couple of examples. In the Traditional section: having a garland, real or artificial, around a stove is not a good idea. Later in the video (Scandi section?) I saw 3 candles, one very tall, under a greenery swag. Remember when placing candles that heat rises and candles, even small ones, get very hot.
I seem to have developed my own style since I have a lot of large Traditional Furniture in my Home. So to soften/lighten things up I have added lots of Rustic decor to go into my style. Lots of cream colored pieces, jute rug’s, rattan baskets and a little B/W Buffalo prints and burlap here and there.. My new flocked tree has some sparkly and some rustic - cream, brown, green, gold and silver ornaments with burlap picks and soft white lights along with realistic looking greenery garlands. I love it and get many compliments. I have always gravitated towards traditional but sometimes it seems to heavy so now I call my style Traditional Rustic.😂
I like retro/ whimsical
I love this topic because figuring out what my holiday decorating style was actually helped me discover what my regular interior design style is!
Me too. Glad I’m not the only one.
Oh interesting! That way works too.
I don't have a specific design style qhen it comes to decorating for Christmas but, according to this video, my home fits into the traditional Christmas style for sure. I'm really into warm and cozy styles so it makes sense.
Edited to add: I also really love the minimal design style shown in this video. Beautiful!
We own a small 1882 Victorian home that is furnished to match and we decorate for the different seasons and holidays accordingly. But when it comes to Christmas 🎄 we do the colors scheme of rainbows and have a new yearly ornament from Willow Tree. Most of the decorations are Victorian in design, but we make exceptions with ornaments to show our own personality and of course our son's and life's milestones.
You should do a roast my space Christmas edition next year ;)
ok..I cracked up when you hit Retro and threw up that tinsel tree..good one. Beautiful video, Thank you
My living and dining rooms are decorated in a formal style but with a unique color scheme. The family room has a much more casual feel and more colorful decorations.
Hi Nick, I helped decorate my son's tree. I went traditional and yes, symmetry is key! I used red & green with a plaid tree skirt. When I decorated my tree, I went champagne gold, classic gold & silver ornaments on a flocked faux tree and used a cream colored tree skirt. I placed cream colored throw pillows on the sectional as well.
Well done, you were so nice in this one lol😉thanks for the video Nick
Nick on a Wednesday!! I needed this.
Fantastic topic! Thank you for a great summary on how to create the perfect Christmas home in our style!
OMG! You mentioning retro style and decorations from my childhood reminded me of the Richard Scarry chain garland we had on our tree in the 80s! I hadn't thought about that garland in years! Might see if my parents still have it so i can get it off them for our tree!
My design style is Boho, and I have a 20" (50cm) tall tree that's my Earring Tree. I have a ton of earrings shaped like tiny Christmas ornaments. I decorate the tree with them, and on my way out the door to work this time of year, I grab a pair and wear them to work.
As always Nick, your ideas about Christmas decorating are EXCELLENT!
We have a family friend who collects nativity scenes. She's got them from a variety of countries (Vietnam, Ethiopia, Nepal, and many more) and styles. Her most recent addition was a COVID-19 style nativity scene. The 3 Wise Men were nurses in PPE, bringing hand sanitizer, masks, and TP, the farm animals were wearing masks, Joseph and Mary were 6ft apart from the manger on those little social distancing circles, and baby Jesus was holding syringes of vaccines.
Great conversation pieces.
That is hysterical!! I would love to see that nativity scene, lol
Happy holidays nick I hope 2024 is a new and better year for you. I know you went through a lot this year❤
Just what I needed, merry Christmas and happy holidays Nick 🤗
As I am giving my apartment an Art Deco makeover, I was hoping that style would show up in this video(a follow-up video probably couldn't hurt anything). One thing that has been acquired during this process is a nice antique hutch for the storage of bongs and other reefer paraphernalia.
This was so fun I’m definitely traditional/retro which to me is the true feeling of Christmas which to me is fun, cozy, and nostalgic.
“Heavy Handed” Christmas decorating 😂 This phrase is going to get some mileage!
My Christmas decor is a combination of folk and traditional. I have a lot of crafty-talented family members-so most of their ornaments are featured. Also, I’m fortunate to have wood turners in my family so I have a ton of wood tones. I don’t care for Christmas decor… so if it’s not on the tree you have to squint to see the Christmas
The whole video I was picturing a bright red Santa pillow with tacky lettering on your couch. "Let it snow."😂
Oooh, what a great idea for content! Love this, Nick! 🎄💖