The Christmas trends to say goodbye to

It’s that time of year again. Time to pull out the old tree and boxes of decorations that have been gathering dust over the past 12 months.

Time to hang enough Christmas lights to put Clark Griswold to shame. Time to figure out who’s bringing the ham to Christmas Day lunch.

With borders reopening and families reuniting, there’s no doubt that this Christmas really will be the most wonderful time of the year for many of us.

For interior stylist and writer Heather Nette King, it will be a different one but no less special.

“This year, above all years, we’re placing value on being with people, because we’ve missed that,” she says.

“We’re all being very circumspect about what we’re doing this year, and how we’re consuming.”

Interior stylist and designer Jason Grant is encouraging us to create a new mindset and to take a more considered approach to Christmas this year. 

“This year it’s all about being thoughtful … and focusing much more on a thoughtful Christmas … as opposed to having a disposable Christmas.”

Grant has collaborated with The Finders Keepers Online Marketplace to create a range of shopping guides, all aiming to support local Australian creatives.

“Simple things that are handmade or cherished items are the focus for me this Christmas, not unnecessary things,” Grant says. “You can still create high impact without going out and buying a whole lot of crap.”

With that in mind, here are some Christmas trends that need to go:

Meaningless mandatory gift giving

Just because your sister-in-law’s cousin’s son is coming to Christmas lunch does not mean you have to spend money and time on choosing a gift for someone you’ve never met.

While it’s true that it’s better to give than receive, gift giving just for the sake of it does not a good gift-giver make.

Grant and Nette King agree that we should avoid senseless over-consumption.

“I’m thoughtful about making sure that you give [someone] something that they’re going to appreciate and enjoy, as opposed to giving someone a gift just for the sake of it – just ticking someone off a list,” Grant says.

He believes we should be more considered when it comes to gift giving this year, and encourages us to shop local rather than at big national retailers.

“This Christmas, thinking about where we spend our money is really important. Supporting small independent makers, that’s where we should spend our money.”

Fake snow and mistletoe

Seeing as we live in Australia, Christmas for us is usually eating a bucket of prawns under a blazing sun, not rugged up in thermals with a mug of hot cocoa. 

“An Australian Christmas is very different to a northern hemisphere Christmas. Trying to recreate a northern hemisphere Christmas is where people go wrong,” Grant says. 

Given international borders are closed and no one will be travelling to cooler climates, Nette King says we should embrace and celebrate Australian style and colours.

“Everyone I know has got red and green Christmas decorations, but maybe that’s a bit European for us, so we can soften them off to pale pinks, sages and eucalyptus.

“If you’re going to have flowers on your table make them proteas or something that is uniquely Australian,” Nette King says, suggesting faux flowers as a more economical alternative to the real deal.

“They look great and you can use them again and again. You can use them on the table and supplement with real flowers, make a wreath out of them, decorate a chair – whatever you like – and do it again next year.”

“For me, it’s always about nature. A beautiful wreath for Christmas in Australia can be made up of beautiful natives, like banksia,” Grant adds.

Tacky tinsel and baubles

Shelf that never-ending string of old gold tinsel and mountain of mismatched baubles. You can do better.

“To be really honest, tinsel I’ve never really been a fan of, aesthetically – and it’s just unnecessary plastic,” Grant says.

The stylist often makes his own decorations that can be used each year and says decorating is about coming up with “simple ideas that are easy to action”, for example, “making and cutting out some beautiful cardboard letters that say ‘MERRY’, and hanging that up”.

“But it’s also about being clever. A beautiful piece of a pine tree in a vase instantly is Christmas.” 

For Nette King, it’s about investing in good decorations that don’t need to be replaced each year, and curating a collection of decorations that you can edit as your tastes change over the years.

“They [decorations] don’t have to be wildly expensive, but something that has meaning to you. It should be about creating relevant traditions rather than just blindly following trends.”

Christmas-themed cutlery and crockery

Not to sound like the Grinch, but we know it’s Christmas. We’ve been listening to carols for almost a month and stressing about who we’ll be sitting next to at Christmas lunch.

Do we really need to be eating off a plate with old St Nick’s face staring back at us, or drinking out of an elf-decorated glass? Probably not.

Grant finds it “unnecessary and tacky, and it’s all very disposable,” and suggests investing in a beautiful set of cutlery that can be used every day and for any occasion.

“I am a fan of that everyday luxury where nothing is hidden away; you use your best glassware, best plates, best cutlery all the time.”

Nette King agrees: “It buys into that idea of Christmas being tacky and it just doesn’t need to be. You can do a really simple, elegant Christmas and you can have fun with it, but it doesn’t need to be over the top.”

Plastic toys in bon bons

There’s no doubt the Christmas cracker is a hit at the table – I insist that my family members wear their paper hat for the duration of lunch – but can we do away with the flimsy plastic toys?

“I think we can do without those,” says Nette King. “They always end up getting thrown out and choking a fish.”

Let’s be more mindful our of our single-use plastic consumption during the Christmas period. But let’s keep the dad jokes, though.