Tag: Christmas Ornaments

Joyous Trimmings: Festive home decor to brighten your Christmas celebrations

Festive home decor, when done right, can brighten any Christmas celebration

With temperatures falling steadily of late, everyone is inevitably reminded of the approach of one of the year’s most festive and enjoyable seasons – Christmas. As most Hongkongers have been prudently and cautiously staying indoors since January this year due to Covid-19-related health concerns, this has unwittingly treated them to the luxury of constantly being being able to connect with loved ones at home. The perfect culmination to this is the upcoming Christmas holiday, a perfect and auspicious time to celebrate in the upcoming holidays together under with all those you love under one roof. To ensure everyone is in a conducive mood for the Yuletide festivities,  jazzing up your home with colourful, finely-crafted, exotic and artistically-designed decor, notably a Christmas tree, ornaments, lights and table settings, is a vital must.

Joyous Trimmings Festive home decor to brighten your Christmas celebrations (7)

Christmas tree

Any celebration of the year’s grandest holiday will never be complete without the display of an iconic, decor-laden Christmas tree, a tradition said to have originated in Germany in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Though Christians are a minority in Hong Kong, most upmarket abodes in the city will look all the more festive and elegant if adorned with a 10ft-tall authentic fir tree sourced directly from a North American or European farm. Finding an artificial Christmas tree is easy, but authentic trees are also readily available in various florists and other shops in town. And the good news is that aside from right-to-your-doorstep delivery, some shops even offer the extra service of recycling a Christmas tree after it has brought cheer and joy during the Yuletide festivities.

Joyous Trimmings Festive home decor to brighten your Christmas celebrations (8)

Christmas ornaments

A vast array of attention-grabbing Christmas ornaments can easily be found in major stores such as IKEA, as well as in upmarket shops in luxury shopping malls, notably ifc and Pacific Place on Hong Kong Island and K11 in Tsim Sha Tsui. They offer a wide selection of the most attractive decorative items that family members will enjoy setting up on a Christmas tree, perfect for family bonding time  over a relaxing weekend. If wary of shopping for Christmas decor in person, a viable option is to shop online at Amazon or even Taobao – which stocks ornaments of every imaginable shape and hue – and arranging their shipment to Hong Kong before Christmas. For optimum ornamental impact, it’s best to start by distributing your statement timepieces evenly across the tree. Then, in the spaces between, hang the smaller, more colourful decorations, while being careful  to avoid clumping. Finish with an angel or star at the tree top.

Joyous Trimmings Festive home decor to brighten your Christmas celebrations (6)

Christmas lights

The sight of frenetic and vibrant movements of bright, flashing and dancing lights never fail to delight and lift the spirit of anyone and everyone, whether you’re young or not-so-young. Head immediately to IKEA or any one or several of the major shopping malls in town if in some rush to purchase and set up indoor or outdoor Christmas lights much earlier than the day of the Yuletide celebration. 

Those blessed with a garden outside the home is certainly in an enviable situation to enjoy and even show off a dazzling, bright and attention-grabbing outdoor display of Christmas lights set up in an artificial or authentic tree or shrub in the external space. A set of lights for external use is certainly designed to withstand the elements, including rains. If you’re struggling with a confusing array of Christmas lights, making the best choice may pose some challenge and even some degree of difficulty. When unable to make a choice of indoor lights, an easy way out of this not-so-complicated fix is to simply pay a visit to the most luxurious and upmarket Christmas lights display in any of the major local shopping malls for quick reference and even assistance in the selection of the most impressive, suitable and grandest Yuletide lights for your home. 

Evergreen Feelings: this season’s best Christmas tree ornaments

According to psychologists, families who put up their Christmas decorations early are generally happier than their counterparts who hold off until the last minute, and here at Gafencu, we don’t need to be told to be jolly twice. With the festive season mere weeks away, we’re setting out to embrace the holiday spirit in full by sharing our recommendations for the season’s most darling Christmas tree ornaments, alongside a complimentary history lesson of the beloved holiday tradition. 

Most know that bringing home and decorating an Evergreen tree is a cherished holiday tradition, but where exactly did this long-held custom originate from? While the roots of today’s modern Christmas tree can be traced to Northern Europe thousands of years ago, the first documented use of such foliage for the festive season dates back to the 15th-16th century in Estonia and Latvia. A few decades later in medieval Livonia and early-Modern Germany, the custom of decorating trees in their homes was started by local Protestants. Fast forward to today, and families the world over have adopted the practice, including our very own Hong Kong.

In the 19th century, upper class families in the Western World began to partake in the tradition too, sprucing up their Christmas trees with ribbons, ornaments, tinsel, and sweets. In modern times, Christmas trees are a staple of many a household’s living room, decorated not only with heirloom ornaments from the past but with contemporary decor such as peppermint candy-canes and string lights.

With such a wide assortment of ornaments and decorations to choose from, we’ve put together our list of the prettiest items to hang from your Christmas tree.

 

Text: Bailey Atkinson