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Have you bought your tree yet? If you weren’t a part of what felt like half the country buying one last weekend then you may well be buying yours this weekend, to be honest I put this in the normal category of people, but I may be alone here. Well, the tree is up in the Design Soda house, and this year with much pomp and ceremony as I actually painted the room before it’s arrival. We are in the mid way point of a makeover which I’m excited to be showing you my plans for next week and having committed to the perfect new shade (Dead Salmon by Farrow & Ball) I was too impatient to allow festivities to begin without it. The tree is either an extra adornment to the transforming room or the wall a perfectly pretty backdrop to the tree depending on which way you like to look at it!

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I love this time of year, Christmas is all about the anticipation for me, I will admit that I find it a little fraught theses days with so many commitments and events piling up just as I want to be sitting with my child painting fir cones and making paper garlands. But there’s almost nothing I like more than bringing in the tree. This year we went for an Ikea bargain, where you can pick up a tree for £25 with a £20 voucher to spend in store in the new year, but it’s a popular deal and I recommend going in the evening to avoid the mayhem and queues.

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And for the decorations I have been delighted to collaborate with a company who have always been my go-to for Christmas decorations. I can honestly say hand on heart that there hasn’t been a single year in the last 5 years when I haven’t bought a Christmas decoration from them. From wreaths and garlands, to lights and tree decorations via baskets and candles, Cox & Cox do Christmas so well. You may remember that I did a very pared back Scandi tree last year with decorations in white and black, it was my final hurrah before my child was old enough to have real input in the trees look. But this year Ted is really excited about Christmas so I wanted our tree to reflect the things that he relates to and to have lots of colour. I chose festive animal decorations in felt which have a vintage feel, from Polar bears with trees and lights to reindeer in scarves, dogs with winter accessories and mice on sledges. I have a bit of a thing for these kinds of decoration and you may be able to spot a fair few other examples on the tree from years gone by which have come from a variety of high street stores like West Elm, Anthropologie and Oliver Bonas. We also chose a set of shiny baubles in a punchy olive green colour which I think help to marry the rest of the colours together.

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Against these colourful accents I have placed some really simple tree decorations in the form of some white stars from the local garden centre, a set of rustic stars from last years Cox & Cox collection (still available here) and a couple of simple white tree garlands I bought from West Elm three years ago. As we are a non-traditional kind of family, Ted and I chose the mistletoe decoration as our tree topper, it’s made of felt like the animals and I think it looks pretty perfect up here.

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The tree has ratcheted things up to borderline pandemonium here, with the little person wishing everyone a merry Christmas since it’s arrival and asking each morning if it’s Christmas yet (wish me luck over the next three weeks!). Of course it’s not just the tree, I’m pretty sure the chocolate in the advent calendar, the prospect of Christmas shows, grottos and ballet have something to do with it, and also the fact that we are slowly bringing Christmas in throughout the house. Above you can see my Scandi corner in the fireplace which compared to the tree is contrastingly calm and grown up, and below is where I’ve started on the hallway, I love this frosted berry garland from Cox & Cox, it looks so fresh next to the pink wall colour and my cat has loved playing with the berries!

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What’s your Christmas style this year? If you’re decorating your tree this weekend I hope you have as much fun as we did decorating ours last

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This Post was a collaboration with Cox & Cox, I only choose to work with brands that I love and think you will too. As ever all opinions are honest and my own, than you for supporting the brands that support me. 

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