By Michele Chan Santos

Christmas is only weeks away, which means you’re probably pulling out those boxes full of the same old holiday decor. But if you’ve grown weary of displaying grandmother’s holiday doilies, it could be time to dress up the house or condo - indoors and out - with some new decorations that you can buy from the comfort of your computer.

Ring Around The Door

The wreath is a standard for holiday decorating, be it on the front door or inside. Along with the wreath, garlands can drape mantels or doors, and decorative types get an excuse to play with holiday greenery (think lighted topiaries).

For an unusual take on the Christmas wreath, check out L.L. Bean’s “Sea Treasures” version with starfish and shells, priced at $39.50 (more for larger sizes.) For another version, look at Pottery Barn’s colorful outdoor pine wreath for $79. Want a departure from the traditional red-and-green theme? Pottery Barn also offers an oversized magnolia garland full of green, gold and silver faux leaves.

If you want a wreath with the wintery smell of balsam or noble trees, try Alpine Wreaths or Vermont Center Wreaths, both of whom offer a variety of sizes and styles. Alpine Wreaths’ fresh noble fir wreath from the Pacific Northwest is $55. Vermont Cedar Wreaths will ship you a 24″ fresh balsam wreath for $25. The gardening experts at Smith & Hawken will create made-to-order wreaths, garlands and runners - all fresh. Their eucalyptus and pepperberry greenery can come as a small or large wreath, a swag, a runner or even a kissing ball for $49.

If you really want to make a statement, click over to Frontgate, where they show off their “Chelsea” garland with faux pine, gold leaves, ornaments and 200 lights. It is 9 feet long and costs $395. And if you’re still in the mood to spend, check out their Radio City Music Hall wreath with glittering art deco details, bells, ornaments and gilded leaves.

While we’re on the subject of holiday greenery, Restoration Hardware (which also has a large assortment of wreaths and garlands) offers their holiday topiary “woodberry” light string for a discounted $68.99. And if you’re still thinking green, Horchow has faux evergreen round topiaries, each with 70 bright lights in a polyresin antiqued gold urn.

A New Twist On The Tree

If schlepping to the transient tree lot is too much work, order a fresh Christmas tree online and have it delivered to your door. Christmas Farms is part of Tall Timbers Tree Farms in Michigan. At this site, online shoppers can pick from several types of trees, including Fraser, balsam and Douglas, priced from $100 to $120. The tree is wrapped and shipped by UPS. Unwrap it, place it in a tree stand and it will spring back to its natural shape. There are other websites that offer fresh-cut Christmas trees, such as FreshChristmasTree.com or ChristmasTreesNow.com. Want to do a little research before ordering a fresh tree? Go to the National Christmas Tree Association’s website.

There are plenty of splashy faux trees to be found on the web. Horchow’s imported Woodland Christmas tree has 1,000 bright lights - but it will cost you more than $600. Frontgate has a large variety of artificial trees to choose from.

If your tree doesn’t have to smell like a tree - just look like one - check out EarthFlora.com and their host of pre-lit or unlit trees (full or thin), in fiber-optic colors or evergreen styles. If off-beat is your bent, their artificial pre-lit green Christmas cactus (4-foot or 6-foot versions) is so funky and silly your friends will never forget it (though it may embarrass your kids). And are you old enough to remember those silver aluminum trees from the ’50s? Hammacher Schlemmer has one, and you can even buy one of those cool color light wheels that mesmerized you as a kid.

If chic and trendy is your inclination, go for a black Christmas tree, which, we are told, “decorators prefer.” It’s 7.5-feet tall and comes prelit with 800 tiny white lights that reflect off the tree’s 1,982 black PVC tips, which means it needs no further decoration.

If that’s not funky enough for you, go to Christmas People for a pink feather fiber-optic tree. If space is at a premium, consider something for the tabletop, like Macy’s Martha Stewart Winter Whimsies feather tree.

A Glittery Galaxy of Ornaments

Everyone has their own ornament style. Some prefer a sleek, stylish designer touch and will fill their tree with matching glittering ornaments. Others collect a cornucopia of items to fill the branches and remind them of days gone by.

Every fall, Hallmark comes out with new Christmas ornaments for every conceivable type of recipient - newlyweds, baby’s first Christmas, and even sci-fi fans (new this year, a miniature Millenium Falcon which lights up and plays the Star Wars theme song, all for $32.) And for 40-somethings longing for their childhood, there’s a real “Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots” ornament for $15.

For a more classic style the sparkling hand-painted ornaments from Christopher Radko are always popular with collectors. These lovely creations are pricy, at about $50 to $60 each, but their elegant, traditional designs and gleaming colors make them pretty enough to hang on your tree for years.

The Mercedes-Benz of the ornament world is Waterford. Among their many beautifully designed crystal ornaments this year is a 1st Edition “Times Square” Anniversary ball, which resembles the giant crystal ball that drops in Times Square to ring in the new year. It costs $98 and comes packaged in a gray hatbox.

Pottery Barn offers an assortment of stylish ornaments, such as the “glitter snowflake sphere” for $9. Smith & Hawken offers a set of 12 frosted icicle ornaments for a discounted $16. Crate & Barrel’s assortment includes whimsical “sweater kids” or a beautiful hand-blown glass ball with glittering trees. To really hold on to the memories, Restoration Hardware is just one of many retailers offering small picture frame ornaments.

At Macy’s, their large holiday collection offers everything from African-American angel ornaments to Kurt Adler-designed treetoppers. And lest we forget the bottom of the tree, Saks offers a lavish Dransfield and Ross tree skirt and Horchow has a beautiful red and gold skirt with braided tassel trim.

But we can’t stop until the stockings are hung from the chimney with care. And if you care for some really fancy ones, check out Neiman-Marcus’ needlepoint stockings, held in place with an elegant “crown” stocking hook. Horchow also offers some lavish stockings complete with glitter, embroidery, bells and style.

But if all of the above is just too pricey, Target has dozens and dozens of stockings and stocking holders at much lower price ranges.

Don’t Stop Now! Spruce Up the House

OK, we’ve got wreaths, the tree, ornaments, stockings . . . but what about the rest of the house? Here are two examples of small decorative glittery trees to dress up a table, one from Horchow and the other from Neiman-Marcus.

Head for the kitchen, where you can show off your zany Krinkles Christmas cake stand and cover, your Rudolph appetizer plates or the embroidered snowflake placemats and napkins from Crate & Barrel. If you really want your meals to sparkle with holiday spirit, Macy’s has a large assortment of holiday tablewear, such as Spode’s Christmas Tree buffet plate.

But wait, you’ve still got to put out the reindeer doormat, completely redo the bathroom, get that fun Advent calendar on the wall and place all your Christmas cards from friends and family in Pottery Barn’s curly wired holder.

The last thing you will need to make your indoor wonderland complete is a holiday scent. Yankee Candle has yummy holiday scented candles, including The Christmas Cookie Candle (a large 22 ounces for $22.99), hollyberry and gingerbread. Scents and Sprays website has an assortment of holiday-scented candles, such as the red Noel soy candle by Archipelago, or you might prefer Slatkin’s Holiday Candle from CandleDelirium.com.

If looks, not scents, are to your taste, consider a handful of ornament-like candles or a faux votive light string (they come in different sizes) from Restoration Hardware.

Once it’s all in place, you can relax, put up your feet, and enjoy the sights and smells of the season.

Unless, that is, you haven’t gotten to the outdoor decor yet.

Show the Neighbors What You’re Made Of

This is the competitive side of Christmas decorating, the part that separates the men from, well, the crazy men. Just how far are you willing to go to show that you are truly jolly?

You may be satisfied with an eye-popping display of lights, and there are plenty of Christmas-themed websites that will sell you the goods, such as ChristmasExpressOnline - for regular lights or LED. You can shop at HolidayLighting.com, ChristmasPeople.com and ChristmasLights.com. Bronner’s, which bills itself as the “world’s largest Christmas store,” has a huge assortment of lights to work with.

But perhaps you need more.

Start small with Frontgate’s varied illuminated “gift boxes,” or consider Hammacher Schlemmer’s Christmas carol and outdoor light show. If you really want drivers to do a double-take, get Christmas Express Online’s outdoor lighted Santa sculpture, Holiday Lighting’s huge train display or an animated Santa on a motorcycle from HolidayLighting.com.

Copyright © 2007 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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