Tag: Simplicity

Tip #2: Embellish What You Have

Prior to Christmas, I have to limit my visits to home and craft stores, lest my home and bank account be overrun with new “making merry” supplies. (Hint: They sound more justified when you call them “supplies” instead of decorations!)

But over the years (and few Marie Kondo episodes later), I am becoming more practical about how much I’m willing to store and the time and energy it takes to deal with it all. Do you have a job, children, or routines that can be paused for the entire month of December? Probably not, and yet most of us take on what amounts to a part-time job when Christmas rolls around each year.

There are others, wiser and more creative than I, that can address ways to simplify your “To Do” list for Christmas. This post focuses on the decorating portion of the season. Specifically, how can we use what we have so that we spend less and have less to store at the end of the season?

After the tree and stockings, the mainstays, have been put up, I embellish with the following formula:

Start with a–

Then add one (or several) of these inexpensive (or free!) and small (or disposable!) items:

Check out my YouTube video to see this formula in action.

Here are some examples of simple embellishments using this formula:

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Full Disclosure: When my husband heard the part about valuing simplicity, he responded nobly, “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

Yeah. Well. Let’s just say, I’m in progress, like everybody else!

Check back for the last tip in this series. Happy decorating!

*Google “Free Christmas Printables” for options. Printables used in this post can be found here: https://www.sixcleversisters.com/6-free-printable-christmas-signs/

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year . . .”

Until it gets out of hand, right?

If you’re a creative person, this season holds a wonderland of opportunities to let out that innovation: gift giving, wrapping, unique ways to celebrate, and, of course, decorating. Let imagination explode! (Think: Flint Lockwood’s “Party-in-a-Box” from Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.) However, the Achille’s heel of a creative person is limits. You must know when to reign in the quantity and quality of your ideas before you’re drowning in them.

In this series, we take a look at three different approaches to decorating that are mindful of limits, so you have room to truly enjoy this blessed time of year.

Tip #1: Pick Three

Pick three main areas on which to focus all your merry magic. Go as crazy as you want to on those, but then, call that enough! (Or, at least, approach everything else with minimal effort.)

Common areas of focus are the tree (obvs.), the front door, the mantle, a table centerpiece, an entryway, a shelf, buffet, or credenza, etc.

Ask yourself which areas are natural focal points in your home? Which areas will you spend the most time in? Or, where will you spend most of your significant moments? (ie. spending time with family, putting your feet up and allowing yourself a moment to relax, etc.)

These are the areas that deserve your time and energy. Sometimes, sanity (health, season of life, children, etc!) requires letting go of the less significant opportunities to have any energy or time for the important ones. It’s OKAY–sometimes wise–to NOT pull out every decoration you own and go “ELF” all over every room in the house.

If this approach is just entirely too strict for you, try a modification of this principle of three:

*Rotate your decorations from year to year. Maybe you pull out that elaborate Christmas card display one year and the next, those cards land in a simple stack so you have the room and energy to enjoy that angel collection.

*Maybe the tree and fireplace/stockings are your two staple areas and the last area changes from year to year, allowing you explore new projects.

*Pick three areas on which to concentrate your creative magic, and delegate the rest. But mind your expectations of those delegates, or your “ELF” will quickly turn “Scrooge!”

*Perhaps you let the tree be a “given” and pick three other areas on which to concentrate.

I heard some of you say, “But, I do it for the kids!”

No you don’t–at least not entirely. My kids are old enough for me to say with confidence that the bulk of their happy Christmas memories will be simple things: that mug of hot chocolate by the fire, snuggled up for favorite Christmas stories, and mostly, a relaxed, present, YOU.

So, if you have the time and energy to deck every hall, more power to ya. For the rest of us, being choosy is our best chance to foster merry, without killing the season with unrealistic expectations.

Photo Credits from left to right: Angelina Jollivet, Kristopher Roller, Luke Southern, Arun Kuchibhotla, (mine), (mine), Oana Craciun, and Chuttersnap –all from Unsplash.com