When it comes to dressing up the house, no one does it better than the style set. From hand blown swan ornaments to piles of larch cones and the return of lametta, here is what the here is what London’s aesthetes have in store this Christmas.
Maximilian Hurd, Creative consultant
Christmas is not about being chic. Quite the opposite really. Overdo it! Why the hell not! It’s once a year for a few weeks you might as well go mad. Does that painting need Tinsel around it? Yes. Do you need to put little Christmas hats on all the figurines? Yes. Do you need to have a personalised stocking made for your cat and then hang it above the fireplace? For god’s sake, yes. For decorations, buy things that make you smile, and keep them. You don’t need a scheme, you need a story. I hate colour coordinated or themed trees. Mix beautiful hand blown swans from Murano with a Father Christmas made of loo roll your seven-year-old cousin made one year.
For wreaths — I don’t like them fussy — we had a very simple, very battered fake one that we dragged out every year when I was a child. Her name was A-Wreatha Franklin and she was truly ghastly by the end. We lived in Notting Hill and lots of our smart neighbours had these ridiculously over the top wreaths and my mum was always mortified when we insisted on sticking A-Wreatha to the front door — but we howled with laughter every year and that’s what Christmas is all about.
Duncan Campbell and Charlotte Rey of Campbell-Rey, Interiors design studio
There are plenty of moments in life to think about restraint — Christmas is not one of them. We love an over-the-top tree with lots of colour, different types of decorations (adore ones shaped like vegetables) and personal touches. We are quite adamant the lights should be warm yellow rather than white or coloured — that gives the cosiest atmosphere. Also no other holiday says fires in the fireplace or candlelight as Christmas does. We also recommended putting cloves in oranges or clementines and piling them up in a bowl so the scent fills the house, it’s wonderful to come home to.
Charles Jeffrey, Fashion designer
When it comes to dressing your space, keep it simple and experimental — make sure each thing you adorn it with has meaning to you. I love to make wreaths out of clay (surprisingly, they look amazing) — and I actually don’t buy a Christmas tree, I create a tower of beautiful ornaments. It’s a physical collage of random things I have found/been gifted/collected over the years and has become rather ceremonial during the holiday period! Obviously anything adorned with the Wedgwood x Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY baubles which we have made this year will have a place of honour on my tower of trinkets.
Bianca Saunders, Fashion designer
My top festive tip: nothing gold. I love everything silver or sentimental. When it comes to festive wreath making or decorations inside, make one yourself and keep it personalised. I have a plastic Christmas tree which we take out every year and rebuild. It’s about two foot and was a gift from my mum when we moved into the first studio around Christmas time in 2019. The one stop shop for anything last minute has to be Peter Jones — I’ve got some good decorations there.
Anya Hindmarch, Fashion designer
Do what makes you happy, ‘tis the season where more is more! We buy a tree in mid-December from Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, not too early but long enough to enjoy it and the magic it brings into the house. We always get a real one (you can’t beat that smell) and as tall as we can. And I love our tree, but I am not sure it would win any competitions; it is fully loaded with a mix of treasures. The most treasured Christmas heirloom is Derek, our festive robin. He has been in a backpack to Mexico, to one of my children’s first days at university and my eldest found him under his pillow on the night before he got married… which all goes to show, it is the story, not the thing that matters. This year my wreath and table centrepiece will come from our new Wreath Hut in The Village. Each design is crafted by florist Rob Van Helden, all with an Anya touch.
Alexander Hoyle, Florist
My rules: no wreath. You need a garland for your mantle. Box, holly and ivy behind pictures. Lots of candles and larch cones. And when it comes to flowers, grow potted bulbs for the table and buy a Christmas cactus that will last you a lifetime (and flower every year). With the tree, one is sufficient in town but in the country it is good to have one in the hall/stairs and another in the drawing room. Of course you need a real one. Dress the house with paper chains made of your fave wallpapers or the pink Financial Times newspaper, painted shells, straw made decorations, and warm white lights. And don’t forget some glamour — lametta, tinsel, metallic glass baubles and, this year, it’s absolutely stars over angels.
Whitney Bromberg Hawkings, Chief executive of Flowerbx
I buy my trees at Flowerbx — Nordmann fir grown in the North. The needles aren’t too hard and don’t shed. I usually have two, the crappy one the kids decorate with heirlooms and their own baubles, and the chilly one — all gold, silver and coordinated. My husband [Peter Hawkings, creative director of Tom Ford] cannot help decorating anything because he would have to make everything uniform. You can’t be that picky. Keep everything else tonal — decor, flowers, outfits. It works best if you don’t know what you are doing. Clashing is an art, you can’t go wrong if you stick to a theme.
The Flowerbx wreaths are the biggest and best. We do matching garlands with the wreaths, so it’s a one stop shop. And fragrance is so important; fill the room with eucalyptus and cinnamon sticks.
Matty Bovan, Fashion designer
I love unexpected toys and ornaments everywhere; the more surreal the better. I love a huge 10 foot faux tree, preferably white or pink but absolutely never green. Throw everything at it, a healthy dose of nostalgia and newness of baubles, and decorations, the camper the better. Add more, and then keep adding more. I love when the branches start to disappear, the same goes for the decor. Fairy lights, fairy lights, fairy lights, across every room.
