It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

With the Christmas season fast upon us, it is time to start decorating our homes in the festive spirit. Many families use the same decorations year after year. Others go all out and try to change their design style with every passing season. As the holidays tend to be a time when people do a lot of entertaining in their homes, why not consider adding something extra to your holiday décor?

In years past, we have approached our holiday decorations with a certain theme in mind. One year, we decorated our home to look like Santa’s workshop. Another time, we dressed our living room like a life-sized nativity scene. Last year was my favorite, by far! We transformed our home into a beach complete with sand and palm trees, and had Christmas in Hawaii. The opportunities are endless. If you are planning to have guests over during this holiday season, consider trying something new.

This year we are decorating our home in a winter wonderland theme. The idea is to transform our living room into….you guessed it….a winter wonderland. We are planning to use a lot of blues, whites, and silver. This will be great fun for the kids and me, as we get to spend an afternoon making paper snowflakes. You remember those don’t you? You know the ones we all used to make in elementary school, where you fold up a round piece of paper and take little snippets out of it with scissors to make unique snowflake patterns. So much fun! We will also use lots of those silver icicles, and snowmen of various shapes and sizes.

Decorating your home really helps get your family and friends into the Christmas spirit. We usually invite our extended families over to help. This gives all the children an opportunity to share in what has become a wonderful family tradition. It also gives the adults a chance to enjoy some good company and maybe even some spiced-up egg nog! Later in the day we will likely all gather around the television and watch our favorite Christmas movie. We like to watch "A Christmas Story" every year as a family. This year, I want a Red Rider BB gun. On second thought, I’ll probably shoot my eye out!