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When Christmas is all wrapped up you may feel a loss of that seasonal sparkle. Here are my top 10 tips for maintaining the festive spirit year-round.
It’s that time of year again; when the decorations make their ascent up the pearly stairs to the loft, leaving your home decidedly bare. The post-Christmas experience is a tough journey to traverse. Suddenly, all of the sparkly Christmas cheer has evaporated to flat beer and the place where your Christmas tree once stood is now a baron wasteland but for the odd tumbleweed.
Tips for retaining some of the Christmas cheer throughout the year
When the party season is over and the cold nights are forever at your heel it’s easy to slip into a cosy home-bound stasis. Here are my top tips for retaining some of the Christmas cheer throughout the year.
Create A Feature Wall
Ok, so it’s been done (and done some more) but the feature or ‘accent’ wall is a classic way of incorporating a central theme or focus into a room. Painting a single wall or adjacent walls a contrasting colour, wallpaper design, or a wall decal can breathe new life into a room without the need for a complete overhaul. With your new handiwork on display, you won’t even remember where the Christmas tree went!
Lighting
It is not uncommon for many of us to experience the Winter blues, especially with the festive season over and the return to work looming. Just as light therapy is used to alleviate the symptoms of people who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a grouping of candles flickering away or a colourful lamp can instantly make a room feel warm and inviting thus improving your mood. Just remember never to leave candles unattended and keep away from children, pets, furnishings, and fabrics.
Fairy lights also make great features when used creatively. Wrap your fairy lights around the interior frame of a paper lampshade (taking care not to let the lights come into contact with the paper). Attach a length of cane inside the lamp to maintain the shape and you instantly have a decorative floor lamp. Paint the lampshade with a complimenting color or design in your room to give it your own personal stamp.
Reuse your Christmas cards
If you’re like me, you’ll harbour some guilt when it comes to disposing of cards sent from loved ones, so you collect them until they grow in their piles. You could probably redecorate your house with the amount amassed over the years! Why not transform them into practical homeware with fond memories attached?
Create a set of placemats using an assortment of cards (choose a theme or colour, perhaps to match your dining room) and cut your desired shapes from the cards. Arrange on a laminator sheet leaving a 1″ border and laminate. (If you do not have a laminator use self-adhesive sheets supplied at discount stationery shops). When making coasters (cut 4 circles from one laminated sheet), use a mug or glass as a template.
Perennial Christmas decorations
On average, we spend six years of our lives fulfilling one of the most basic of functions; eating. Christmas probably accounts for a good 2 years in its own right! There’s no better way to enjoy food than with your loved ones at Christmas, sitting across a beautiful table centrepiece.
Create your own centrepiece for use throughout the year. Using a doughnut-shaped piece of florist’s oasis or foam, add to it your choice of materials using metal wire or a glue gun to attach, i.e. layered real/synthetic flowers to create a bright look or patterned fabric with fur edging perhaps? From beads & gems strewn on wires to preparing a fondue-style edible centrepiece, the possibilities are endless and you’ll have something you can use again and again.
Eat Yourself Happy
Whilst on the subject of food, it is worth taking a look at what we consume. Certain foods are scientifically proven to improve our mood. Happy foods are those rich in amino acids called tryptophan, responsible for producing the mood-enhancing chemical; serotonin.
This chemical is found amongst our Christmas leftovers, chicken, turkey, and anything rich in carbohydrates. Tomatoes, tuna, sunflower seeds, and some nuts such as walnuts and brazil nuts (in strict moderation) can help raise your spirits post-Christmas and throughout the year.
From Old To New
Have a clear out of your wardrobe and embark on an eco craft project. Make a new piece of clothing or customise an old item using jewels and buttons etc. You can also create your own screenprint designs to revamp your clothes. There are many tutorials online to create your own screenprints on a budget. Create a patchwork quilt, a door stop, or a draught excluder – the list is endless and it’s a great way of reusing what you already have instead of spending money you may not have!
Treat Yourself
For every medium, to a big purchase, you make, resist the urge to reach for your purse/wallet and find the same item for at least half price. The sales have started and shops are slashing prices. Do your research; shop around (online and on foot), be savvy, get inventive, barter to your heart’s content – just stay within the realms of the law!
Put the money saved towards that special something you wished you had received at Christmas! Whether it be a short break or a new car – you can have it in half the expected time. You deserve it!
Advent Calendar Reward Chart
With the help of your children, Create an advent calendar-style reward chart for the countdown to Christmas. A great incentive for children to mind their p’s and q’s not just in the run-up to Christmas but all year!
Throw A Christmas-Themed Party In The Height Of Summer!
If the aforementioned tips fail to recapture the sparkle of Christmas past, throw a Christmas-themed party, in Summer! Fancy dress, Christmas-inspired food, and drink (think turkey canapés and berry punch!).
Spread The Love
Finally, help the warm Christmas glow you gained from the delights of Christmas live on by volunteering your time at a local charity or to a worthwhile cause. By helping someone in need you are creating an atmosphere of love and well-being that endures long past a few hours of your time. If you don’t have much spare time to commit, try to do a good deed a day. You’ll soon reap the rewards of goodwill, and that’s something that money can’t buy.
Happy New Year and Happy New You!
Image Credit: depositphotos.com
