by Roberta Velyn

Created on: December 03, 2010   Last Updated: December 26, 2010

Christmas! Lights and tinsel, mistletoe and presents, Santa Claus and nativity scenes all hold their own place in holiday decorating. In North America, Christmas trees are perhaps the most obvious manifestation of the Christmas spirit. In parks and yards we see giant evergreens decorated with hundreds of colored lights. Businesses display artificial trees, large or small, festooned with lights, ornaments, garlands and tinsel. The front window of many a home presents for public viewing a decorated tree under which gifts accumulate throughout the Christmas season. How does one choose Christmas tree ornaments and decorations to make that tree tasteful instead of gaudy? That depends very much on the individual's personal preferences, but here are some suggestions to help prevent a "thrown-together" look. As in all decorating, there needs to be a unity to Christmas ornamentation. This can be achieved by selecting a color scheme or determining a theme. This is most easily done if starting from scratch. What could be more stunning than a glittering silver Christmas tree ablaze with nothing but white candles? But Christmas is a sentimental time, and most of us collect at least a few precious ornaments over the years. Since these are often more dear to us than anything we could buy, your Christmas decorating should start with the ornaments you already have. Lay out your collection, including lights, on a solid-colored blanket, sheet or carpet, preferably similar in color to the room or the tree that you're planning to decorate. Plug in the lights, and with a critical eye, select those ornaments that look best together on the background. Is a particular color dominant? Is any special theme beginning to develop? Are some ornaments too big or too small to fit with the rest? Remove the items that don't work and see if they constitute another grouping or several different collections. Analyze the items in each grouping. What's missing? If you're starting with a collection of colorful crafted paper ornaments carefully saved from when you were in elementary school, what can you add that will fill the space without detracting from the playfulness of your treasures? Try simple silver balls in a variety of sizes with silver tinsel, snowflakes and icicles. Want to stick with the "homemade" look? Add strings of popcorn or cranberries and crocheted snowflakes. If your initial collection is of crystal ballerinas, experiment with strips of tulle or wired ribbon wrapped around the tree or woven through cedar boughs to adorn the fireplace mantle. If one ornament sticks out like a sore thumb, you can shop for something more in the same color and of a similar size to balance it, or look around for places to display the items that don't "fit" with the rest. Create little vignettes around the house a creche nestled in a platter of straw on the coffee table, a single flashy peacock feather ornament on the bathroom mirror to display your treasures. You may want to divide your ornaments into a sophisticated, unified collection for the living room Christmas tree and relegate the grade school mementos to a kids' tree in the family room. Whatever you do, DON'T throw away anything that any child ever made, no matter how tattered and faded it may have become over the years. At some point these treasures can be gifted back to the makers for them to deal with each December and they can in turn decide which ornaments are tasteful enough to be displayed on their own Christmas trees.

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