Christmas Decorating Interview with Tara Dennis

It’s Christmas Week on the Blog!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas: the tree is up, we’ve started the advent calendar countdown, a wreath welcomes visitors at the door and the house is filled with music from two of my favourite Christmas music albums (Michael W Smith Christmastime and Christmas, The Special Edition (2011) by Michael Bublé).

The festive season is a time for creating magical memories for children, and I believe they carry these memories well into adulthood. What a beautiful investment! To help kick start the Christmas season in my home this year, I had help from the lovely DIY and Decorating Expert, Tara Dennis.

Tara provided me with useful insights into Christmas decorating with the handy 3M Command Clear Hooks range. These hooks are awesome, especially around this time of year. Get some, and go crazy! Or, you can enter the giveaway at the end of this post for a chance to win a prize pack.  Trust me, you’ll love them, and because they can be removed with no damage to walls, you can put up all those seasonal things that make the house pretty and festive, and then just take them down — easy — after Christmas.

Christmas Decorating Interview with Tara Dennis

What are your three favourite things about Christmas?

Summer, lazy days and family.

Do you believe festive decorations in the home at Christmas time play an important part in creating lasting memories for both children and adults?

Absolutely! Over the years, my mum went to so much trouble to create Christmas magic and it always felt incredibly special and exciting. I have carried that with me and always make the effort for my family to create beautiful memories for them too.

Tara, how do you decorate your home at Christmas time?

A tree is non negotiable. No matter where we are we have to have one. We went skiing in Europe one year and even made one out of a twig. I always love a wreath on the front door, it’s a nice and friendly welcome. We love lights, the more the merrier and each year we have a new colour theme to mix it up.

The Command TM Clear Hooks from 3M are perfect for Christmas decorating. What are 3 ways to use the hooks around the home in the lead up to Christmas?

Gosh, only three ways, I can think of hundreds. Hang your kitchen utensils to get them within easy reach for Christmas baking, try creating a bauble or light tree for a change, hang a wreath, along with strings of Christmas cards.

Kelly:  This is a small Bauble Christmas Tree I made with the 3M Clear Decorating Clips. You can put it directly on a wall (like Tara’s gorgeous red bauble tree at the beginning of this post) but I wanted to use mine outside with the kids too, so I put the baubles on a canvas.  See the tutorial here: Bauble Christmas Tree.

Kelly:  I used divine twine between two 3M Decorating Clips across the window to hang our Christmas Cards.

Christmas Tree: real or fake?

I like both. There are some incredibly good looking fake trees now but I do like the smell of a real one. I’m also a little partial to alternatives to suit the space and have been known to create bauble trees and ones made entirely of lights across a wall where space is at a premium.

How can you mix up the colour theme at Christmas, so each year has its own personality (without the need to buy everything new again)?

Have a stash like I do of classic colours as a base to build from such as gold, silver and white. You can then throw in a new colour each year with a few affordable baubles and mix it up. Try gold and pink for a twist on tradition, next year you could do silver and pink or maybe just plain metallics in gold and silver. As years go on you can keep adding other shades for new looks and for that my budget tip is to buy for next year in the January sales when they’re half price!

Is it better to start with a centre feature for the Christmas table as inspiration and work around that, or decide on colours/theme first and then look for items that fit?

I like to work to a theme and use it to dictate how I decorate the table. Keep it simple, work with limited colours and add layers of colour easily with runners, napkins, crackers and festive centrepieces.

What are some ways to use nature into the house at Christmas time?

I love vases of fresh, plain greenery from the garden. A palm on its own can make such a statement as can a bunch of magnolia or camelia leaves with their glossy green foliage. Gum or eucalyptus leaves are so Australian and look as good as they smell. And don’t forget rosemary in the kitchen, try a jug filled with long fragrant stems along with some olive leaves if you have them.

Kelly: I love using nature in the home and this week, I put fresh rosemary in a tinted jar next to the kitchen sink. Sometimes, it’s these simple things that bring bursts of happiness to the day.

3M Command Clear Hooks Range Giveaway

• Mini Hook
• Small Hook
• Medium hooks
• Utensil Clips
• Decorating Clip