By Holly Kozelsky
Did you know that if you’re one of those people who just decorate for Christmas without paying attention to fads, you’re stylish this year?
Yes, indeed: This year, according to people who claim to be in charge of styles, it’s the year to decorate with classic ornaments, bows and garland. Of course, according to them, it probably would be most fashionable if you threw out all of last year’s decorations and bought a whole new lot of retro-look ornaments, bows and garland; but you could still get by with it by using the ones you’ve been using for years.
In my house, the name for that look is “My mom’s old ornaments that were on all the Christmas trees I grew up with and then I got them off the side of the curb that year I saw that Mom was throwing them away.”
My daughter still looks at me in horror when I again tell her that my mother had done that. She loves those old mercury glass ball ornaments as much as I did when I was little, and she still does as a teen, and I still do as a getting-old lady.
But the fashionistas don’t call it the “Mom’s old ornaments” look. They call it the “Ralph Lauren Christmas.”
Like your mom’s decorations, Ralph Lauren Christmas is cozy, timeless and luxurious. It blends classic Americana, English country charm and traditional preppy style using rich colors, such as deep reds and greens and navy; textures, such as plaid, velvet, wool and leather; and natural elements such as pine boughs and holly sprigs.
The consumerist Ralph Lauren fad would like you to buy brand new fluffy bows at the department stores or big box stores, but our mom’s red velvet and plaid bows were faded and crinkled with time, a little more crushed each time they were put in and 11 months later taken out of storage boxes.
When I was growing up, I never knew there were Christmas themes, and maybe there weren’t. People just had their stuff, and used it, and didn’t throw it away and buy new all the time like they do now. And if they were, there wasn’t any internet back then for us to learn about it. We lived in a small town, and our Mom subscribed to Newsweek and Time and People, but not Southern Living, so we had no way of knowing what the trends were.
My sister and I only learned there could be themes the year our renegade mother hauled all the old ornaments out to the curb and replaced the classic family style with two themed trees: One of white angels, glass bells and red bows; and the other a tan straw tree with natural ornaments made out of pine cones and such.
Eventually, the internet did come along, and so did Christmas themes, packing a heavy punch.
For the past few years, a sterile, boring, black and white Christmas theme has put people across the nation to sleep and disappointed Santa Claus.
Then there’s the fluffy tree so full of stuff you can’t see any branches, and quite possibly, there are no branches; it could just be some sort of framework with pegs sticking out to attach things to. This tree has huge plumes of Pampas grass or, more likely, plumes of fake Pampas grass, or great big sparklers coming out of it like it were the fourth of July, and humungous plastic sparkly ornaments.
Another type of trend from last year was Cottagecore, which had natural elements and rustic charm and for some reason, mushrooms as decorations. The year before, Christmas decorations got a little crazy, with varied styles such as Moody European, which had velvety dark colors; Pastel Candyland, which had a lot of pink decorations of mints and for some reason donuts; Botanical/Natural, such as pinecones and dried flowers; and that stark Modern Farmhouse look which has buffalo checked and mixed metals.
Then there are the Christmas characters. Of course, Baby Jesus, the Wise Men, Mary and Joseph, Santa Claus and the reindeer seem like they’d top the list, but no, a few years ago it was the unicorn. Why were people decorating for Christmas with unicorns who had ribbons or ornaments around their horns? The following year, the Christmas character was a llama. What do llamas have to do with Christmas, and why did we see them everywhere, on clothes, as ornaments, or stuffed animals?
My daughter and I joked about what could be the next character, never imagining the gnome. Yes, Christmas gnomes were real popular last year, and we aren’t going to yuck anyone’s yum, so we won’t comment, other than to say, we were surprised when Grandma gave us one as gift. We love and appreciate Grandma too much to discard her gifts, so when we decorate, the gnome is placed at the back of the shelf behind some other things.
We were placing bets with each other to see what this year’s Christmas character would be, but so far, we haven’t been aware of one. Could it be there is no breakout character, or just – and more likely – we’re a little bit out of touch?
No matter your decorating style, the sentiment is the same. ’Tis the season of peace and goodwill toward man. We wish you a very merry Christmas.
