Having Fun with Holiday Color
Seasons greetings, Fluerettes!
Now that we have completely inundated ourselves in turkey and mashed potatoes, it’s time to get ready for Christmas parties!
As we all know, there are certain colors that just scream “Christmas!”. There is nothing wrong with tradition, but the last thing we want to feel when we look at our holiday decor is “stale” or “boring”. Each year, I wrestle out my tried and true decor out of storage, but I love finding new items to add to my mantle or shelving. And if there is anything that we have all learned lately, it is that our time to celebrate is sacred, so why not change it up and have some fun!
Let’s Talk Neutrals
If you’re looking to go outside of the box this year, a trend that has truly caught our attention is the neutrals! When you hear “neutral”, you may be thinking “um, boring” but neutral doesn't mean just plain white, friends! I’m talking about mixed metals, rose gold, champagne, and all of those goodies that add sparkle and shine to our holiday. Just imagine with me, a gorgeous fresh evergreen tree, adorned with champagne and rose gold ornaments, silver tinsel, with a lush ivory tree skirt and warm white lighting. I’m here for it.
Keep it Traditional, please!
Color is bold and fun, but occasionally you will find that there can be too much of a good thing and less is more. If you’re a traditional Christmas individual, and your palette falls to the red, green, and white combo, visually it may be better to just choose only 2 of the 3 colors. The impact will be greater when you focus on a specific combination. I personally love mixed reds with warm white lighting. Incorporating deeper tones of burgundy and/or flowers with red-white variegation really brings new life to your standard red decor, and the use of fresh evergreens gives everything such a wonderful, earthy feel (not to mention it smells amazing).
What else?!
If neutrals aren’t your game, but traditional Christmas colors don’t speak your language either, try incorporating some colors that you don’t immediately feel are considered “holiday”. Blues, purples, hot pinks, etc. - all have a place for the holidays, it’s just about how you use them together. I don’t recommend always using a rainbow of colors, but the pairings of hot pinks and golds, purples with silver, blues with whites all make me feel happy and give a fun vibe to the celebration.
My mother loved decorating for Christmas, and it made my siblings and I look forward to the holidays. We knew the decor was coming out IMMEDIATELY after Thanksgiving. She always had two fresh trees, a large one upstairs and a smaller one downstairs. One year, she really threw us for a loop. She decided she was going to do an artificial tree for our downstairs setting. My mom loved the fresh trees so we were truly shocked by this information, but she had a plan and she knew what she wanted. Much to our surprise, she comes home with a WHITE tree. We thought she had lost her mind! We said “Mom, why? This is so weird…” and her response was “Just wait, you’ll see.” So, she went off on her decorating journey and we went about our adolescent lives. When we all gathered together at home, we went downstairs to check out my mother’s crazy, mental breakdown tree. When I told you, our jaws dropped to the floor. It was honestly one of the most beautiful trees we had ever seen. She did entirely different shades of all blue ornaments, some light silver accents, and with the warmth from the white tree when lit, it was simply stunning. Since her passing, my sister has adopted the mass collection of blue ornaments, which continued to grow after the first year of “the white tree” as family members took note of our new interesting holiday tradition. This moment of my childhood definitely changed my outlook on holiday color choices and really expanded my views on Christmas decor.
So if you’re looking for ways to bring the holiday cheer to your home, don’t be afraid to play with color and think outside of the box!
Happy Holidays to you and yours, from the Floral Fêtes family! See you next year ;)
Written by:
Katie Nelson
Floral Fêtes Designer and Color Enthusiast