Feature article

Design ideas for your first Christmas in your new home

You’re one of the lucky ones, you’ve bought a new house this year and now it’s time to celebrate your first Christmas.

Having the first Christmas in your new home is always a big event. It’s a time to establish some new Christmas traditions for family and friends.

You’ll be making design decisions which you’ll likely return to year after year. Are you going to put twinkle lights at the front of the house, where are you going to put the tree? Is there a mantlepiece to make a focal point for cards and stockings? Is there a feature window you can put some favourite Christmas-themed decorations in a wave to the neighbourhood?

Lowe & Co agent, Anji Foster, is having her first Christmas with her family in the Mt Victoria home they moved to earlier this year.

The 1930s house has a nice big bay window, and this Christmas it’s become the stage for an arrangement of Christmas decorations, an installation masterminded by her artistic daughter, Bella, a vintage clothing aficionado.

The family have a large collection of Christmas decorations dating back from Ms Foster and her husband’s childhood, as well as ones they’ve collected over the years as a family.

“We’ve got an amazing array of twee and stylish ones so Bella put a whole lot of those in our front window,” says the Lowe’s agent.

The house is quite private from the street and while it’s nice for visitors to see as they approach the house, it gives the agent a lift every time she comes home.

“I know when I walk up, I can see all the decorations and the stars hanging around. When you’re walking in your neighbourhood and you see different homes being made ready for the end of the year, it puts a smile on your face,” says Ms Foster.

A Christmas tree, and it must be a real one, is another absolute must. It transports you instantly into Christmas mode, says the agent. An angel Christmas ornament, in the family for generations, always tops the tree.

This year, in a change for the family, environmentally-aware Bella has said she doesn’t want Christmas wrapping on her presents but has said that already existing paper and bags in the house can be used. Ms Foster says she has some old wallpaper she’ll be using which should do the job for bigger box-sized presents.

Janette Sherwood, owner of Verdant Living in Aro Valley, is another Wellingtonian who likes to take a sustainable approach too when it comes to Christmas.

“One year I did a wreath out of found objects in the garden, ivy, soft weavable sticks and put that on the front door,” she says.

The family has a tradition of using the house’s architraves to put up vintage Scandanavian bunting, and to hang up Christmas cards. They’ll also put up string lights around the house.

Ms Sherwood, whose home eco interiors store sells hand-made fabric decorations, remembers her first Christmas in her new home was a chance to put out precious decorations that she knew her flatmates wouldn’t wreck.

Time to try something new

Don’t expect to be able to decorate your home in the same way as your last home, says Karen Burge, co-owner of Mt Albert homeware, gift and clothing store, Good Thing.

Mrs Burge, who has a reputation for styling her homes to make them beautiful but also very liveable, advises new homeowners not to turn up to the new house with a box of decorations that you always used in your last house. You might have had the perfect hallway for them but they might not work in the new place.

“It’s a good chance to break away,” she says. Your new house gives you permission to change direction. Steal ideas, she says. One idea, suggests the mother of four, might be to have a kids’ Christmas tree and an adults’ tree which is more designer.

Make sure the lights you use are right for the house, that you’re not using old ones that aren’t long enough for the front porch, she adds. She’s seen some beautiful lights, with illuminated Joy and Peace signs in the front windows of a Mt Albert home, and where they had put lit up presents by the letter box.

In the Burge family, they have Santa photos dating from when her four children were babies, each child has a string of these photos together, hung up in the living room, the string getting wider every year. The kids love to look at how they’ve changed over the years, says Mrs Burge.

Christmas wreaths at the front door are always a lovely way to greet the neighbourhood and visitors to the home, adds the Good Thing owner.

“Even if you’re tired pulling up to the front door, it makes you happy it’s Christmas,” says Mrs Burge.

Look at what others in your neighbourhood are doing

If you’re looking for inspiration at your new home, it can be a good idea to see what your neighbours are doing at Christmas and grabbing some inspiration.

UP Real Estate’s Jennifer Temm Munns remembers selling a Pt Chevalier home on a big corner site in Pt Chevalier’s Miller Street which is renowned for its Christmas lights and decorations in the area.

Franklin Road Christmas Lights

“I said, “You’re buying in the Christmas street, I hope to see some lights up at Christmas!”” she says.

The agent says when she’s marketing a home in December she’ll encourage vendors to put a Christmas tree up so people can start imagining themselves having Christmas there too.

The trend is for Christmas trees to look more organic at the moment, people are going for a more natural vibe, she says.