Decorating Your Home for Christmas

There’s a lot going on a Christmas what with shopping, visiting friends and family and seasonal parties.  Decorating the house tends to be focused around the Christmas tree and we all put a lot of effort into decorating it.  But should we be considering more than just popping up the Christmas tree?

Seasonal candles

One of the best ways to enjoy the scents of winter and the Christmas season is through a candle and most companies have their own Christmas ranges.  These are often big on woody scents and seasonal smells as well as spices from the Christmas pudding.  But not everyone likes these strong and sometimes masculine smells so the option to stick with something that is a favourite all year round also works, such as vanilla.  Candles are also a great present, particularly personalised ones that allow you to add a special message to the candle jar including a name or a message that means something to you and the recipient.

If you have kids and don’t like the idea of real flames then the other option are diffusers.  These are usually jars or bottles filled with a scented liquid that come with sticks.  Insert the sticks into the jar and they absorb the liquid then evaporate into the room to create a gentle smell.  There are no flames involved and they have an equally long life span.

Fireplace decoration

If you have a fireplace or other feature in your living room, this often cries out for some seasonal decoration.  Whether you opt for the simple tinsel wreath or want to go for something more comprehensive, it isn’t an opportunity to be missed.  Wooden signs are a popular choice to hang above the fireplace and offer an instant Christmasmessage to anyone that enters the house when they are personalised.  Again, they make a great gift, particularly if a year is the first in their new home for a family.  It also makes for an ideal decoration for a baby’s bedroom, remembering their first Christmas that can be brought out each year.

If you don’t want too much clutter on the fireplace or are worried that you have a real fire and waving decorations could be a hazard, then a simple centrepiece could work well.  Candles are one choice and if you have kids or are young at heart, a snow globe is a great idea.  As well as traditional ones with village scenes and Santa Claus, modern versions often include cute teddies and fairies for those modern tastes.

Dining table decoration

Many people lay the table with special settings for Christmas including tableware for the occasion, candles and special serving dishes.  Special glasses can be added for each person with their own message added or otherwise, a Christmas personalised label on a bottle of Prosecco makes for a great Christmas present for someone who loves a glass of bubbly stuff with their Christmas lunch.  Wines and spirits can also have their own special bottle messages so place them on the table at the last moment for an extra surprise for someone special.

Christmas Traditions – The Snow Globe

From Santa Claus to reindeer, trees to baubles, there are many traditions we have associated with Christmas.  One of the most heart-warming and varied is the snow globe, that tiny world within a globe that instantly has a perfect snow covering with just the shake of a hand.  Yet compared to other traditions, the snow globe is a relative newcomer to the Christmas list.

History of the snow globe

The man credited with coming up with the idea of a snow globe was an Austrian man named Erwin Perzy.  Back in 1900 he lived in Vienna and came up with the concept with production starting five years later.  His company was called the Original Vienna Snow Globes and over a century later, the company still produces snow globes and is run by the grandson of the man, also called Erwin.

The idea for the snow globe came about in a total unexpected way – Perzy was trying to improve the brightness of the newly invented light bulb.  Looking to shoemakers of the time, who used a candle mounted inside a glass globe and got more light that way, his idea was to make a light bulb in the same way.  Unfortunately the idea wasn’t successful but he took his globe and one day added some semolina powder into it.  When he turned it around, the movement of the powder reminded him of snow falling.

After this, a miniature scene was added and for the first four decades of production, these were always including a tiny church.  After the Second World War, Perzy II took over production and widened the range.  Along came Christmas trees, Father Christmas and snowmen inside the tiny globes.  He also created a new material for their artificial snow – a family secret to this day!

Modern globes

Erwin Perzy III has been running his company since the 1980s and produces some 200,000 snow globes a year – though it only employs 30 people and half of these work from their own homes.  These snow globes are still made from glass as was the original design back in the 1900s and has produced globes for some of the most notable figures in the world, most recently for the children of US President Barack Obama.  Other famous snow globes that the company have made include the one used (and smashed) at the beginning of the film Citizen Kane in 1941. 

Currently, the company produce around 350 designs with around 20% of their orders being made up from customised designs that people order specifically.  There are even four different sized globes and the factory has a museum within it that allows kids to visit and see the history of one of their Christmas favourites.

Christmas Present

The world quickly grabbed the idea of the snow globe and many more companies now produce variations.  As well as the Christmas traditional scenes and trees, there are also now many modern versions including fairies and teddy bears, often with the facility to have personalised messages added to them.  All have that magical floating snow effect that Mr Perzy would recognise over 100 years since he first came up with the idea.