Winter decoration ideas for the after-Christmas period
Winter decoration
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Pinecones
Christmas decoration ideas made of simple pinecones
Candy cane
Candy cane is one of the most popular chocolate-free festive sweets. Its history goes back to 1670. The choirmaster of Cologne Cathedral bent sugar sticks into the shape of canes to represent a shepherd’s staff. These were given out to children during the nativity scene. The cane was then all-white.
Handing out candy canes during Christmas soon spread throughout Europe. It reached America in 1847, when a German immigrant decorated his Christmas tree with candy canes. Striped candy cane appeared only at the turn of the century with red-white stripes. Around that time, it was flavored by peppermint, which finally became the traditional flavoring.
Candy canes were made by hand, a machine had been developed only in 1950 which could bend the sticks, with this providing the mass production and selling them worldwide.
Nowadays candy canes are produced in almost every color. However, the red-white version is still the most popular during Christmas preparations. Green-white and red-green-white stripes are also available.
This traditional striping is applied by the producers on many other Christmas products and decorations, since there is a high demand because of its popularity. Only some examples to mention: Christmas tree ornament in various shapes, wrapping papers, sweets with different shapes, lighting decorations. The candy cane is also used as Christmas tree ornament and decoration element instead of eating it.
Ask for help of an interior designer for stylish Christmas decorations.
Postcard decor
Let’s use our favourite Christmas cards as decorations
Christmas pickle
According to the tradition in the USA, an ornamental pickle is placed on the Christmas tree as one of the Christmas decorations. On Christmas morning, the first child to find the pickle on the tree would receive an extra present from Santa Claus or would be said to have a year of good fortune.
Citrus Christmas
Fresh citrus Christmas decoration ideas
The turkey
Turkey is the main decoration motif of Thanksgiving
Instead of pumpkin lantern
Jack-o-lanterns for Halloween – without pumpkins
Halloween-tree
New decoration idea spreads: Halloween Tree on the model of decorated faux-pine tree for Christmas
Lighting candles correctly
Using candles for mood lighting is very popular, in any time of the year. More expensive branded, scented candles are beloved also. In this case it might be more important that they burn clean, as long as it is possible with using most of their materials. These can be reached with some tricks and attention.
One of the mistakes is not to let the candle burn long enough at the first ignition. The size of the wax pool around the wick determines the life of the candle. This should be the biggest, close enough to the edge of the candle, unless it leaves a rim which won’t melt later. For this, burn a new candle for 1 hour per 2.5 cm in diameter.
A wick that is too long can cause a candle to start smoking. Keep your wick trimmed at all times, this results a steady flame, which means the candle’s burning process is in balance. The ideal length is 6 mm.
A candle that is in a draught can start flickering and will likely smoke, which causes a candle to start dripping. The solution is simple: don’t put the candle in the draught.
If the candle is placed in a lantern or container, make sure that air can flow freely for providing steady burning. The container should be big enough and open on top and bottom. This way the flame won’t flicker and smoke.
Candles are too close to each other can heat and melt each other which cause dripping and warping. Avoiding this, the ideal gap between the candles of a group is at least 10 cm.
When using candles, always take care of placing them away from inflammable materials and never let them unattended. Safety is first!
