This look is all about being playful, both with decorations around the house and for the Christmas table setting, too, if you’re brave enough. Bold, bright jewel colours reign supreme and decorations are a mix of kooky and retro. Add in a few metallic touches – this year’s favourites are soft gold and brushed brass – to give a touch of grownup glamour to the primary colours.

HOW TO MAKE IT WORK

• Hang a wreath made from colourful baubles on the door to welcome guests, it will definitely set the tone for a festive gathering.
• Create a simple table setting pairing pastel coloured china with handmade pom-pom garlands and candles and use baubles in jewel shades to create personalised place settings.
• Replace traditional pine garlands with pretty pom-pom ones and big paper baubles and include a few neon decorations in bold pink and green.
• Garnish a deep green fir with outlandish baubles in the shape of surfing Santas, sparkling avocados, cavorting unicorns and rainbows aplenty.

There’s a good reason the reds and greens of a traditional Victorian-style Christmas are a perennial favourite. The green of the holly and ivy and the red of berries and a robin’s breast, represent so many key parts of Christmas, whether it’s all the family gathering together for a fabulous festive lunch or hanging the tree with decorations that have been handed down through the generations. Keep the scheme cosy and warm this year with classic patterns and colours – think bold tartan reds and greens with a dash of sparkling glass and glitter for good measure.

HOW TO MAKE IT WORK

• Drape a comfy chair with a soft faux fur throw add in a festive cushion or two and settle in for a night listening to festive tunes or watching a classic Christmas movie such as It’s a Wonderful Life.
• Indoor plants are a continuing trend, so add to the greenery with a classic pine wreath or by raiding the garden for holly, ivy and mistletoe to create hand-made garlands.
• Bring a glittering warmth to the dinner table with berry red tablecloth, china featuring a cheery Santa and reindeer motif and elegant gold cutlery.
• Old-style decorations are very in vogue, so dig out Grandma’s favourite onion shaped baubles and simple coloured glass decorations.

Definitely one for the grown ups, this look pairs glittering, oversized baubles, luxurious pastel velvets and elegant gold and bronze accessories.

Opt for a palette of just two or three pastel shades – delicate teals, blush pinks and pale minty greens work beautifully with silver and gold accents – to keep the look fabulous rather than ‘Frozen’. Iridescent glass baubles and accessories will help to reflect light around the room and simple tea-lights in mercury glass holders will add a golden glow.

HOW TO MAKE IT WORK

• Buy a few oversized gold glitter decorations and mix with standard glass baubles in blush, copper and white.
• Keep greenery to a minimum, strewing mantels and dinner tables with a few well-placed elegantly arranged roses, eucalyptus branches and faux feathers tipped with glitter.
• For the Christmas lunch table, pair decadent pastel-pink Champagne glasses with simple decorations to ensure the food remains the star of the show and add texture by layering different textiles and set with matching china and glassware dotted with metallic touches.
• Everything looks more romantic in flickering, fragrant candlelight. To avoid too many clashing fragrances, mix a few simple pillar shapes with a single winter aroma tea lights in a pretty gold-etched glass or mercury holder.

This year clean-lined red and white Scandi interiors have collected a few friends and added to the colour palette to subtly change the feel from simple Nordic nights to a winter woodland teeming with friendly characters. Felt decorations are still big – particularly reindeer, mice and robins – but adding a few more in natural materials such as hessian, raffia and wood will give a more rustic vibe. Add in a few earthy colours, such as terracotta, stone and rich ochre for warmth and the fairytale country cottage look is complete.

HOW TO MAKE IT WORK

• Stag and deer motifs sit beautifully with this look. Make rustic wood plank table stand out by topping with a glittery berry red table runner and adding brass coloured stag place settings and china featuring a deer motif.
• A simple faux vine leaf and pine cone wreath works equally well on a door to welcome family and friends or as a centerpiece on a country-styed festive table.
• Include plenty of textures and natural materials in the decorating scheme such as candles with rustic bark exteriors.
• To ramp up the country cottage feel, add classic pieces of comfy leather furniture and layer the floor with rugs to create a sense of softness and comfort underfoot.