No Place Lke Home for the Holidays

How to create a warm, welcoming sanctuary

In times of uncertainty, our homes become more important than ever. Elaborate holiday events pale in comparison to quiet gatherings with friends and family at home.

Creating a haven isn't the same as decorating to impress. Gathering areas, such as living rooms, family rooms, and dining rooms that express the personalities and preferences of family members yet also make guests feel at home are what truly warms the heart during the holiday season.

Chris Casson Madden, best-selling author, TV host, design expert and furniture designer, says creating a sanctuary "is more about personal vision and style than money" and entails balancing our own personal decorating preferences with those of other family members. "This means bringing family members into the conversation," she says, "having them think about what makes them comfortable and then choosing accessories that bring their passions into the home."

"Giving your family a sense of its history is important in making a home into a warm haven," she continues. Aside from displaying family snapshots, convert these photos into striking black-and-white blow-up prints to exhibit on walls, or create displays of family memorabilia or a favorite collection."

Use Your Senses

Although the appearance of a room is certainly significant, Madden urges us to bring all five senses into play when designing relaxing interiors. Here are her tips for doing just that:

Sight: Use dimmer switches or pink light bulbs. If you rent an apartment and your paint and wallpaper options are limited, "paint the walls in soft neutrals other than white," she suggests, "or use wallpaper borders and trim to create depth in a small room. With furniture, opt for fewer pieces but ones that are oversized."

Arrange furniture into conversation areas by, for example, having a sofa and two chairs facing each other, and if your living room is large, make two smaller, more intimate groupings instead of one.

And get organized. "Containing clutter is really important in creating a sense of serenity rather than chaos," Madden says.

Sound: Play favorite CDs as background music, install a tabletop fountain and listen to the sound of trickling water, or hang wind chimes outside or in a bedroom or bathroom.

Smell: Scent rooms using candles or incense, spray perfume on light bulbs, or put pinecones or pine needles in a bowl to bring the fragrance of the outdoors into your home. Madden recommends outdoorsy scents over heavy florals.

Taste: Bowls filled with candy or dried fruits, a teapot and two teacups, or even a tray of martini glasses "send a relaxing signal to the brain," says Madden.

Touch: "Use throws, pillows, and textures," says Madden. "There are many wonderful, inexpensive products out there that make you want to sit down and curl up."

Traditional, casual and country styles naturally impart a warm, homey look. But can a minimalist, sleek contemporary home offer the same ambiance?

Madden says the answer is yes—if it's done correctly. "The absence of clutter and accessories in contemporary-style rooms can offer serenity," she explains. "Use throws, lampshades and rugs in similar tones and focus on texture, using wool, cashmere and raw silk rather than shiny metallics or synthetics, and keep layering to a minimum."

The Time of Your Life

We often decorate our homes for the way we live now—and then leave them that way for years and years. But Madden emphasizes that a well-designed home should adapt to the changing needs of its inhabitants.

Many new parents are quick to childproof their homes and make a playroom for the kids, often reclaiming the room for another use as the little ones get older.

However, Madden notes that teens often need a retreat of their own. "When kids get older, they want more privacy and a place to hang out with their friends, and while you want to keep them in your home, you may also want to entertain your own friends without the kids underfoot," she says.

This may be the time to convert a garage or give your teens more control and access of the family room. A perfect furnishing solution, says Madden, is to pass down your old chairs, sofas or sectionals, recovered in a washable cotton duck, perhaps, to create a retreat "that's inviting yet doesn't require a lot of decorating."

The empty-nest period is embraced by many parents as a time to redecorate, but Madden admonishes not totally obliterating your grown offspring's bedroom. "If you live in an apartment, try to keep some of your child's things, even if it's stored in a closet," she suggests.

For older adults, task lighting, more space between furniture or wheelchair access may be necessary.

And for the multigenerational household, Madden recommends a large great room, in which the living room, dining room and kitchen are combined in one large, open space. "It has great potential to be a real gathering spot in the home," she says.

DECKING THE HALLS

Christmas is the holiday that really quickens the hearts of decorating devotees.

According to Christopher Radko, designer and producer of Christmas ornaments and author of Christopher Radko's Heart of Christmas (Clarkson Potter/Publishers), "Christmas decorating is more like stage design than interior design: it is inherently dramatic, full of artifice and deliberately transitory."

There's no one way to decorate for Christmas. Traditional Christmas decor in red and green never goes out of style. But think of what you like best about the holidays. Maybe it's the feeling of an old-fashioned holiday, with nostalgic decorations that seem out of the Victorian era.

If your home is modern and contemporary, forego traditional looks in favor of silver, gold and metallic decorations like stars and snowflakes and pair them with white candles in crystal candlesticks.

If country is more your style, try decorations inspired from American folk art.

Other cultures offer a wealth of holiday decorating ideas. For instance, make ornaments out of origami or try the German custom of hanging small gifts on the tree.

Most of all, remember your family's traditions through the years. Those handmade family ornaments will be more treasured than even the most stunning baubles.

Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's are just three of the holidays celebrated during late fall and winter. During this period Jews celebrate Chanukah; Muslims, Ramadan; and in addition to Christmas, many African-Americans celebrate Kwanzaa.

Radko notes that "It's important to realize that this wonderful season represents not just a Christian holiday. The celebration we now call Christmas hearkens back to the late-fall and midwinter festivals of the ancient world that celebrated the bounty of the harvest and offered hope that fertility would return in the spring."

In fact, he adds, such traditions as hanging mistletoe, the Yule log and lighting candles at the window were originally pagan rituals. "In our culture, Christmas serves as receptacle for these traditions and emotions, but Kwanzaa, Chanukah, and the winter solstice are equally meaningful."

How and to what extent people of other religions decorate their home for the holidays varies. Some feel free to adopt the nonsectarian trappings of Christmas—greenery, reindeer, snowmen, etc.—while others try to keep true to their own traditions.

What all these holidays have in common is an emphasis on family, friends, feasting, entertaining, and making the home a joyful place to be.