Holiday decorating: keep it simple and happy

Create a holiday tablescape with some of your favorite décor and leave it up for the entire season. A nice touch: try a pretty, petite wreath on the back of dining chairs for a festive gathering. All décor and furnishings from Ballard Designs. Photo: Ballard Designs.

Wrenda Goodwyn • special to the Fort Myers News-Press • November 30, 2019

Let me guess. Chances are that you’ve barely recovered from Thanksgiving and you’re thinking (stressing) about the fact that Christmas is 25 short days away. This really can be the most beautiful time of year.

Everything seems to have a softer glow. People we run into in our daily lives seem a little softer as well. It’s the time of year where we are wrapping things up and looking hopefully to a new year. We are fortunate to live in Southwest Florida this time of year where not only the weather is beautiful, but the area is filled with seasonal events that you don’t find anyplace else.

But the holidays can be complicated.

Travel plans. Friends and family commitments. Shopping. Transforming your home into a Hallmark movie set. So much to do and so little time. As a Southwest Florida interior decorator, I see the stress that my clients put themselves under to “get everything done.” My advice: don’t.

A good lesson

At this time last year, I had just moved into a new home and was still getting settled. The thought of pulling my Santa collection (along with snowmen) out of boxes to clutter up my still not-quite-finished home, gave me nightmares.

It was a real lesson and set the tone for my future holiday decorating. I learned that that less is more when it comes to the holidays. I put up a tree (two). Put a wreath on the door. Added fresh flowers and fresh scents. That was it. And it was fine. I will do a little more this year but not much.

Enjoy the holidays: that’s what it’s all about.

Give yourself a break this year and make it about you. Take the time to actually enjoy the season instead of running back and forth to the mall to buy plastic things to decorate your home. You can still have a great holiday and live through it happy and calm. A few suggestions:

• Keep it simple. If it’s not too late, don’t go crazy with the decorating. Remember: it all has to come down and gets stored in a few weeks.

A little something in each room. For the bedroom, fresh greenery, a wreath and a wrapped package. Easy and pretty. Décor and furnishing from Ballard Designs. Photo: Ballard Designs

• Do the things in your home that make you happy all year. Fresh flowers. A pretty scent.

• Don’t wait too long. Make a plan this weekend and get started so it doesn’t all pile up on you.

• Use what you have. Skip a year of buying anything and go with what you already have.

• Pick a look that goes with your home’s décor instead of trying to create something that doesn’t work and leaves you frustrated.

For example: my home is done in a beach/coastal décor. So, this year I decided on a white Christmas tree with pink and turquoise. It’s a little crazy but stay with me on this. The tree is on my lanai and sits in an old, antique row boat that my husband pieced back together and repurposed for our décor. You can read about the boat at https://tinyurl.com/wyzzltv.

And this is the boat today and my lanai tree this year, here it is. A little Key West vibe.

• Don’t put all of your decorations out. Pick a few and be done with it.

• Declutter at the end of the holiday season. Take what you can’t use and donate it to someone who can use it.

• Do a little something in each room. A small table tree. Wrapped presents. Fresh flowers

• Create a tablescape on your dining table and leave it there the entire holiday season. Candles, flowers, small trees, a bowl of glass balls that match your décor. Use whatever you love. Switch it out a few times during the season.

• For me, the lights make the holiday season. Use lots of them around your tree, outdoors, on your porch or lanai.
Enjoy this most beautiful time of year. I will be back in 2020!

Wrenda Goodwyn is a Southwest Florida interior decorator, A.S.I.D. associate and gold member of the Interior Redecorators Network. She helps homeowners throughout Southwest Florida with timeless, affordable ways to create beautiful spaces and solves decorating problems. Her article appears the first Saturday of each month. For more information visit her website at spectacularspaces.com. Call her at 949-1808 or e-mail wrenda@spectacularspaces.com. For more decorating tips, articles and photos, visit spectacularspaces.com/blog