Hello and welcome back to Home and Hosting.
I'm Louis Bourke and today we're talking one of my favourite
times of year, Christmas. The reason why is because
particularly in Australia, not a lot of people decorate their
homes. However, when it turns December,
a lot of people start decorating people who wouldn't otherwise
and it's the time of year where I get to have conversations with
people I wouldn't normally about how to make their space feel
like home. So that's why it's one of my
favourite times of year. It's also the time of year where
I get to flex my styling muscles because Christmas decorating
involves a lot of styling tricks and tips.
It can feel quite overwhelming. So this episode I kind of want
to focus on a couple of the themes that I'm seeing
throughout department and homemaker stores, what I'm
seeing in some smaller boutiques and what I'm seeing online
because they're all different and they all have different
meanings and approaches. If you want to incorporate these
in your home. I'm going to talk about the ones
that I love as well as the ones that I don't love and ways to
make the tree and decorations you already have feel new again
and again each time Christmas rolls around because that's what
I'm here for. You will find a lot of interior
design or home based creators speak about renovations or room
makeovers or current interior design trends, but a lot of them
will not touch holiday decorating, be it Easter,
Valentine's Day or Christmas because they're tricky things to
do. You need to know the tips and
the tricks and that's why I'm here.
So without further ado, let's get into this very much
anticipated episode. I know you're excited, so get
comfortable and let's get started.
Starting off with the department and homemaker stores around
Australia, I have been into most of them and I can say that there
are very similar themes happening this year.
Every single one of them has a traditional Christmas theme,
which you would think is obvious, but other years some
department stores have not taken on the traditional Christmas
theme. And by traditional Christmas, I
mean the classic Reds, green, golds.
I'm fine with it. It's timeless.
I do think it's interesting because I feel like the stores
maybe just feel the pressure to do traditional Christmas because
when I speak to people in real life, a lot of them avoid the
traditional Christmas colours because it's very wintery.
And also Australians have a habit of having quite neutral,
light coloured homes, so incorporating the deep rich
greens, golds and Reds feels overpowering.
They're not very familiar with it so they kind of avoid it.
I don't think you should avoid traditional Christmas.
If you live in a terrace house or a workers cottage or a
cottage of any kind, the traditional Christmas is very
easy be to achieve because the shell of the home speaks to that
style. It is a little bit more
difficult to do in a home that's not of that style.
So I can totally understand and resonate with people who don't
do that typical traditional Christmas route.
But what I will say is that I prefer it over the Australiana
theme, which I do see across all the department and homemaker
stores. I know that it's meant to
celebrate our local flora and fauna, like the kangaroo baubles
and the koalas, the gum leaves, the galas, but I'm not a big
fan. It leans a bit novelty.
And I just think it looks like Australia theme on a Christmas
tree, like as though you were having an Australia Day party
and decided to whip out the Christmas tree and decorate it
because you didn't have something else to put it on.
Like, I think we all need to step back for a second and go,
does this make sense? Like, does it?
I'm not sure. And I think people go, well,
yeah, because I don't want to do polar bears and things that it's
like, yeah, but we don't need to do the animals and like visual
references to the season to speak to Christmas.
They're more accent details to Christmas.
But then people kind of take things and it all gets washed
down to being like, I'm only going to have character
ornaments and they're all going to be Australia themed.
Like, I just don't, I don't understand.
I don't get it. I just don't think it's right.
I would rather people do the traditional Christmas look than
do the Australiana theme with the galas and the Kangaroos.
It makes zero sense. So it's a no from me.
Another take on the Australian theme, which I'm impartial to if
it's done the right way, is the ocean theme.
It's kind of toes the line. If it's done with restraint,
with like the soft Blues and using the coastal pine for the
wreaths and also the glass shells, capy shell, natural
twine. I do think he can look chic.
I do think you have to find the right balance that will suit
your home. If you don't live by the water,
it could be could read weird, but I don't actually think so.
If you're going purely off textures and colours, you can
get away with it in any place. It's more if you go into the
character front, which is what I'm talking about now, where
I've seen some like jellyfish and like starfish.
Like I think it goes like one step too far.
It's as soon as the characters start coming in.
And I think the stores do the characters because they want to
pull and hook people in with the characters to make them purchase
because people get like, I don't know, roped into it.
I'm just not loving that vibe. But I do prefer the ocean theme
over the Australiana theme. If I had to pick between the
ocean theme and the traditional Christmas, I would do either or,
but I would focus hard on the colours and textures versus the
animal ornaments. One that I really just can't get
around, which I'm seeing everywhere, is pink.
The pink Christmas trend, whether it's tied up with red or
gold, I just think it's juvenile.
I think it's made for people that don't know how to decorate
and will only decorate if it's girly and feminine and they will
always have to decorate with pink.
And I think it's not a four year olds toddler and tiara's
birthday party. We get it, you like girly
things, but it doesn't mean that everything has to have pink.
You decorate with pink year round, you've got pink clothes,
pink cushions, pink throws, pink flowers.
Now you want to do a pink Christmas tree?
Like babe, I think it's like we're all talking about the
beige and the grey of it all. I think we need to talk about
the pink obsessed because why is it that we also come for people
who are obsessed with The Color Purple?
Like you know what I'm talking about?
We all know someone that is obsessed with purple and they
have everything purple. Why are we not talking about the
same thing when it comes to pink?
Like some people are going to stand up and be like, oh, it's
the Barbie core and it's setting up for being a girl and blah,
blah, blah. It's like, yeah, we can do that
in more ways than just decorating with pink.
I don't think it's doing any of that.
I think it's just, oh, pink, girly, cutesy, let me do the
pink. You can do it.
I wouldn't do it. I just think you can be more
creative. I think you can go beyond the
surface level of it all. I think we're all adults here
and we can progress and use pink in other occasions like birthday
parties, home to call throughout the whole year.
I think it's time that we, you know, stretch it a little bit
and go beyond that. And if you're going to be doing
the Rose gold with pink, like we're just not friends.
Like I just know we're not. I know you're not even listening
to this podcast, So let's move on.
No more pink. The other one that I will say
that's been made for the more new build homes is this sort of
grey Navy silver motif. It's very like clean, safe, kind
of personality free. It definitely doesn't offend me,
doesn't necessarily excite me, but I can get around it and that
it feels the most of a traditional Christmas in
Australia. I just don't love it when it
goes to glam. But that's just my personal
style. I'm not a huge glam type and I
think some people do run into the glam of it all.
And I the thing I'll say about glam is it can just get a little
bit too sweet. It's like glam overload.
You know, if you have something that's too sugary, that's the
same energy I get when I see something that's too glam, it
starts to go gaudy and not in a cool way, just in like a no.
We need to just tone it down just a touch.
So they're the main ones that are in department and homemaker
stores. There is a taste of these themes
that I'm seeing online in some of the stores, which let's get
into now. The first one I'm going to say
is woodland. Think owls, mushrooms, mossy
textures, it's cute, it's very cottage core, it can be a little
close to Australiana. It makes you wonder whether it's
Christmas or forest season. But what I will say is I really
appreciate the colours and the earth tones and the textures
found within this theme. A few department stores do take
on this woodland Evergreen theme and I really like it.
Green, brown, gold textures, beautiful geometric shapes.
The baubles, That's where I would go if I was looking for
baubles this season in Australia.
If you're planning on revamping your whole space, I think you
can't go wrong with earth tones because they're colours that we
see out in nature no matter where you live, so it feels
global. You go with the shapes that like
the stars and the baubles and the droplet ornaments and they
feel fresh. They never date, they look
timeless. They're the right amount of chic
and elegant. I just wouldn't go down the
deers, the owls, that kind of thing.
Again, just moving away from you can do characters, just don't do
all characters. You know, the next thing I've
got here is Ralph Lauren Christmas.
You would have seen on my TikTok.
I did a video about it because I saw it trending and spike in
popularity on TikTok. So I jumped onto the occasion
just to showcase and, you know, bring awareness to that trend.
So I do like it. It's traditional but refined.
It's like deep burgundy's, tartan ribbons, Navy accents,
warm lighting. It's very timeless.
It's kind of masculine. It's chic.
There's like a clear interpretation of luxury
tradition without overdoing it and I think that it's
encouraging people to use other things than baubles and tinsel.
I love ribbon. I think it's really effective
and the tartan ribbon is really cool.
It's a pattern, but it doesn't feel really loud.
It's got stripes, but it's also, you know, there's something
there. I really like it.
I will say that it is a little bit more suited to the northern
hemisphere. It can look quite heavy in
Australia, but if you want to take it on, I think go for it.
Why not? The next one I've got here is
the glass Droplets and romance. This was big last year.
The glass droplet ornaments, the burgundies, the satin ribbons.
It's very romantic, it's lovely if you want something that's
quite gentle and elegant. It's very European Christmas and
I'm not mad about it. I would say that it is the more
feminine version of the masculine Ralph Lauren
Christmas. I don't think it's going
anywhere. It's not necessarily the most
popular, but I definitely see it around.
I wouldn't say that it's a new approach to Christmas, but I do
like it and there's a reason why it keeps coming around each year
because it is timeless. What I will say is I think we go
a little bit too far. We start incorporating roses.
That feels a bit more Valentine's Day.
I think this is the thing, as we start celebrating more and more
holiday seasons, people who are unfamiliar with like the
symbolic motifs get things mixed up because maybe they don't
decorate for other holidays, so they just want to pull things
out and bring them into different things.
I do think that there is a time and place for certain symbols,
like roses speak to romance, so Valentine's Day, you know,
pumpkins speak to Halloween. I just think we should just have
things be placeholders for what they are and what holiday
they're speaking to. And let's not mix it all up in
Christmas. Just don't think that that's the
go. I think we all need to just, you
know, that's why we're having this podcast, a little lesson, a
little class to break down and define what is and what is in
Christmas, what things we should take on and how we should
approach it. So the other thing I'll talk
about are the smaller boutiques and the niche themes.
This is where things get really interesting.
Like if you go out to a couple of those Christmas warehouses
out of like out in Melbourne and I'm sure there's some in Sydney,
they're very strange. They're kind of like a
combination of what's found online as well as what's in
store. So the first one here is
gingerbread. I have places amongst the more
gaudy themes at Christmas, but I'm not mad about it.
I do think it's the best one of them all.
It's warm, it's nostalgic, it smells like cinnamon, it feels
like Christmas without being too cringe.
The thing I will say again, it's a little bit northern hemisphere
energy because it's like snowy houses and things like that.
But I think people love it because it plays into like the
beige and white theme, so it feels quite approachable for
neutral homes across Australia. Where I draw the line is the
candy theme. It's probably my least favourite
amongst the whole list, both the colour palette of like the light
pastel pink with the acid green and hot pinks and the lollipops.
It's definitely reading like more Willy Wonka than Christmas.
The candy cane theme is fine. It can be quite full on because
of the stripe, the bright red and the bright white and so much
stripe. It starts to play a little bit.
Horror to me feels a little bit more Halloween for some reason.
I don't know. It just feels like it goes a
little bit too wild because it's kind of got the like hypnosis
pattern of the candy cane. Do you get where I'm going with
that? It just feels a bit much.
There's the Grinch, which look, I get it.
It's fun for the kids, but like we're decorating a home for
Christmas. We're not really decorating a
theme park. So I do think we need to
decorate accordingly. You know, like I like the
Grinch, I like the Grinch sheet set that's on like Pottery Barn
and things like that. But I don't love it in like a
full on theme. The last one I've got here is a
Nutcracker, which I do think is classic.
It's I've seen it around, but depending on how you do it, it's
nice, it's fresh. It's like, you know, it's, it
still feels traditional Christmas in terms of a
character that I think you can use across the board.
It's a little bit more European. I guess maybe that's reason why
I like it. Maybe I like the more European
themes versus the American themes.
Like the American theme feels a bit more Grinch candy and then I
like The Nutcracker and the gingerbread.
So I don't know, maybe I'm just liking the more European themes
versus the American themes. So now that we've covered all
the themes across all the different scales like online,
department store, homemaker and boutiques, the ones that I would
lean on, like I said earlier, is the Evergreen.
I do also like the ocean theme if it's sticking to the colour
palette. I don't mind the Navy silver
one. I also don't mind The Nutcracker
and I also don't mind the gingerbread.
They're probably the ones that I would look at.
And also traditional Christmas, if you do it in that Ralph
Lauren aesthetic, I think it's quite nice.
So now The thing is, I bet you're asking now, Louis, like,
what am I meant to do? Am I meant to be buying
Christmas gifts and presents every year?
No, no, of course you're not. I think some people jump to
excuses. That's the thing with online.
This online thing is they'll find any excuse to avoid things
and they get really negative and they decide, well,
overconsumption and you should not be buying something new
every year and blah, blah, blah. And it's like you could just
find something for Christmas and not feel so overwhelmed that you
have to get defensive. You know, let people do what
they want to do, but I don't think you need to be buying a
new theme every year. No one ever said that.
It's just people take things and they pick the face value of
stuff and they roll with it. So what I will say is this, if
there are areas and room for improvement, why not?
Like if you don't have great Christmas decorations, maybe
each year you buy a pack of decorations that you really
like. Same goes for the lights.
You don't have enough Christmas lights and this year you're
dedicating some money to Christmas lights.
Or you know what? Your tree sucks.
You need to buy a new tree because I am telling you now, if
you buy a beautiful Christmas tree, you're going to have it
for years and it's going to just make a huge impact.
The greenery, the garlands, the wreaths and the Christmas trees.
Australia, the stores they suck at doing them.
The best ones I've seen are obviously Balsam Hill.
Costco also have a good one and Pillow Talk has a good one for a
good price. It is a little bit gappy.
But The thing is, this is the thing I will say.
Don't buy the Christmas trees that are super plush because
they're quite difficult to decorate because there aren't
enough holes and gaps to put baubles in so it can actually be
quite tricky. The ones that look really plush
look quite good without any decorations on them.
So if you like that vibe of a more bare empty tree which is
the lights, definitely get one of those plush Christmas trees.
But I'll say in comparison to the 2 balsam hill trees I have
the noble fir and the Norway spruce.
The noble fir is more difficult to decorate because it's very
plush and dense, whereas the Norway spruce is easier.
It has just the right amount of like volume and texture, but
enough room to decorate. Love them both, but for
different reasons. So what I will say.
So you're thinking, oh you know, what am I going to buy this
year? Maybe it's a tree, maybe it's
some Garland and a wreath. Maybe you've got a 30 centimetre
wreath and you want to buy a 60 centimetre wreath.
What I'm saying is that this whole idea of you buying
something new each Christmas is not meant to mean that you're
doing a complete and utter overhaul.
You're just buying things to add to your collection, which is why
you should be wary of these character ornaments because the
characters are the things that you're going to toss versus
buying a different like accent called that you could use again
and again and again. What I will say, instead of
buying different baubles, maybe just buy a different ribbon.
I have two boxes full of ribbon, different sizes, wide ribbon,
velvet ribbon, satin ribbon pattern.
It is incredible the difference ribbon makes on a tree.
It instantly makes it more elevated.
It instantly makes it look like a stylist has done it and it did
not cost you that much money. You can go to spotlight and pick
up some ribbon or you can buy some off Timu or Amazon.
They're all coming from the same place.
They're all different prices. Just buy some ribbon, tie some
bows, and also don't stick with just bows.
Some people. Oh I'm so over the bow trunk.
Ribbon does not have to be bows. Ribbon can cascade down.
Go on a deep dive on YouTube. Americans, they know how to work
with ribbon. They know ribbon and Christmas
trees really really well. You will get, you will just
you'll become obsessed. You will watch back to back
videos of people doing ribbons on Christmas trees.
Instantly elevates it instantly makes it feel better.
If you are going to buy bows, put the bow above a bauble
please. I don't really love when the
bows are just sitting vacant. Like provide a bit of context to
the bow. You don't really do bows just
Willy nilly. You put a bow in your hair, you
put a bow on a present. So therefore you put a bow with
something with a ball ball, not just like on a branch.
Yeah, I think bows are not going anywhere for Christmas, and I
never want them to because I love bows, but I love them in
the context of them sitting with something.
The next thing that I'll say, which is the huge game changer,
which you can do immediately, is cutting all the strings off your
baubles and replacing them with ornament hooks.
You can get them in silver, gold or green.
Green disappears. Silver can go with silver, gold
can go with gold. Instantly makes everything look
so much better because there's so much visual noise of the
strings on a tree. It ruins it.
It looks like a mess. The strings are terrible.
I wish they, I wish they never brought them out and did that on
decorations because previously you would have to tie your own
strings on ornaments and then they started doing it for you
and then they got real creative with the strings and it makes
everything an absolute mess. So please do me a favour, cut
off all those strings and buy yourself some ornament hooks.
It's instantly a game changer. So again, one of those things
you could pick up ornament hooks and ribbon super cheap, very
effective at changing the look and feel of your Christmas tree
every single year. Then is it, are we going to
upgrade some things? Are we going to buy some
beautiful Cape shell stars this expensive?
They're expensive. We're going to buy them when
they go on sale, which what like I'll add, Christmas stuff goes
on sale around November. Do not wait till Boxing Day
because they don't go on sale on Boxing Day.
They go on sale in November. They will not go back on sale.
They will just pull them away, put them in a warehouse and
bring them back out the following year.
So don't wait for the end of Christmas.
It doesn't work that way. The next thing that I'll also
say here is think about the gift wrap.
The gift wrap acts as decor as well.
Wrapping your presents in beautiful gift wrap really
changes the look and feel of your Christmas tree at the base,
especially if you don't have a nice Christmas collar.
They're really hard to find at a good price.
They're all very expensive. The one I have is super
expensive from Balsam Hill. I don't expect everyone to be
buying that. I do think you could get some of
those boxes if you're doing online shopping.
Wrap them up beautifully and stick them under the tree and
that will solve your issue when it comes to the base of your
tree. I've also seen some people buy a
Garland in the same texture of their tree and they stick it
underneath so then it looks like the tree is starting from the
floor and goes all the way up. Very cool.
Also makes it look taller, more grand.
Very about it. Another solution and one more
other thing which I thought about which you could swap out
but it's slightly more expensive is like a pic like a poinsettia,
which might I say people say poinsettias are very northern
hemisphere because it speaks to winter, but they're actually
not. Poinsettias are South American
flowers, so they're actually are grown in a warm climate.
I think what happened in history is they brought them up to add a
splash of colour in America back in the day.
So look, you can say they're wintry, but they're not.
But they're actually, you know, an equator flower, so hot, dry
season flower. So they're kind of tropical.
So I think you can use them around.
The thing is with like I said, with flowers, it's probably the
only file that I'll probably accept on a Christmas tree, but
I wouldn't go too overboard. But you can use like Berry picks
and sticks. They can be pricey, but they do
make a huge difference when it comes to adding a little bit
more texture and dimension to your tree.
And if you want to mix it up one year, maybe you're adding the
pics. And the best thing is, is that
you did all the pics one year and then you can use the pics
again in a vase on your tree accented.
Not as many, you know, there's varieties.
I have also seen some paper accordion trees.
If you live in a small apartment or don't want to decorate too
hard for the holidays, I do think they're very effective.
You can get stars Christmas trees, you can even get life
size accordion paper Christmas trees.
Now they are quite expensive though.
But what I do like about them is that they're recyclable.
They fold down really flat, so they're really easy to store.
You don't have to get the brown and the beige.
You can go out and get burgundy, green, blue, purple, you name
it. This year.
When it comes to Christmas themes, I would say it's a
little bit slower normally. Every year I definitely see a
stand out that I go for. Last year I did the yellow
Christmas tree, which I think did quite well.
I wanted to do something different.
I didn't think it would be a trend.
I just wanted to stand out and I think it did that.
I did the character ornaments because I think that we were on
the cusp of the Christmas nostalgia and then now it's just
gone full swing into Ralph Lauren.
I don't think that I'll do Ralph Lauren because again, like I
said, I don't think it'll play out as well with the Australian
viewers. I did provincial home living
last year, which was green and white and everyone loved it, I
think because it felt fresh. That's something I will say too.
Don't be afraid to decorate your table with fresh flowers,
particularly if you live in Australia that in season you can
grab some beautiful hydrangeas and green and white.
It feels really fresh and you can also grab some really nice
green and white stuff over at Provincial Home Living.
They have really good candles as well.
Candles, flowers, things that you would use in spring, summer
that you can use again. In terms of what I'm thinking, I
will do a combination of two trees that I did, the character
tree with West Elm ornaments and also the silver and blue velvet
ribbon. I think I will do this year as
well as on my second tree. I've got all those Capez
ornaments from Balsam Hill and I also picked some up from a bed,
bath and table. I thought I might do gold and
burgundy. So we've got like a gold
burgundy Capees shell tree on one and then we've got the
silver and blue with the character ornaments and a little
bit of Lameta tinsel on the other.
So I've got a nice little balance of like the yin and Yang
opposites attract the trees opposites in shape and style.
So I think that'll go really well.
I would love to grab some of those paper accordion trees from
Country Rd just like in the modern spot of my house, like in
the living room. So it's sort of like the
traditional Christmas theme with the wreath, the garlands, the
two trees are in the front terrace.
And then we go into the paper accordion stuff out in the more
modern living room. You let me know what you think.
I just need to find one because Country Rd hasn't launched them
yet. I spoke with the team and they
said they were going to be doing green, but I would really love
the beige ones just because I feel like I've already got
enough green going on with the other trees.
I think a little switch out would be nice in terms of where
I see us going in future. I think next year purple will be
a quite a big theme, purple and silver and grey tobacco.
Like it's sort of like a grey brown because I know the
pendulum is swinging and we're swinging more into the cool
tones again. We've had the warm tones in
quite some time. People have just been sleeping
on it, but that's just, you know, that's just people.
We've lived in the beige warm world since 2020.
It's been about 5-6 years. So now it's time for us to head
back into the cool tones. And I think the way we're going
to do it is through the tobacco shades, silver purples, purples,
also a colour of Advent. So I do think that that will tie
quite well. And with Christmas, particularly
traditional Christmas. So I do see that coming.
I also see beige isn't going to go anywhere quickly because so,
you know, some people are just like coming to terms with it.
I think Burberry is having a revival.
And if people who want to do Ralph Lauren but in a neutral
way, they might do the Burberry print ribbon.
Keep an eye out for that. Also, there's been a big motif
with like black and white spots, like Dalmatian black and white.
I feel like there could be a resurgence of that.
The 80s and 90s has been back for a little while, so we could
see the houndstooth black and white energy.
It does exist in some territories, particularly over
in the US, so keep an eye out for that.
It's all very interesting. Christmas has so much going on,
which is why I don't love like the pink because I'm like,
there's so many options you could choose from and you're
just going to go with the pink. You do pink every other year,
Like come on, like not year, but all the time.
Move on, move on from the pink, do something different.
I could talk about Christmas for hours on end, but at the end of
the day, Christmas styling should just feel like you.
Whether it's traditional, coastal or completely your own
style, the goal is to make your home feel festive, not forced.
And the trends, the yes, they come and they go, but a well
considered tree and thoughtful details always hold up.
It's just the way that you do it.
So if you enjoyed this episode, make sure you're following the
show wherever you listen and tag me at Louisbourg if you're
styling your space. What time are you going to be
starting Christmas decorating? Some people have had their tree
up since September. I have been putting it off till
November. I have shared some Christmas
things from last year on my feed because people have been asking.
I will be doing the Christmas Tree Review series on Tiktok
again this year, so stay tuned for that and submit your tree,
please. I think lots of people who
submit their trees are not that passionate about Christmas.
They just want me to review their tree.
I want some good ones in the mix.
All of them are good in their own way, but I want people who
are passionate about Christmas to also submit.
So I would love to see what you're doing.
I'm going to be decorating. Stay tuned for that.
I'm going to be seen across online, I've got a couple of
people coming around to shoot a few home tours and print
publications and that's very exciting.
Lots to see over here for Christmas at Beecherburg,
following me across all socials at Louis Burg.
And until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and happy
holidays.