Decorating the house at Christmas can be almost exciting as opening our Christmas gifts - it’s a chance to turn the interior and exterior of our home into a big Christmas display filled with twinkling lights, garland and glittery hanging decorations.

Christmas decorations have been around since the 17th century so this is not a new custom, however advance technologies have meant that we can have multicoloured flashing Santa and Rudolph window decorations instead of knitted snowflakes and stars which were around long ago.

There are so many pretty decorations available to buy nowadays, you can even opt for a whole Christmas theme and decorate the house in colours such as red and silver or gold and blue. For some people less is more and they will tastefully decorate their home with as little xmas decorations as possible, however minimalist you may decorate the living room almost every household will have a xmas tree complete with shimmering tinsel, glass baubles, tree lights, possibly fake snow and chocolate decorations for the kids.

Christmas trees can be seen in peoples front windows as early as November although they say it is bad luck to put your tree up two weeks before Christmas day - this is of course hearsay and pure superstition.
You often find the nicest Christmas decorations available to buy from garden centres. They stock a good selection of real and fake Christmas trees as well as the fibre optic ones which don’t need tinsel, baubles or lights you just simply plug in and that’s it done. Along side the selection of Christmas trees are wreaths which people like to put their front door and a wide selection of exterior lights to light up the outside of your home and garage.

Exterior lights are widely becoming popular as you notice more and more houses lit up like the national grid, often it’s a secret competition between neighbours who can plaster the most flashing lights on the outside of their house. You may notice countless climbing Santa’s, sleighs and oversized snowmen bobbing on the rooftops or in the garden, some people also like to decorate a garden tree with a string of Christmas lights.

Less is definitely more when it comes to exterior lights, too many and it could make the outside if your house look tacky and your neighbours might have something to say about the constant flashing lights, also more importantly consider your electric bill.
If you are stuck for ideas on how to decorate your home with Christmas decorations here are a few simple ideas to get you started

• A large silver candle centre piece and Christmas crackers for the Christmas dinner table.
• Garland with white chaser lights for the hall stairs and fireplace
• Window light displays
• Wreath for the outside front door
• Lights for the outside of the house and garage
• A real 6ft Canadian spruce Christmas tree with tinsel, chocolate decorations, lights and multi coloured shiny baubles
• Advent calendar
• k Santa stocking to hang off the mantelpiece
• Angel or large star for the top of the Christmas tree
• Mini Nativity village for the sideboard
• Large coloured dishes with sweets
• Ceiling decorations
• Christmas Poinsettia Plants dotted around the home

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We all dream of the perfect Christmas….oversized xmas tree complete with about a hundred twinkling lights, lots of nicely wrapped presents, big family dinner with the turkey as centre host and idyllic holiday weather…snow. For the vast majority of us the perfect Christmas is a pipedream. The harsh reality is one big rush to get everything done before the” big day” - December 25th.

However the few weeks leading up to Christmas are the most fun. We have the office xmas party to get glammed up for. We can casually browse the shops for ideas for presents - choosing not to impulse buy, (that’s left till Christmas eve around 4.00pm when all the shops are closing) We have the kids Christmas party and school play to look forward to and going to view the latest Christmas movie or play at the theatre gets us in the festive spirit.

There is a good month or so build up to Christmas day, the trouble is unless you are a child at heart or a child the day can come and go leaving you exhausted from all the preparation beforehand.

Christmas should be about relaxation as many of us have the luxury of not having to work Christmas day or the week after leading into the new year celebrations, so the whole Christmas experience should be classed as a holiday, a time for rest, spending quality time with our friends and families. Stuffing our faces with chocolate and Christmas cake and washing it down with a nice glass of liquor.

The worst thing about xmas for everyone is the cost. It would be fair to say that whether you have one child or five, it can certainly leave you penniless afterwards as parents endeavour to purchase whatever Santa has been asked for. Long ago Christmas wasn’t about the presents but nowadays kids want the latest bikes, play stations, x-box and mobile phones etc.

There are a few easy ways to make xmas less expensive and stressful. e.g.

• Shop on line - the internet is the cheapest and easiest way of ordering presents. You can have your Christmas gifts delivered straight to your door, possibly for free.
• Make a list if you are braving the high street for Christmas presents. You may find yourself going round in circles if you leave it to last minute Christmas shopping. Its also a good idea to write the name of the shop or store that you are going to purchase the present from, this will save a lot of time.
• Set yourself a budget for each gift and stick to it -go for the three for two present deals or buy one get one free.
• Buy large boxes of Christmas chocolates or tins of sweets for the whole family to share instead of buying individually.
• Start shopping for presents after the summer that way you will have all your gifts ready for Christmas avoiding the rush and also guaranteeing you will be able to find everything that you want.
• Instead of cooking for a large family, go out for dinner instead. It will work out about the same cost as buying all the food in. You wont have the washing up to do either or stand in the kitchen all day over the cooker or spending Christmas eve preparing vegetables.

Click to Visit Hotel Chocolat for Chocolate gift ideas

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Design your own chocolate bar using using the “Chocolate Steam Dream Machine” and if the parrot judge likes it, then you could win your very own, one-off Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bar.

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