For me, home for the holidays conjures up an image of sitting by a roaring fire enjoying time with family and friends, making wonderful memories and being thankful for what I have. Of course, it also includes the aroma of fabulous holiday foods, soft music playing in the background, wonderful family traditions and an inviting home that’s warm and welcoming.

Being home for the holidays can be absolutely delightful, especially if you plan ahead. To be prepared for your holiday season at home, plan out your entertainment agenda as far ahead as possible. If you have more than one event that you’re hosting in your home, try to put the events close together, such as the same weekend, to reduce your workload. Decide on what menus you plan to serve and make the food ahead of time when you can, such as cookie dough, cheesecakes or other foods that can be prepared in advance. Try to overlap your menus also, to save on food preparation time.

When you’re planning your menu, try to pick a theme such as traditional turkey, seaside fare or perhaps an Asian cuisine. I like to mix it up some years and try different types of menus just to keep it interesting, although my kids have a hard time breaking from the traditional fare.

If you don’t have time to make all your food from scratch, then I recommend selecting the foods that are your specialty to prepare, and then purchasing the remaining items. That way, your guests will still be delighted that you have the holiday dishes that they love and look forward to all year. Once you have planned your menu, you can make menu cards to put at each place on your table or create one large menu for all to see.

For dinners, use your good china or nice plates, glasses and silverware for your dinner guests instead of paper goods, because that lets them know that they are important and valued. If you don’t have enough of one set of plates that match, add another set of plates that coordinate with your color scheme and give the appearance that you purposely mismatched your dishes. But, if you have a large holiday party that has many more guests than you have plates, then it’s acceptable to use paper goods that coordinate with your theme and colors.

When you have more guests for dinner than places at the table, then I suggest bringing in portable tables and setting up a dining area wherever you have space in your public areas. Unify your mismatched tables with beautiful material and centerpieces. And for the tablecloths, buy coordinating tablecloths, beautiful yardage at a fabric store or use items around your house such as quilts, spare window coverings, or bedspreads.
Mismatched chairs can also be united and given an air of elegance by wrapping tulle around the chair and pulling together at the back with a bow or greenery.

Just remember the rules to mixing different patterns. Start with a large bold pattern in a room and mix with secondary patterns such as checks, stripes, tone on tone, or another simple pattern with some of the same colors. Then, you can add a smaller pattern in a similar style with colors that match.

As you begin to decorate around your home, follow the same rules of decorating as you do with interior design. First, decide on a style or theme for your holiday decorating and ensure that the theme will fit into your home’s current décor. Once you’ve decided on a theme for your holiday decorating such as stars, angels, santas or snowmen, for example, then repeat that theme throughout your home. If you select stars as your theme, you could hang star ornaments from your Christmas tree, cut out star shapes on the top layer of double wrapped gifts, buy star motif accessories such as pillows, paint star designs on solid ornaments or windows and even create a star wreath to place over your fireplace. I suggest using a color scheme that coordinates with the colors you’ve already selected for your home so the holiday decorations will enhance your home, instead of detracting from it. I have dark tapestry color accents in one room of my house such as maroon, green, navy and gold, so I usually go with a maroon and honey gold holiday color scheme in that room that can easily transition from thanksgiving to Christmas just by replacing the orange color with green. Also, think about whether you want to focus on a more formal or rustic look in your holiday decorations and keep that decision in mind when selecting your holiday items. Repeat your holiday decorations and colors you’ve selected throughout your room, using balance and symmetry to complete your look. Vary the size and textures of your decorations to keep it interesting by mixing shiny items with rough natural textures and larger items with smaller ones.

Add lighting into your holiday decorating scheme also. Start by enhancing your curb appeal by beginning in your front yard and focus more energy on lighting specific areas for more impact such as a tree or the front door area. You can also add light outside with landscape lighting or luminaries, and light inside with candles and lamps in your windows to enhance your curb appeal.

Inside your home, create a warm inviting atmosphere by using less general lighting and more accent lighting such as lamps, directional lights and candles. Set the scene for your whole house by starting at the entrance to your home. Add wonderful ambient lighting and a poinsettia or another holiday decoration to set the tone.

Indoor silk trees strung with clear Christmas lights or lit from below with a light enhance your home’s interior along with scented candles that add to the overall ambiance by appealing to both your sense of sight and smell.
With scents like candles or potpourri, you can evoke wonderful past memories, the scent of pine and outdoors or the smell of baking treats.

If you have children, remember to include them in your holiday celebration and decorating too. Children can use toys or food to help you create a wonderful table setting in a creative theme. How about a tree made of gumdrops on a toothpick that have been stuck into a tree shaped piece of Styrofoam? Or how about an elaborate scene created by legos or tinker toys? Or why not help them make their own gingerbread house to be the table centerpiece?

In our house, our children are included also in our efforts during the holiday season to help the less fortunate by providing food, gifts and moral support. We invite others to share in our family celebrations and consider family traditions an extremely important part of our holiday, because they are part of who we are. Our traditions have been passed down or were created when we started our own family and they are very important part of our children’s lives. And as a child, I used to go to the farm every Thanksgiving and have dinner. I couldn’t wait to get to the farm, play with my cousins, inhale the fresh air and enjoy the wonderful meals made from farm grown food. Afterwards, we would make an adventure of playing in the woods and making wonderful memories together. Now at our house, each year, we began our Thanksgiving celebration telling what we’re thankful for. And we start our Christmas celebration on the night of Christmas Eve. That night, we each open one present in front of the fireplace by candlelight and enjoy the cookies and other goodies we baked earlier, while discussing the big day coming up.
We also set up a Christmas village scene with miniature houses, lighted streetlamps, a town square, evergreen trees, snow and figurines. Each member of our family is represented in this village scene with a figurine in their likeness each year and we have special ornaments that represent each of us on the tree.

As you begin to decorate your home for the holidays, create wonderful vignettes in different areas of your room and home. Start with your front door and drape fresh garland around it, hang a beautiful wreath or create another masterpiece using your theme. For example, if you picked snowmen as your theme, you could hang three different sized wreaths vertically together down your door in increasing size to look like a snowman. Just add twigs for arms and a cap with a scarf for the head.

In the great room, you begin with your fireplace, the focal point of your room. Drape your mantel with fresh or real looking garland, beautiful material, large scented candles or perhaps a wonderful collection of Christmas accessories in groupings of ones, threes or fives. If you use fresh garland, try adding natural elements such as pinecones, berries or real fruit like apples and drape the garland with a bold hued ribbon in an eye catching fabric. Tuck items from your theme into the garland and miniature lights to create a wonderful vignette. If you have a mirror or print above the mantel, drape it also or switch it out for a beautiful wreath or another large Christmas decoration. Add other decorated garlands throughout your home to create impact and visual interest such as on the stairs, banisters, buffet or piano. On your stairs, you can add tassels, ribbons or other beautiful decorations to your garland to create an over the top look for the holidays.

When you begin to decorate your tree, make sure you use a large quantity of lights to give the tree a “wow” factor. Think about your theme and pick some decorations that carry over that theme. If you want the focus on your lights and their color, select brightly colored lights, but if you want the focus on your ornaments, use clear lights that will enhance them. Try draping beautiful material, ribbon or cording around your tree and add an interesting tree skirt with a purchased skirt, favorite quilt or extra fabric.

For your presents under the tree, use different types of wrapping materials and bows, depending on the style you want to portray. Some of the options could be butcher paper, left over wallpaper, broken jewelry, tassels or cord.

In your dining room, decorate your table to impress. Start with a beautiful centerpiece or centerpieces. Create a story as you put together your table and make it inviting to your guests. I like to decorate my table with a wide array of items. I start by deciding a theme or direction, plus the style and color that I want. I create a centerpiece or centerpieces that will fit with my plate collection and I build from there. If I want to add height to my centerpiece, I place it on a pedestal or footed plate. Then, I add the other decorations until I’ve achieved the look I want such as greenery, garland or ribbons. Once I’ve selected the centerpiece and other decorations, I decide if I want a fabric covering on the table such as a tablecloth, table runner or placemats. Then, start putting together my masterpiece that becomes an original piece of art.

Above the table, I like to drape greenery, hang cloches with candles, dangle Christmas decorations or suspend a wreath in a horizontal position. The wreath, from a distance, appears to float in mid air, fully decorated with a halo appearance. Another great look over a table is an upside down Christmas tree or a huge tree branch suspended overhead with dangling decorations and lights. If you want real candlelight in your chandelier, purchase Candlebulb crystal inserts for your chandelier light sockets to hold the candles.

Also, remember that fresh flowers and fruit are a great way to decorate your table, wreaths, garland and other decorations to give them life. If you want to enhance the look of your fruit decorations, you can just sugar the fruit to give it a more elegant look. I also recommend using clear vases, jars and bowls to hold decorative items such as Christmas balls, pinecones, nuts or fruit.

Your windows are great place to place decorations such as a wreath hanging from a long piece of ribbon or a dangling arrangement of ornaments. Bring out your collections that go with your holiday theme and display them in groupings for the most impact.