How To Bring Christmas Into The Kitchen

Festive decorating brings to mind the Christmas tree occupying the sitting room and a wreath on the front door so that your hallway begins with some seasonal cheer. All too often, however, the kitchen gets left out of the decorating equation. But as great believers in Christmas cheer spreading to every corner of the home, leading interior design house, Neptune, has shared a few of the easy but effective ways to sprinkle some seasonality into the heart of your home.

1 Add fairy lights. It is nigh on impossible not to feel festive when in the company of twinkling fairy lights. In the kitchen, they work a charm if you have exposed oak shelving on which a pine garland can rest, along with lights woven in amongst the fir bristles, but the light show need not stop there. If you have decorative jars, fill one with festive treats like mini mince pies or gingerbread biscuits and the other with lights – just choose battery powered so there is no plug socket required.

2 Set the scene with candles. Just like fairy lights, candles are a form of light that never fail to create a feeling of enchantment. Christmas is the season of generosity, so you don’t need to hold back on the number that you use – candlelight is one of those exceptions to the rule where less is not necessarily more. Take them to the window ledge and use candlestick holders as well as tea light cups so there’s a pleasing mix of textures and height of flame. And because it’s Christmas, go all out with coloured wax, such as Neptune’s Coleridge dinner candles that are fittingly Olive-coloured.

3 Bring wreaths indoors. When it comes to festive wreaths, it seems a shame to only enjoy them on the one or two occasions a day when you might see them on your front door. Out of all of the rooms in the home, the kitchen is the one that surely has the most cabinets and cupboard doors with handles aplenty – ripe for hanging bits and bobs from. Rest one from the handles of a double-doored countertop cabinet, like a bi-fold larder, or lean it up inside a cabinet’s interior as a happy surprise every time you open its doors.

4 Get baking and making. Christmas decorating, ornaments and all, is done best when it appeals to all the senses. So welcome smell and taste to the party by having ingredients out on display to delicately scent your kitchen with the aromas of the season. A decorative bowl with clove-punctured clementines, a decorative jar filled with star anise and cinnamon sticks, or better still, get hands on and make the most of those kitchen work surfaces by baking to your heart’s content. Is there a better scent in December than walking into the kitchen to detect gingerbread baking? Cut yours into festive shapes and then string them up from ribbons in your kitchen’s window, or hang them from spindly branches in a vase for a suitably culinary display. Just make sure you bake two trays’ worth – you’ll likely want some for yourself too. www.neptune.com.