Decorating for the Holidays: Kitchen

Decorating for the Holidays: Kitchen

As much as I love the rustic and cozy vibe I give my living room with my holiday decor, I prefer my kitchen decorations.

It's not like there's even nearly as much in there, but the silly light-hearted decorations with the personal touches really make it an area that no one else has.

Plus you know, I like things on the whimsicle side and I don't think normal people would go for that. They'd probably look at my stuff and be like, "Giant candies? In a garland? How gauche". 

But whatever, sue me. I like my holidays to look like Disney threw up everywhere.

So my headliner is the garland for sure. Really, I have a small kitchen with not a lot of counter space. And since I'm using my kitchen table for a food station for the holiday boutique, it's not decorated yet either (that might be a post soon to come).

And as you may have seen in my last post, I like to keep a candy/cookie theme. I usually wire in some gingerbread men shapes spatulas and cookie cutters too, buuuuut I'm using them to bake cookies tomorrow.

The best tip I can ever give you is don't be tempted to buy all your ornaments and decor all in the same year. 

Companies change up the looks every year, and trends come and go too. A few years ago, the big thing was to only do birds, and the year after that was single color tree decor all in silvers... The big thing now is a "call back" to rustic decor with a woodsy undertone. Really, the only thing that stays constant are the handful of color schemes companies stick with- meaning, you can easily find ornaments that match year to year but aren't going to look repetitive and annoying.

I have a handful of cookie ornaments that are mostly iced up differently, some candy canes, and then an assortment of random ornaments that still have the theme I like. A lot of the special ornaments came from Martin's Dry Silk Flower Shop, and various smaller boutiques in old town districts- but you'd be surprised, some came from Walmart and Macys. You never know.

A DIY version is to make cinnamon ornaments and then decorate them yourself with paint or dyed glues.

Here's a pretty good one I use:

-4 oz can of cinnamon (about a cup)

-1 tbsp cloves

-1 tbsp nutmeg

-3/4 cup applesauce

-2 tbsp glue

Stir dry ingrediants, then wet, then work with hands until the dough is smooth. Roll out and use cookie cutters to create fun shapes. Use a toothpick to make a hole at the top for the ornament hook. Place cutouts on a wire rack and allow to dry for several days.

You can also do dried oranges with cloves stuck in them for a REALLY lovely smell.

My next tip is weird. If you're like me and my mom and practice the ancient art of making your own bows, you'll know storing them is kind of a mess. What we do is store them at the top of the container when we put them away to minimize crushing, and when you make them, make the bows separately and then use extra ribbon to create tails. It creates a nice look.

So, how do I make my bows look perfect every year (this is the 3rd year I've used these bows, fyi)?

I flatiron them.

No joke, this is the best method I've ever used. I use my Paul Mitchel mini flat iron so I can get in the bow loops a little easier, but ideally you'd want an iron where you can adjust the temperature so you don't melt your ribbon.

Next, my mom made these adorable peppermint candies. They're really easy to make, you need:

-Styrofoam in the shape of a peppermint (like a coin shape)

-Red construction paper

-Tape or glue

-Cellophane

-Red ribbon or twist ties

So all you do is cut out the swirl shapes in construction paper, glue them onto the styrofoam and then cover with cellophane. Tie off each end to look like a candy! How stupid easy is that? You can even string them together as a swag or garland.

We made a few one year that were shaped like gum drops and covered in candy colored glitter too. Those were adorable.

So to tie in the theme around the kitchen, I just stuck anything red in the small shelving around my kitchen window. Roger had a red cuisinart I gave him a few years ago too, so that worked out.

So as you can see, the kitchen is arguably the cutest.

-SamanthaK