WHITE LIGHTS FOR CHRISTMAS

As you will have well and truly realised by now, I have a love for COLOUR! However, every rule is made to be broken and coloured Christmas lights is a case in point. If your house is styled and furnished beautifully, then there is no need to add layers of multi coloured and flashing lights into the mix. Simple white lights is all that is required, but do use plenty of them.

The days of long cables wrapped around ancient sets of Christmas lights which worked perfectly when you put them away last December and don’t seem to work this year are thankfully over. We now have many, many options available to us. Battery, solar, plug-in, outdoor, indoors, static, twinkling, flashing, warm, cool, LED – there are an overwhelming array of choices, which allow us to sprinkle the white magic all around our house and garden.

A classic green Christmas tree decked in simple white lights is an understated glory. Due to my bouncy Spaniel I now have this set up outside the house to avoid incidents but also as a wonderful, sparkling welcome to my guests. I use battery operated lights on the tree set on timer which then automatically comes on every evening with no effort involved.

I have also invested in these wonderful solar Allium lights, which I scatter around the garden in pots and containers. They charge up through the daylight hours and magically come alive, just as dusk falls..

This wonderful white ‘star’ light was a purchase many years ago, which I love so much, I actually have it in my office all year round to cheer up those dull days, but at Christmas it is elevated to the Sitting Room and sits so well on this little table and reflects in the glass paperweights that live here.

The shops are full of tiny strings of battery operated LED lights with which I like to bundle together in a glass jar or a bowl. This lamp offers the opportunity to fill its base with whatever takes your fancy, so at this time of year I add in a string of lights to enhance the glass baubles which live in here year round, turning it into an instant Christmas decoration which welcomes my guests into the Hall.

I attach more strings of simple lights across the tops of mantlepieces or intertwined with books and photographs on top of the piano or within a glass fronted cupboard – anywhere that just adds that extra bit of sparkle. Oh…. and don’t forget the kitchen – the Christmas chef has to spend a lot of time in here, so make sure there is a small space somewhere for a string of lights in here too to keep the whole family in a festive mood.

Tone down your table lamps and light up the fairy lights and instantly it feels like Santa is just around the corner.