Welcome friends! We hope you all had more than enough to eat last week for Thanksgiving and are ready for round two of the bizarro 2020 holiday season.

While food, desserts (lots and lots of desserts ), and presents are the most thrilling part of the holidays, cultivating an inviting space for sharing and celebrating is paramount and will not go unnoticed. It's all about aesthetics and comfort this season.

Recently, many of us have remodeled or, at the very least, refurnished or redecorated our home interiors to strike a synchronized harmony between work/school from home and fostering some semblance of sanity.

Weeeelllllllll...

It's time to put back on your crafting smock or gas station jumpsuit with "Harold" sewn on the chest and get to work! You have to admit, though, that drinking eggnog and putting up colorful lights and trees and whatever other curiosities you have floating around is more fun than work.
AND, we're gonna go out on a limb here and guess that some of you started your holiday festooning back in August. Uh-huh, we know, no judgments here.

If you find yourself struggling between pulling the 1970s disco decor out of the attic or purchasing some new embellishments, maybe we can help spark a few tasteful, or not, considerations.

METALLIC

OK, so let's backpedal for a moment, shall we? The style and etiquette connoisseurs of planet earth have informed us that there may be a revival at this moment for your ornaments and fixtures collecting dust in that frightful basement riddled with cobwebs. One such article is your gold aluminum Christmas tree from 1965.

Oh, yes, my favorite reading companions, your eyes have not deceived you. Metallic furnishings are HOT right now! Silver snowflakes, loads of garland, and gleaming magenta ornamental balls and bells will illuminate your abode with cheer and trigger those wild memories of Studio 54.

FARMHOUSE

Having the interior of your home gleaming like the Vegas strip at night may not be for everyone. So for you, we have a more understated classically Americana suggestion. The warming blend of country farmhouse and shabby chic will keep your family feeling so snug; they will never want to leave home.

Images of rustic barns with wreaths, knitted stockings with names, ribbon-wrapped trees with white lighting, and holiday signage or heavy warms throws with "Let it Snow" or "Jingle Bells" inscribed will imbue any home with an atmosphere of peace and love.

MAXIMAMALIST

For some strange reason, this year, we're into maximalist decorating like the more, the merrier, the kitschier, the better. We want all of the colors and all of the things in a similar vein to Debra Denise Purcell's Holidays Blessings canvas print. It's nesting at its best without being pregnant; well, unless you are, then that's perfect timing!

We're going to enter the bowels of our underground vault to fetch the giant golden angel and velvet bows, the Frosty the snowman and Rudolph statues, and whatever else surfaces from holidays past. Oh, and you bet your bottom dollar the giant multi-hued, tandem flashing lights will be trimming the exterior of our humble abode, bright and obnoxious a la Clark Griswold.

NOSTALGIC

We must admit that our current flavor for flashier flare isn't our usual selection; however, it's a need in this particular year of surrealism. Nostalgic objects typically tug at our heartstrings. Vintage holiday TV specials, including A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Year Without a Santa Claus, reduce us to a five-year-old child. 

Vintage Santa and Mrs. Claus dolls, Nutcrackers, Gingerbread people, and metal train sets from the early 1900s choo chooing 'round the tree transport us directly to the snowy North Pole. Although we didn't exist in the first part of the 20th century, the holidays seemed more beguiling, family-oriented, and celebratory. 

 BLUE

We associate a color with everything. For example, the colors red and green are symbolic of Christmas, the colors black and orange with Halloween, and pink and purple with Easter. The color blue, associated with Hanukkah, has also become a primary color for the overall holiday season.

Adorn your dining room table with beautiful royal blue checkered patterned table cloths and napkins with decadent blue candles in a sterling silver candle holder. Silver and blue tree ornaments will incorporate a certain degree of elegance to the usual holiday decorum.

As much as we're partial to specific articles in our holiday arsenal, we're game to try all of these ideas and then some over the next few seasons. And if you have any innovative seasonal decorating ideas, we would love to hear about them!