Original article featured in Cambridgeshire Agenda December 2008. Photography courtesy of John Lewis, Bloom and Cox and Cox.

At Christmas, our homes become centre of attention as we invite family and friends to celebrate, and part of the fun of Christmas is how we decorate our homes.

Cate Burren of Angel + Blume interior design looks at where the customs of our Christmas decorations originated. Thoughts of Christmas in this country can be magical, conjuring up images of dark nights, homes filled with lights, winter cooking smells, and fireside warmth. We tend towards tradition at this time of year and some of the best customs revolve around decorating our homes.

Much of the more recent look for our Christmas homes stems from Victorian times. In 1846, at the height of their popularity, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were featured in the Illustrated London News standing with their children around a Christmas tree decorated with gingerbread and candles, with presents piled underneath. The court fashion was immediately copied, not only in this country but with the style conscious East Coast American society and the Christmas tree became a British custom.

The early trees were adorned with handmade decorations of snowflakes and stars, with gift and sugared almonds sewn into them. It wasn’t until some decades later that Woolworths started selling glass blown ornaments that the modern Christmas tree look emerged. The Victorian colours of rich red, dark bottle green and tartan, underline the traditional Christmas look and the still works brilliantly today whether your home is traditional or contemporary. The look is all about warmth, luxury, nostalgia and some elements of formality.

However you choose to decorate your home, there is something wonderful about using natural foliage as a starting point. The traditional look is all about holly, ivy, mistletoe and fir and the tradition of using these plants in the home during the winter predates even Roman times. Evergreen plants were thought to be linked to wood spirits and to be associated with vitality and during December, Pagans lit candles and bonfires to help nourish the sun god when he was at his weakest and drive winter and hardship away. Later, the Romans celebrated December 25th as the festival of the birth of the invincible sun, which was marked with celebrations including the decorations of branches and small trees.

The Scandinavian style of Christmas decorating draw strongly on these customs and they start the festivities on 13th December with the festival of Santa Lucia – Queen of Light. Nordic homes tend to be decorated in red and white with natural and handmade decorations. Many families have a set of Christmas table linen, which is often handed down over the generations, and some go as far as changing their curtains for a more Christmassy red and white ones. The look is about bringing light into the home and about keeping away from glitz!

The Christmas cracker is another tradition that dates back to Victorian times and is supposed to originate from a baker and confectioner called Tom Smith who travelled to Paris and discovered the ‘bon bon’ which was a sugared almond wrapped in a twist of tissue paper. He brought the idea back to London which sold well and in order to increase sales around the Christmas period, he put a love motto inside each one. Apparently it was the crackle of a log on the fire which gave him the inspiration to create the cracker sound effect that we know today. Today, crackers mostly adorn the Christmas table, but can also be used very effectly to decorate the tree. Homemade are much the best if you have time, but you can also buy kits that allow you to select what goes inside.

During Advent, candles were lit to mark the passing days – a red one for weekdays and Saturdays and a white one on Sundays. This started the tradition of the modern advent wreath and it wasn’t long before people started to entwine the wooden ring with evergreen cuttings, once again to symbolise everlasting life through the winter. Nowadays, the advent wreath is still widely used and simpler wreaths without candles are used on front doors.

There are countless versions of the modern Christmas wreath and there is nothing more welcoming that a wreath to adorn your front door. Traditional wreaths tend to feature holly, ivy, fir, viburnum and bay wrapped round with red ribbon, however, wreaths now come in all shaped and sizes including twigs formed into heart shapes, corn rings and luxurious versions featuring roses, baubles and fruits

Christmas wreaths have a great place in decorating traditions and the earliest wreaths were supposed to date from the middle ages. The custom of the advent wreath was started by the German, Johann Wichern who founded an orphanage in the 1830s. The children would ask daily if Christmas had arrived so he adapted a cartwheel to hold 19 small red candles and 4 white candles to mark the days and weeks countdown to Christmas.

Whatever look you decide on for Christmas and whatever traditions you keep up or disregard, it is truly at time for friends, family, relaxing and celebrating and your home will reflect how you approach this time of year – so enjoy it! The tradition of it being back luck to take down your decorations before 6th January stems from the story of the three kings travelling for 12 days to bring gifts to Jesus – but observation of this tradition is entirely up to you!

Happy Christmas to all Agenda readers from Angel + Blume.