When I say I love travel, it’s not an understatement—the travel bug touches everything I do.
Including how I approach decorating the house for the holidays (and for the regular days, too, but more on that in another post).
On every trip I take, I consider how to let the memory of that place live on in my home, because surrounding yourself with relics from your adventures creates that constant sense of wander I crave.
When it comes to the holidays, specifically, here are three ideas I have for marrying your love of travel with the festivities of the season.
1. Collect ornaments instead of tchotchkes
Instead of collecting shot glasses, Hard Rock Café T-shirts or keychains I could never hope to use with only one set of keys, I collect a Christmas ornament from every place I go. And when it’s a place where Christmas isn’t part of their tradition or celebrations, I still find some kind of hanging decoration that could be used as an ornament for the tree.
It’s a fun practice because there’s always one specific thing you’re on the hunt for in each place you travel to, but the most beautiful part is that your Christmas tree then tells a fabulous story of your travels.
2. Hang the world on your tree
Globes make the perfect Christmas bulbs. But if you’re looking for a globe ornament in most places that sell ornaments (like I was for yeeeears), chances are you’ll find them priced at $15 for one. If you only want one, I guess it’s not the worst price in the world, but if you want enough for these to be your set of matching bulbs, ain’t nobody got time to pay $15 for one. That’s why you should head to World Market, or at least its website, and get two for $6. Make sure to seek them out before December even hits, though, because they sell out fast. They come in four colors but I chose the standard tan color and added gold foil to all the oceans to make the bulbs look more festive.
*Project alert:
Gilded Globe Ornaments
Materials: global ornaments, gilding paper, adhesive, a paint brush
Time you’ll have to invest: 2 hours
Instructions: If you feel like getting crafty, buy this gold gilding paper, the adhesive and the brush that goes with it (or use any paint brush you have at home). Basically, you’ll use the brush to apply adhesive where you want to add the gold foil, then you’ll cut the gilding sheets to size, press them onto the adhesive and peel off the paper backing. Here’s a great video on how simple the gilding is if it’s already sounding too complicated to you. I will be honest, though, adding gilding to a bowl is much, much easier than navigating the seas on a global ornament. The best way to do it is to use tissue paper (or tracing paper) to trace an outline of each section of sea, cut out what you’ve traced, then use that cutout as a guide to cut a whole stack of your gilding paper into those shapes all at once. For these particular globes, you’ll have three main sea sections, so once you’ve traced those pattern pieces onto your 12-sheet stack of gilding paper and cut them out (3 shapes on each sheet x 12 sheets = 36 cut pieces in total), you’ll have enough to do 12 globes. I did this little project I made up this weekend and I’m really pleased with how the globes came out!
3. Get (or make) a wreath with a sense of place
Wreaths can basically look like anything. Once it’s more or less round and you hang it on your door, it’s a wreath. You could make a paper wreath like this using vintage maps. Or you could make fabric wreath using African wax print cloth you picked up on your trip to Ghana. The idea is just to create something that gives you a sense of travel or a sense of place.
My wreath is semi-homemade. I bought this feather wreath from Michael’s because it resembles feathers on Carnival costumes from Trinidad & Tobago, the country of my heritage. Then I added some gold leaf garland to it just to make it a little more interesting and a little more my own.
