Indoor Decorating

Indoor decorating

95 foor Christmas tree in shopping mall
In last month’s PlanetChristmas magazine, I shared some tips on how to get started with a large scale Christmas display at your home. It’s time to follow up with examples of how important planning is in the world of commercial decorating. Perhaps the most common object associated with the holiday season is the Christmas tree. Add animation and musical synchronization to that tree and you have an incredible crowd pleaser. Many shopping centers realize this and are starting to install giant trees within their venues. Unfortunately, most don’t realize the amount of planning that goes into a successful display. It’s…
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More Christmas village tips
Christmas villages began during the 1700’s with the Moravians building a Putz. What’s a Putz? It’s a display featuring the nativity and tells the story though different scenes about Mary and Joseph on their journeys leading to the birth of Jesus. As the years went by these displays became more elaborate and by the end of the 1700’s people would have nativity scenes in their homes under the tree, on the fireplace mantle and even in china cabinets. By the beginning of the 1800’s these scenes started to have other items added and stories began to unfold. By the Victorian…
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Indoor displays
It has been slow going this year setting up everything for our six open houses in December. There have been lots of new things to add, old things to repair, unloading and unpacking, thousands of trips up and down the ladder to reach everything on those darn top shelves and hundreds of trips up and down the stairs with my bad knees. Running cords to the lights, music boxes and animation is always a major chore, especially since you can’t have any of those ugly wires showing. It has been lots of hard work but it’s my obsession and I…
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Christmas village tips
Here are a few tips that will make your next Christmas village scene a step above the rest. Polystyrene. Buy a few sheets of polystyrene from a hardware store. It is used as home insulation and comes in 4×8 sheets. This one item serves dozens of purposes in the scene. Small pieces can be placed under buildings to add height and to provide tunnel space for cords. It can be stacked and carved into a mountain, glacier, hill or cliff. Nothing is worse than a flat town. Carve a 1 x 5 foot length into a mountain range and place…
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Indoor decorating
It’s getting really close to setup time. I’ve been working on my indoor display since the middle of September. The trees are up and in place, but not completely decorated yet. I’ll be totally done inside the house the day before Halloween. I’m certainly keeping my fingers crossed. The next project is to set up my Christmas village. I move it around and change things up every year because that’s what makes it fun. I know you’ve checked out on PlanetChristmas Richard Holdman’s picture of his father’s Christmas village around the tree and Chris Berglund’s new layout he built for…
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Indoor decorating
Let’s pick up from last month. You’ve got your theme and have decided where and what to do with your tree. What’s next? Gather your Christmas goodies, be it Santa, snowman, angels, country, modern or whatever and start decorating. You don’t have to have tons of everything to make your home look great during the holidays. Do your tree, hang some pine bough around the doors, add lights, some bows, floral picks, ornaments, whatever suits you. It’s your indoor display so make sure you do something you like. Remember the rule of three. Always decorate with odd numbers of items,…
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Living Christmas Tree
Once upon a time, there was a little girl whose father worked on a farm with hardly a tree in sight and about twelve miles from the middle of nowhere. Her family was poor and lived in the farmer’s basement. One Christmas they could not afford a tree, so the father made a board to hold one string of Christmas lights and displayed it on the farmer’s mantle. The little girl and her brother were allowed to go upstairs to the farmer’s living room to sit on the couch and look at the lights as long as they were very,…
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So you think you’re a star?
Have you got the music in you? More specifically, have you got the CHRISTMAS music in you? If you’ve ever dreamed of producing your own CD of Christmas music, wait no longer! Life is too short to sit around and dream. With record companies losing profits every day, now is the time to jump in with both feet and begin your career as an independent recording artist. Especially since there are now so many ways to have your music heard even without the backing of a big record company. As they say at the Nashville Songwriters Association, “It all begins…
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Indoor displays
Let’s talk Christmas trees. I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures of Andrew Albertson’s trees. They are absolutely gorgeous, right? Let’s face it, that man knows how to decorate. Want to do the same in your own home? Wonderful! In order to do it, you have to have more than one tree and your best bet is to hit the after-Christmas sales when they go 50-90% off. As far as trees go, the sky is the limit. You can find pre-lit, multi-color, all white, incandescent, LED, white, silver, green, the other green or just about any type/size that you could possibly…
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Host a mini-PLUS
Back in 2002 several PlanetChristmas enthusiasts started talking about having some sort a gathering where really serious decorators could come together, share experiences and learn from each other. From that mere glimmer of an idea sprang what we now call PLUS (PlanetChristmas Lights Up Symposium) and it is our official worldwide expo where we come together and talk all things Christmas. There’s nothing better than being around others with the same interests as you. The first PLUS was held in late July, 2003 just south of Nashville where 125 people came together and had a great time. With each succeeding…
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