Cathy Beesey, Founder Stories Connecting Us 

Christmas 2024! My love of Christmas is being with family and friends, sharing special times together, finding the perfect gift; with my absolute favourite decorating our home. I am not religious, although I am inspired by traditions and without religion my Christmas traditions are about colour and themes of countries travelled and once a vintage theme using Christmas decorations and anything else I could find that had belonged to my parents.  

When to decorate? 

In Australia most say from the start of December onwards. In the USA, a few days after Thanksgiving, is considered a good time. In Italy 8 December. In the UK the start of Advent which is Sunday December 1 or mid Advent, while others wait until the 12 days of Christmas to decorate. And in ancient Roman times the tree was decorated midday on Christmas Eve. 

Whenever you decide here are my 6 decorating tips for Christmas 

Tip 1: Colours and Themes 

One of my favourite themes is a Spanish Inspired Christmas choosing the colours of red, black and white to represent Spain. I prefer silver to gold so silver would complement these strong, vivid colours. When we travelled through Spain, I bought fans in the colours of red, black, white and silver and two with gold because I couldn’t resist them. These gold fans would go in our formal dining room.

Other years I choose one or two colours usually with white, and either silver or gold. One of my favourites was blue and purple with white and silver. And in 2023 grey and bright pink with Murano glasses from Italy. 

Spanish Theme – Our Dining Room

Tip 2: Decorating our Christmas Tree

With the theme or colours selected it’s easy to go through our collection of Christmas decorations and select the ones to use for this year’s theme. I love ribbons on the tree and over the years I have added to my collection: white, black, gold and silver ones. Lots of cheap flashing lights and that’s it.

Vintage Christmas

Tip 3: A Drink’s Station

Drinks Station, best idea ever: a stunning large ice bucket used for special occasions becomes the feature of our Drinks Station. Tables covered with round tablecloths and a vintage drinks’ trolley complete the space. Glasses ready to use making it easy for everyone to help themselves throughout the day and night. At our drinks station there is always a choice of drinks: sparkling wines, white wines, beers and tap and sparkling water on ice. Red wines and non-alcoholic punch with lots of ice. The selection of drinks matching the theme and the menu.

Tip 4: Table Designs

Table settings are designed for different parts of our home: formal dining room, casual dining room and our outdoor living area. The Christmas theme reflected throughout our home.

Greens of the Forest Christmas Table Design

Spanish Theme Christmas Table Design

Tip 5: Interactive and Fun

Even though I love my traditions of Christmas it is good to create some surprises that give something new to the experience for our families and friends. One Christmas baubles were decorated with each person’s name. On arrival they added their decoration to the tree. For our Spanish Inspired Christmas when our granddaughters were younger, we bought flamenco dresses, a special fan as a gift and canastas to play.  

Tip 6: Menu

The food is prepared and presented by Stan, my husband and is always delicious. I’ve left the best till last. For our Spanish theme the food had a hint of Spanish influence. Tapas: cherries, cashews, smoked cheese, brie cheese, a range of biscuits and olives. As a special feature during tapas there was beetroot cured salmon and lemon, lime prawns. The beetroot cured salmon was eaten from some small white Spanish plates. For main course there was turkey stuffed with cranberry, sage and pistachio, pork and beef wellington. The meats were served with smashed potatoes, pumpkin, carrot, parsnip and beans. Desserts were a treat being provided by our family: Limoncello Trifle (created by me), Ambrose, berries, cherries and filled chocolates decorated for Christmas. All were delightful and provided a wonderful finish to our meals.

Christmas 2024! Greens of the Australian landscape with Pink

I am beginning the decorating experience on 1 December, today. Follow on Pinterest to see the decorations for this year and lots of other ideas. https://au.pinterest.com/cathybeesey/

I invite you to share your Christmas stories. Submit on this site.

So this is Christmas 

And what have you done 

Another year over 

And a new one just begun 

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun 

The near and the dear ones 

The old and the young 

A very Merry Christmas 

And a Happy New Year 

Let’s hope it’s a good one

Without any fear 

John Lennon, 1971 

Copyright Cathy Beesey, December 2024. All rights reserved; this intellectual property belongs solely to Cathy Beesey.