How to get your home ready for Christmas

It’s back! 2018 has absolutely flown by, and we’re back to thinking about Christmas. Christmas gifts, the food, the decorations, planning events and seeing all of the family – what a crazy time of year!

Whether you’re dashing around with a full schedule or you like to keep things quiet, nothing is better as the nights get colder and the 25^th December draws ever closer, to make your home as festive and cosy as possible.

At QD Stores, Christmas begins all the way back in early September as the first deliveries start to hit our stores, and the photography for our site gets underway. This year has been extra exciting for us because we’ve seen our biggest ever Christmas range and there are so many different ideas and inspiration we’re getting for home decoration and festive-themed surprises.

• Outdoor Christmas Decorations:

How amazing does it look to pull up outside of your home and see the twinkle of Christmas lights illuminating the entrance. Complemented by a Christmas wreath it’s an invitation for all guests that will get them in the mood as soon as they arrive.

If you’ve got space in either the front or back garden, a winter display is a great idea and so much fun for kids; whether you go for a Santa’s grotto themed display, or maybe even a polar express look, there are plenty of options that can be easily achieved:

• Outdoor Christmas Display Ideas:

1. Santa’s grotto
2. Polar Express
3. Nativity scene
4. Santa and his reindeers
5. Lit snowmen
6. Joyeaux Noel

Our best advice is to pick a colour theme, so if your aiming for a traditional look with your outside lighting, red and gold is an excellent idea, or for winter and polar, white is your best option. For the crazy ideas or the contemporary, a multi-coloured display can be extremely fun!

• Christmas Trees:

The must-have for every home at Christmas time is the tree, the debate is never if, it’s when it’s going to go up. The other question for most homes is whether to go for an artificial or real-tree.

Now, there’s something extra-festive about the smell of a real Christmas tree in the home in December, which is usually accentuated by having a winter-scented candle in the room however, the magic is somewhat lost on December 28^th when the room is covered in pine needles, a pest that will sneak around the home until at least mid-January!

Artificial trees have been getting more and more realistic and the more you’re willing to invest in one, the better the quality you will get. Some are pre-lit and others are almost perfect replicas of the real thing, and the better-quality trees are guaranteed for 30 years.

• Indoor Christmas decorations for the home:

Colour scheme is again important when it comes to making the home look stylishly festive so it’s a good idea to pick a theme early on and buy your decorations around it, however some homes love the feel and occasion of items with sentiment attached so putting these at the forefront of your tree decorations and surrounding it means the focus is to buy plain colour decorations to help them stand out.

We’ve been collating some tips and ideas to give your home an extra-festive look this Christmas:

• Hessian sacks with personalised names
• Christmas-eve boxes for the foot of the bed
• Christmas lights for the banister
• Wall-display of Christmas cards
• Replacing the fruit bowl or candles on the coffee tables with festive bowls packed with the favourites: quality street or celebrations!
• Garlands and winter-themed tea lights dotted around the home
• Rope lights on the windows

• Cheap ways to decorate the home this Christmas

The team at QD love the little tips and tricks that help save on costs and Christmas is no different. For your card display, you could use a simple construction of string, tape and small pegs to attach your Christmas cards to the wall. Or you can use our Peg string lights (in the image above)

After selecting your main decorations including your lights, tree and accessories, you can add a little extra by taking an afternoon walk through the forest to collect berries, pinecones and cuttings of holly to make some homemade decorations. It’ll be a perfect way to kick-start the Christmas holidays.