Christmas Decorations

 

This year sees a gorgeous selection of Christmas decorations available. Here are a few of the ones I like (and trust me, I have done a lot of looking about (which I will term as ‘shopping research’) to bring you this list!)

 

3-D LIGHT-UP STAR

 

I just love this night-light shaped as a five-pointed star. This is available from The Warehouse for $40.00, although with my bargain shopping, I got this for 30% off, so it only cost $28.00.

Inside this lamp are 16 warm-white coloured bulbs, which are randomly placed, and when lit up each bulb creates a six-pointed star. The light the lamp gives off is just right – not too bright to be distracting, but a nice warm glow in the room. This lamp plugs into the wall, and measures about 35cm tall, 35cm wide, and 10cm deep. It is made of light opaque cellulose plastic, and is fairly delicate. This is my pick of the Christmas decorations I have seen this year (although I am biased because it ticks all the boxes for my love of stars and things that light up!)

 

CERAMIC HOUSE TEA-LIGHT HOLDERS

 

These are so cute and when lit with tea-lights the light flickering through the windows looks very effective, alternatively 10-20 small battery-powered lights look lovely too.

The larger house measures 9 x 11.5 x 18cm high and is called ‘Kira House Tee-light Holder’, from Citta Design and retails for $19.90.

The smaller house measures 8 x 8.5 x 14 cm high. It is called ‘Stella House Tee-light Holder’, also from Citta Design and retails for $11.90.

 

 

SNOW GLOBE

 

Containing bare white trees, and 5 red birds, this is a simple and elegant snow globe. It is called ‘Counting Cardinals Snow Globe’ and measures 10 x 10 x 12 cm high, and is from Citta Design. The white snow inside contains flecks of holographic glitter as well. This retails for $29.90.

 

 

CERAMIC STAR TEA-LIGHT HOLDER

 

At night-time this is beautiful with a flickering candle placed inside. The light is filtered through the thin ceramic and the cut-out star pattern reflects stars on the wall. Apparently if the candle leaves black carbon on the white ceramic, placing it in the dishwasher can clean it, this tip is on good authority from the sales rep.  Though, to avoid this, I prefer to use a battery-operated tea-light that flickers like a real candle, or a string of 10-20 battery-powered warm-white coloured lights. This tea-light holder is called ‘Hullanta Small Ceramic Tee-light Holder’. It measures 7cm tall, retails for $6.90 and is from Citta Design. Larger versions of this are available for $19.90.

 

 

WOODEN HOUSE WITH STAR CUT-OUTS IN ROOF

 

This house has a Scandinavian look to it, and is one of three designs of wooden house in the same range. These houses are distributed by May Time Marketing, and this house retails for $14.95 measuring 7.5cm wide and 21cm tall. There are small stars cut out in the roof through which I poke a few battery-operated lights to light up the insides of the house.

 

 

STRING OF WOODEN STARS

 

These stars are small, measuring about 3cm wide. They are plain wood, which I am considering painting gold or silver, but they are a nice blank canvas to paint any colour you choose. These were $12.95.

 

 

WHITE REINDEER GARLAND

 

This garland, or wall-frieze, of flying reindeer is a lovely decoration for Christmas as it brings to mind the poem “A Visit From St Nicholas” (more commonly known as “The Night Before Christmas”), written by Clement Clarke Moore, and first published in 1823, where the reindeer names are mentioned:

“Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen!”(or Dunder and Blixem depending on what source you rely on).

There are six reindeer in this garland, (and there is no Rudolph, although he joined the list of reindeer names later on due to the popular Christmas carol). This is a visually striking decoration and I love it.

The reindeer are made of metal, painted white, and measure approximately 9 x 9 cm each. There are two styles of reindeer repeated alternately and tied on a brown string. This is distributed by May Time Marketing and retails at $32.99.

 

 

SILVER AND GOLD TEA-LIGHT HOLDERS

These tea-light holders are gilded glass so they shine and sparkle in the natural daylight. At night with flickering battery-powered tea-lights set in them, they look spectacular. These are absolutely gorgeous and are perfect for Christmas decorations and as part of a Christmas table-setting.

The larger tea-light holder in the center of the photo is 8 cm tall, is gold with a lovely stylized floral grid pattern and retails for $8.00.

The two on either side of this are silver and are patterned with a repeating daisy motif. They are almost 7 cm tall and are from the same range as the larger tea-light holder, although I don’t know the name of the company that makes or markets them. These retail at $5.00 each.

The two tea-light holders on each end in the photo are flecked gilded gold, are almost 7 cm tall, retail for $3.60 and are marketed by Le Forge.

 

 

BATTERY-POWERED TEA-LIGHTS

These are very handy to have instead of real candles, not just for safety purposes, but also because a hot candle flame can damage the gilding or colouring on some tea-light holders. These battery-powered tea-lights have a warm-white tone and flicker like a natural flame. Mum and I made a Christmas cake in the shape of a candle last year and placed these on the top to imitate the candle flame and it worked out really well (please take a look at the result in my post about the Christmas Candle Cake).

 

 

CHRISTMAS TREE MADE OUT OF A PAPERBACK BOOK

I was lucky enough to be given this as a Christmas present. A book and a Christmas tree – what a winning combination – somebody knows me well! This stands 18cm tall. I love looking at the construction of this hand-made Christmas tree, and next year, I will have a go at making one, or two….

 

 

GLASS STAR LAMP

Another star…this time a star made of glass, held together with copper tape and solder, and finished with a bronze tone on the edgings. This is 23cm high and 6cm at the widest part, which is in the middle of the star. At the back of the star is a small, hinged door that opens to allow a tea-light to be placed inside. This is priced at $37.50. In all of my Christmas shopping, I have only ever seen two of these, and I am not sure where they were made. This can be used indoors or outdoors and looks lovely with the candle-light glinting off the angled glass surfaces.

 

I hope you enjoyed this selection of Christmas decorations, because I certainly enjoyed my ‘shopping research’ sessions!