Inclusive Holiday Decor for a Blended Family

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to bah humbug “standard time.” I am not a fan. I wish we were on daylight saving time the same as California.

 

But, Laurel, then the sun wouldn’t come up until 10:00 AM or something like that on the East Coast.

 

Yes, I know. I would love that. Of course, I realize I’m probably in the bottom 5th percentile who feel that way. Sigh… But what I really hate is the sun setting at 4:15 PM.

Anyway, I just received a note from a reader named Holly. Yes, it’s the same name as my sister in Wisconsin, but this is from another Holly who is looking for inclusive holiday decorations.

 

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Dear Laurel,

Did I just see an early Black Friday sale flash on my screen? I mean, it’s only November 1st, and are the retailers really that desperate?
In any case, I’m looking to do a complete overhaul of our holiday decor.

We’re a blended family. I mean, my husband’s Jewish, I’m Catholic, and 18 years ago, we adopted a little Chinese girl and then, a little boy from Kenya two years later.

So, a few things. Neither my husband nor I is deeply religious, but we do love decorating for the holidays, and the kids get into it,a too. Still, we each have relatives who are more orthodox in their views and some who couldn’t give a sh*t. Well, we don’t have to worry about them.

 

Actually, I’m not worried about any of them. I’m not worried about anything. haha.

 

Still, I don’t want to do the typical red and green this year. And, I’ve never been a fan of the blue, silver, and white with accents of yellow for Hanukkah. In addition, we’re hosting a bunch of our friends and some of our family for Thanksgiving, so I’d like the house to look festive.

Is there a way to blend the holidays so it’s not overtly Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or anything else except warm, charming, festive, magical, and someone just shut me up! lol

I hope you’ll do a blog post about the topic of secular holiday decorations. You know, non-denominational, inclusive holiday decor.

I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Holly Branch

 

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Hi again, everyone. And yes, this Holly is a fictitious character, but I bet there are lots of people in a similar situation. All of my Jewish relatives married Catholics. I mean every.single.one. Oh, wait. One child whose mom is Jewish and Dad is Catholic married a Jewish woman.

In addition, it’s also BLACK NOVEMBER, or as I call it Kaching November.

Yes, the entire month is full of fabulous sales. Indeed, the retailers are hurting. Prices keep going up, and that means business is going down because a lot of people can’t afford to pay more. No further comment except this has been going on ever since the Pandemic. A lot of home furnishings have more than doubled in price in the last five years. It’s nuts!

It’s one of the reasons I did my “cheap” series of posts.

 

 

Okay, this is one of my favorite topics because I love Christmas, but I’m not so fond of decorating.

 

Oh, that’s very funny, Laurel.

Yes, I understand why you might think that.

It’s not that I don’t want to decorate, it’s that this is my busiest time of the year. Still, some of the Christmas stuff in my widgets was looking a bit boring to me.

And no one needs to come here to look at something boring. Right? The hard part is also writing about it, so I will try to keep this as short as possible.

 

I was chatting earlier with my sister Holly, who said, “Do a third of what you think you should do for the inclusive holiday decor.”

 

Ha! She’s right, but the problem is, if I break it up that much, every post will be about the holidays between now and December 7th. Some of you might love that, but not everyone will.

So, for today, I will address a couple of things regarding inclusive holiday decor, which also touches on the Hanukkah blue, white, and silver, with accents of the taxicab yellow theme.

Frankly, I hate it with an intense passion. It’s seriously awful, and on top of it, a lot of the Hanukkah decor I find to be kind of childish, if not downright cartoonish.

However, I love blue. And then I saw this image on Williams-Sonoma Home and then, and I immediately understood the problem.

 

Do you?

 

In case you don’t know what it is, I’ll spell it out for you.

 

First, we have the colors. Please notice how it’s not just the typical royal blue. There are several shades of blue. In addition, there are only accents of white. And then, there are the complementary colors of the food and flowers, and the contemporary black buffet.

But the part that brings it all together is the beautiful backdrop in a dusty dark blue paint with a touch of green in it, and the beautiful wall mouldings.

 

Except for the Menorah, there’s nothing about this that is shouting out Hanukkah, OR Christmas. It could be Thanksgiving, for that matter.

 

Now, if you’re a bit more of a pureist, for Hanukkah, it is perfectly acceptable to do shades of green, particularly olive greens and gold.

However, I don’t think lightning will strike if you use other colors. You could do orange and gold decorations with green accents. There will be some fall-ish items, as well as items that can swing in all directions.

 

via domicile.37.com

 

So, for starters, here’s the link to the Holiday Shop.

 

There’s a post about Christmas trees, but for today, I will only focus on one tree. It’s one of my long-time favorites.

 

 

There’s so much on here, it isn’t easy to see the tree. However, I think it’s a flocked tree. So, I spent many hours searching for just the right elements that I can see. Therefore, if you’re brave and love this tree, you might be able to recreate it. The only thing I just noticed is that the hydrangeas appear to be in little pots. They almost look like ice cream cones!

 

While there’s nothing to replace the smell of fresh pine, in the future, I am going to stick with a candle and maybe a small amount of greenery.

 

Very small.

 

 

Four years ago, when I had a Holiday party, I got a fresh garland, and sure, it was gorgeous, but it made an unholy mess. Some of you tried to warn me.

 

 

 

In addition, it makes so much sense to have a realistic-looking faux tree.

 

• The mess
• It’s a fire hazard
• The mess
• They drink a crapload of water
• You have to get rid of the tree
• The mess!!!

There is a lovely Christmas tree page. 

And one of my favorites is the Christmas decor page, and also the wreaths and garlands page. 

That’ll keep you busy for a bit. However, there’s a lot more on the main holiday page. :]

Okay, let’s bring that beautiful tree back down.

 

 

Below is the widget I created to make the tree!

 

 

I hope this is helping to get y’all into the holiday spirit. The last two months of the year always fly by.

There’s more inclusive holiday decor coming soon. There is also some more traditional holiday decor to see right now and more of that is coming, as well. A lot of the really great items sell out quickly.

xo,

 

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