Highbrow holiday
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Actually Good Things is a Friday-morning newsletter with product recs and reflections from a shopping editor.
This week—while admiring the devotedly red-and-green set design of Home Alone and the wise choice to cast children as elves in The Santa Clause—I’m enumerating my holiday decor.
I’ve zeroed in on a tasteful, cohesive aesthetic that aligns with my everyday decor. It’s not over-the-top, and it’s not Ralph Lauren Christmas. No, it’s something else: more modern, more posh yet still classic and cozy.
These are actually good things I use and do to create a highbrow holiday look in my home.*
Curated Christmas tree
No one’s wrong in the debate over real vs. fake Christmas trees. But for my household, it’s faux because:
It’s not messy
It’s pre-lit (easy-peasy)
It’s the exact right height
It can be put up as early as we please (usually Thanksgiving weekend)
Our 10-foot tree kisses the ceiling (because home decor elements sized to-scale with the room make a huge visual difference). The “warm” lights aren’t really all that warm, so I took a gold acrylic paint pen and scribbled on each individual bulb to give the whole thing a warmer, literally gilded glow.
Before the ornaments go on, I drape a few strings of beaded garland. Then I take satin ribbon pieces (about 2 feet long each) and tie bows onto sprigs all over the tree, followed by diagonally tucked pieces of thick wired ribbon to make it look like it’s woven through the branches.
Next are ornaments in specific colors that go with our existing living room decor: black, white, gold, gray, brown, bronze, ivory, and silver.
This color scheme is more inclusive and less boring than you may think. For instance, leopard print, disco balls, stormtroopers, various animals, and my beloved MacKenzie-Childs Courtly balls all fit the vision. (We merge highbrow with whispers of lowbrow—it’s the millennial way.)
This year, I added a bee, a pretzel, and a carton of eggs from World Market.
Complementing gift wrap
To elevate things further, consider complementing gift wrap. It doesn’t have to be all one color or a single pattern à la the Kardashians (bless them). Still, a few prints in one to three colors can look quite nice.
I did primarily black one year (chic, chic, chic!). Another year was red and white, and most years I include an assortment of kraft-paper brown.
I tie roughly half the gifts with ribbon, and the rest I just neatly wrap, always securing with double-sided tape for a more seamless finish. And I use plain kraft gift tags.
Tip: If you think you’re a bad gift-wrapper, watch a one-minute YouTube tutorial. I did this a decade ago and consider myself well above average.
Tiny trees, trinkets + finishing touches
On the mantle, floating shelves, and buffet cabinet are pre-lit garlands to match the tree—also warmed up with a gold acrylic paint pen.
Then it’s lots of little trees scattered around: bottle brush, wooden, illuminated glass, conical, etc., etc., with a bunch of battery candles for ambient light.
One of my favorite touches is these tree-print decorative pillow covers (in my signature black-and-white colorway, of course). Trust me when I say these are the best throw pillow inserts—lofty, squishy, and “choppable” for that perfect tuck (IYKYK). Tip: Get an inch bigger than the cover for a fuller look, like a 19x19 insert for an 18x18 cover.
The stockings are impersonal. We have about 10 plain-ish knitted ones and pull out as many as we need each year, depending on who’s having Christmas with us. Then I write names on these wooden tags with a white paint pen.
Frame TV
My husband and I are aligned on being a TV house because of sports (him) and, well, let’s be honest: Television is among the greatest human pleasures. (The “I don’t watch TV” flex is so last decade.)
We unabashedly have TVs in many rooms, three of which are the Samsung Frame hung within a gallery wall (and professionally wired for a cord-free finish). I change the picture every month or so and like to have something festive up for the holidays.
The bottom line: Though I aim for classy overall, a touch of kitschiness is just fine during the holidays. Yes, I like specific colors and decline more than half of my kids’ decorating ideas. Sure, I relish people telling me my home looks like a catalog. But I’m not a complete monster.
*Some products with affiliate links might earn me a small commission.
What I’ve written lately:
The Daily Beast | Gift Ideas for Biohackers and the Longevity-Obsessed
What I’m reading lately:
The Atlantic | Have Yourself an Early Little Christmas
Penance, a novel by Eliza Clark
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