Last Minute Christmas Decor Ideas

Christmas is always a very busy time. You have to make the presents, wrap everything and bake a million and two cookies. Sometimes you just do not have time to go all out on the Christmas decor.

For instance, we decided not to have a tree this year, so I decorate my room with a few nifty things I had at hand. Behold, the cake stand Christmas tree:

All right, I admit, it may not be all that epic, but it really makes for a fun piece, especially on a dinner table.  

You will need:
- A cake stand
- Christmas ornaments
- Some white cake doilies (if your cake stand has a very un-Christmasy pattern)

You can use tinsel, pine tree branches or a mix of everything. I had some really lovely vintage bulbs. If you have a Christmas star you could attach it to the top of the stand.

But cake stand is not the only way to decorate your room this year. You can use a jewelry stand instead.

   
You will need:

- A jewelry stand 

- Christmas tree ornaments

Pick a color scheme or just go all out (like I did) and put up everything you can find. This works much better if you hang the ornaments at different levels. Do not be afraid to add some tinsel or mix in some of your Christmas-looking jewelry for a more ostentatious look. I found stars, angel wings and bulb earrings, necklaces and bracelets of all kind very conductive to the Christmas spirit.

Merry Christmas!      

Winter Wonderland

I love winter holidays, don't you?

This is the first time I've tried making cardamon cookies. They're essentially just sugar cookies with some cardamon thrown into the mix. The recipe is super easy and they turned out really tasty.  

Patriarshiye Ponds are beautiful in winter and summer. Despite being called "ponds", it is just one single pond in the center of Moscow surrounded by a tiny park. It's always decorated for New Year, there is a small handcrafts market, and dancing and fireworks on the New Year night.     

It'd been a pretty dark and rainy winter, but on New Year it started to snow and the next morning the whole world looked like a white fairy tale.  

While in Moscow, I went to the State Historical Museum to see a wonderful exhibition "Happy New Year, Dear Comrades!" It showed a collection of Soviet New Year tree ornaments, postcards, photographs, posters, masquerade costumes, and much more. There were costumes from the Nutcracker ballet and a little area where kids could make their own New Year masks and tree ornaments out of paper. You can see some pictures from the exhibition here. 

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and was a bit upset that I could not document any of the little pieces of glass, wire, ribbons and cotton that together made some of the most exquisite tree decorations. To my delight,  a few days later I was visiting my aunt who had a collection of Soviet tree ornaments on her tree. I was free to photograph them to my heart's content.    

   

I was so inspired that I started making my own tree ornaments.