While I’m fully aware that there are a whole bunch of bloggers currently showing off their gorgeous Christmas decorations, buying guides and tips for the holidays, I feel like I’m really failing when it comes to the holiday season this year. The truth is that every year I start my planning months in advance, I scour the shops, find interesting bits and pieces to add to my collection and I have a total handle on everything come November. This year? Not so much.

Christmas dining room mantle in pink and gold

I hate to use our impending move as an excuse but all the craziness of the last 8 weeks has meant I am just about scraping by when it comes to Christmas planning this year. I have decided – for the first year ever – not to do a Christmas tree. I know, that makes me sound like a scrooge but I thought a few decorations popped around the dining room and living room would really be enough and while I often purchase lots of new products to decorate with, I’ve put a spending ban on myself for the house until we move.

bar cart inspiration

If you follow me on Instagram stories, then you’ll know it’s taken a while for that holiday feeling to set in. Normally, I adore Christmas and look forward to it far in advance but this year, I just feel like there is so much going on that I don’t really have the brain power to relax into the seasonal festivities. Of course, we’ll celebrate it and we have family coming around on Christmas Day as per usual but we’ll likely keep it a low-key affair which, honestly, suits me just fine!

Christmas dining room in pink and gold

So since we end up spending the bulk of our holiday entertaining in the dining room, I decided to concentrate the festive touches in this room. I didn’t go too crazy and tried to keep things as simple as possible – which, for a maximalist like myself is always going to be a challenge. I adore decorating the mantle in here and so that’s really the focus of the room. As you can see, there is a new piece of art gracing the wall. Of course, I still love Marie (and she’s hanging just to the right of the chimney breast so I can still enjoy her!) but I decided to try out an art-rental service from Why Not Art and this gorgeous piece from London artist Corinne Natel was the perfect way to get a different look in here just for the season.

Christmas dining room mantle with LED tree and ceramic houses

I’ll talk more about the piece and Why Not Art in an upcoming post soon so hang tight for that. But the colours were so beautiful in the painting and I decided to pull that into my decorating scheme which is a simple palette of pink, white and gold with just a little touch of lilac. Okay, so not exactly the most festive colour palette but who says you need to stick to red and green, right?

bar cart styling with hanging shelves

The bar cart just got a very simple string of LED lights (which against the window, you can’t really see but at night it looks pretty!) and I added to my collection of limited edition Disarrono bottles (the latest, a collaboration with Missoni). I quite like them displayed all on one shelf! If you are wondering, only 2 of them are full but I can’t bear to throw the others away!

bar shelving styling with disarrano bottles

My sideboard has been decorated with a simple garland wrapped in fairy lights and my two rather regal deer and stag that I’ve had for a couple of years now (originally from Wayfair) as well as the little white tree tealight holder I’ve also had for years.

christmas sideboard display

So, as you can see, it’s all very me but much less planned and more or less just thrown together with what I already had!

Christmas dining room in pink and gold

And so, that’s my Christmas dining room! I hope you like it despite this being a pretty low-key Christmas for us this year! What are you up to this Christmas? Are you hard-core decorating or are you taking it a bit easy this year like me?


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