By LINDA PARKER

 Although the kitchen tends to get very overcrowded and (dare we say it!) cluttered at Christmas, it’s a lovely idea to decorate the kitchen for the festive season – especially if your kitchen is genuinely the hub of the home! We love the Langton painted kitchen by Burbidge, shown here in Mink (the darker shade for the tall cabinets) and Putty. The trend for island kitchens continues unabated and makes absolute sense for festive times – there’s space for guests to gather, but still room for last minute prep tasks.

If your Xmas entertaining is going to involve shaking up cocktails, mulling wine and then brewing lots of cups of coffee, and you know that you’re going to be assessed on your coffee-making skills, it might be time to consider upgrading the coffee maker. Now this is a biggie, we know, but if you want to treat not just yourself but your whole family to fabulous coffee every day, have a little look at the Cuisinart Veloco Auto Espresso machine. It’s a bean-to-cup model, that does everything bar washing up the cup; it grinds, extracts the coffee and adds your choice of frothed and steamed milk. 

Are you feeling a little bit ‘last minute’ regarding gifts this year … take a look at some perfectly on-trend gifts from two names we love …. Laura Ashley and Jan Constantine. Of course, there are no promises that everything stays available, but head over to the Laura Ashley website for votive and diffuser gift sets that are beautifully packaged and scented – and difficult to resist! Now we reckon that everyone loves a Christmas cushion, and some of the nicest are from Jan Constantine. This is the Christmas Eve design, there are also Mr Moon, Christmas Night, Starry Night and Nativity designs – perhaps the start of a Christmas collection for a lucky recipient!

This has to be one of the more glamorous Christmas styling ideas this year – gold metallic leopard print stockings against a very lovely marble fireplace with just some natural greenery to add a natural touch. I rather like the idea of stockings as decorations (fill with faux wrapped empty boxes to deter sneaky peeks before the big day!). These are by Penelope Hope, in Rose Gold & White, they also come in Gold & Black and Silver & Grey. Super-stylish and of course, something lovely to bring out each year to set the seasonal style …

All these festive accessories (and potential gifts!) are from Garden Trading and naturally they sparked off some imaginative decorative ideas too … drape fairy lights along your open shelves, keep fresh herbs and greenery on display too, and fill any empty glass containers with battery-operated fairy lights. Stay kitchen-safe though, no open candles or night-lights on shelves and no trailing wires across work surfaces! The Rattan Wreath is £40. 

If your design skills and aspirations are of the ‘less is more’ school of thought, perhaps we can point you in the direction of these chic and almost-minimalist decorative ideas from Habitat’s Scandi Christmas collection. Not only does it add a blush-pink tone to Christmas, quite a few of the ideas will work all-year-round, such as the vases and candle-holders. 

Now, we know that strong colours for kitchens are very on-trend at the moment, and we’ve been seeing a lot of charcoal grey, navy, forest green and black. So, we thought we had better acknowledge seasonal style and bring you this fabulous Stowe kitchen from Burbidge, which is available in a couple of new finishes, Painted Baltic Green and Painted Prussian Blue, and which can also be specified in bespoke colours – such as this very seasonal Tawny Port. 

More clever ideas from Habitat. And as we’ve just heard that Pantone’s Colour of the Year for 2020 is Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue it’s good timing to show you a blue-themed table setting, using the Olmo Dark Blue speckled dinner set from Habitat, available in time for Xmas if you hurry! Keep Christmas fripperies simple – just add a gorgeous bauble to each bowl with a hand-written name tag on for each guest if you’re feeling generous! 

For the past couple of weeks, my daily walks have involved going out later than usual, purely because I want to inspect all the Christmas lights that are decorating nearly every other home! Is it just me or does everyone try and have a sneaky look into a wonderfully lit-up living room or pause to admire a very well-lit front garden or window/front door! It’s definitely becoming a ‘thing’ to get those exterior lights going early, and it really does enhance the Christmas spirits. I’m going to have to ramp up the lights in my front garden I think … but I’m not sure I’ll get away with three reindeer – and I’ve been banned by my children for even suggesting putting anything on the flat roof! Oh well … in the meantime here are the very festive reindeer I was thinking about, still available from Lights4Fun 

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year … and will be back in January with some thoughts on colour schemes for the coming year.