Generally speaking, conservatories get more use in the summer than in the winter, as people like to relax and soak up the summer sunshine without having to deal with pesky insects and other outdoor elements. However, your conservatory can be the perfect place to celebrate Christmas this winter. Particularly if you have young children, you can put up your tree in the conservatory or perhaps transform the entire space into a winter wonderland or Santa’s grotto. There are many different ways you can use a conservatory, but here are some tips for transforming your conservatory into the ultimate Christmas festivity space.
Use Christmas lights to build ambiance
In a previous post, we discussed some of the common forms of conservatory lighting. For Christmas, you aren’t lighting your conservatory to read books in the evening or host casual dinners at night, this is an opportunity to get extremely festive with your lighting displays.
Fairy lights are absolutely essential for building the festive ambiance in your conservatory, just be careful where you lay the cables, as children running in and out of the conservatory can quickly destroy your lighting arrangement or cause injury if a foot lands in the wrong place. Additionally, you may wish to consider an electric fireplace for a truly rustic Christmas experience (but without the hassle of collecting logs and starting a fire).
Create a grotto
A grotto is essentially a cave, so if you want to be true to the legend of Santa Claus, it’s a good idea to make the conservatory dark and cosy. In order to achieve this, ensure you have some blinds to cover the entirety of your windows. This is somewhat ironic, since conservatories are normally designed to let in as much natural light as possible, but then it is Christmas after all. Go the whole nine yards, with fake snow, Christmas themed pillows, a chair for Santa (dad) to sit in and some decorative reindeer closeby. With some dim, ambient lighting such as lanterns, your grotto will be the perfect, cosy environment for your children to open their presents in!
Dave Beastall, writing for Homemaking, suggests using fabrics to make the room appear more magical. “To help create that mysterious cavernous, den-like experience” he says “you will need to purchase some fabric that can be hung from the ceiling to obscure different areas of the room. Plenty of sellers provide shimmery fabrics or semi-transparent drape fabric that would look equally great hanging in a room. Old bed sheets can be used for covering up and masking the familiarity of the room. Use them to cover bookcases, desks and other bulky items that you can’t easily remove from view.”
Put up a tree
If you have a tree in another room of your house, you can still add one to your conservatory. Because real trees result in your floor becoming covered in pine needles, go for a fake one instead, if your children are young they probably won’t be able to tell the difference. If you have a smaller tree, this can actually be advantageous, as it allows small children to hang decorations without being tempted to climb on top of a chair and risk injuring themselves.
Window art
There are plenty of awesome ways to decorate your conservatory windows for Christmas, and best of all, you can get the children involved in the fun. Snowflakes can be made by folding and cutting paper, stained baubles can be made from craft card and coloured tissue, and icicles can be drawn or for the more adventurous, constructed using wool for a 3D effect. For more information about winter decorations, check out our previous post on the subject.