My love of decorating our home for special occasions doesn’t stop at Christmas! I love creating, decorating and celebrating lots of seasonal events throughout the year, like Valentine’s Day, Easter and Halloween, as well as our special family celebrations, such as birthdays, graduations and anniversaries.
In fact, give me any reason to add some extra colour and fun to my home and fill it up with my family and friends, and I’m in. But let’s be honest, sometimes preparing for these special occasions can be stressful.
So to help me really enjoy every celebration this year, I have prepared 2 lists – one that specifies decorations I already have away at home, and other to indicate when I am going to start getting organised for each occasion. Preparedness is key so that I don’t get caught out, and consequently get stressed out. Because I will be organised, it will help me really utilise all my seasonal décor, particularly my Christmas décor, for multiple occasions.
Whilst I’m sure there are other decorations traditionally considered “Christmas decorations” that could be used for decorating throughout the year, I’ll focus on 4 key ones. Further, if you have any particular decorations you really want or love to display all year, feel free to incorporate them.
Wreaths
No matter the occasion you are celebrating, one of the best ways you can welcome your family and friends into your home is with a wreath on the front door.
However, wreaths don’t have to be used on just the front door. They are wonderful additions to display on windows, mirrors, cupboards, and not to mention on wreath stands anywhere in your home.
A basic Evergreen or Grapevine Christmas Wreath can very easily be transformed into a beautiful Valentine’s wreath, a cute Easter wreath, or a spooky Halloween wreath, or even used for themed birthday parties. Sometimes you can simply update a wreath you already have to create a whole new wreath. For example, I found a wreath I made for Christmas, so to change it up for Valentine’s Day I would swap out some of the Christmassy decorations and replace with hearts and flowers. Super simple, but super effective!
Last year we celebrated our grandson’s 2nd birthday party with a farmyard theme. I used this as an opportunity to craft a wreath. Starting with a plain wreath base, I added fun red check and burlap ribbons along with some sunflowers to change a classic Christmas wreath to a warm and welcoming Farmyard wreath.
Garlands
I love decorating with garlands because I find them to be one of the most impactful and versatile decorations throughout the year. They can be used around mantlepieces and bannisters, as part of table centrepieces, or to decorate buffets or console tables. And let’s not forget to mention unexpected places, like around windows, letterboxes, and ladders.
Many different types of foliage are used in traditional Christmas garlands including fir, needle pine and eucalyptus. This type of foliage is a perfect base for adding many elements and completely changing the look of the garland. For example, combine a pink pearl garland with some spring flowers and you have a very pretty garland perfect for spring, a beautiful bridal shower, or even Mother’s Day brunch. Add some pastel eggs for Easter, or perhaps some hearts and roses for Valentine’s Day. I added some pinecones, sunflowers and rustic ribbon to a garland and it was perfect for my grandson’s Farmyard themed party.
This year I found a completely new way to use our White Berry Eucalyptus Leaf Garland. It made the perfect base for a balloon garland! Simply twist the balloons together in pairs then twist them around the garland. The wire in the garland makes it super easy shape as you want, and it can hang anywhere. This was such an easy way to add a fun party feeling to my sister’s 60th birthday. The possibilities really are endless.
Greenery, Flowers & Decorative Sprays
Many floral sprays and picks often used at Christmastime can be reused as fun and creative decorations throughout the year. My favourites include lush greenery, pretty flowers, and decorative sprays and picks.
Greenery
Although greenery is often really beautiful on its own, it also adds texture and life to wreaths, garlands, and table centrepieces throughout the year.
But, one of my all-time favourite decorating hacks is to amp up basic supermarket flowers by adding artificial greenery! In order to achieve this, though, you need to be aware of the stem of the greenery. Some of our faux greenery has a wired plastic stem, so it can be fully submerged in water. However, others have a wire stem wrapped in paper, therefore should not be submerged in water for any length of time. If you’re careful, you can bend the latter stems up and tuck the ends in to use them a vase with real flowers – you just need some careful staging.
Flowers
Using beautiful artificial or faux flowers has become one of the most popular ways to decorate at Christmas – and it’s not surprising. There are sooo many stunning options released every year, and they just keep getting better and better!
In days gone by, red poinsettias were pretty much the only flower used at Christmas, unlike now where the options vary in types and colours. This variety has coined the possibility for flowers to appear in lots of seasonal occasions and personal celebratory decorating throughout the year.
Some of my favourite flowers to use year-round include magnolias, peonies, and hydrangeas. I find these flowers really versatile and always use them for Valentine’s, Easter and Mother’s Day decorating, as well part of my general décor.
I particularly love using pastel colours like pink, mint, yellow, and blue for Easter; romantic colours such as red, pink, and white for Valentine’s; and soft colours like pink, peach, and white for Mother’s Day. When decorating throughout the year, I even use flowers during occasions you wouldn’t expect to see a speck of floral! For Halloween I love a bolder array of flowers, including pink, purple, and black. And can you believe I even use flowers during Father’s Day! My Father’s Day tablescape last year included a Eucalyptus Garland with pops of yellow wattle – these floral touches brought a wonderful fresh feel to a rustic centrepiece.
Metallic colours like silver gold, champagne and rose gold are also super versatile. I’m particularly fond of these colours for parties and events with a very elegant and sophisticated feel, such as a wedding, engagement party or milestone birthday party.
Decorative Sprays and Picks
There are multiple types of Christmas picks and sprays that are perfect to use for other occasions, it’s hard to know where to start. Some of my favourites include velvet sequined leaves, sparkly starbursts, and glittery curls. Much like flowers, certain colours and designs are great for Easter, Valentine’s, and Halloween.
I use sprays and picks throughout the year in garlands, wreaths, table centrepieces and craft projects like Yummy Christmas Fake Bakes (if you haven’t given these a try, you should, they are so much fun!)
Decomesh & Ribbons
My final favourite decorations throughout the year that you probably already have in your Christmas stash are ribbons and decomesh.
Decomesh is super easy to add to the base to wreaths and garlands and adds colour and texture, turning a Christmas wreath into a Valentine’s or Easter wreath with just a few twists.
Ribbons, when incorporated into a garland like a rustic one, add a whole new dimension. Velvet ribbons are perfect to feature as part of wedding and engagement decorations, particularly when combined with faux florals. One of my favourite repurposed decorations throughout the year is a rustic ladder with a pink velvet ribbon garland wrapped around it. It’s so soft and romantic, you would never guess it came straight out of my Christmas ribbon stash!
Narrower ribbons are a beautiful and yet simple way to level up a place setting: perhaps as part of the name card, or a simple tie around the napkin or cutlery.
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Until next time, I hope you keep creating, decorating, and celebrating to make beautiful memories with those that you love!