Monday 14 November 2011

it's all in the details


As a big fan of minimalist Christmas decorations, the work of Swedish stylist Eva Lindh inspires me. Everything above is so simple, yet beautiful and Christmassy. This is all it takes to win me over.

I mentioned yesterday that the children had made a wish list for Santa. It's a Belgian tradition that we are embracing for the first time. On the evening of 5 December many children put their shoe by the fireplace and sing songs about Santa before going to bed. In the morning of the 6th they find presents in or next to their shoe. Last year we stuck to our Icelandic traditions, but we are living here so we thought it best to partake this year, as it's an important day. The 6th is on a Tuesday so I'm going to wake the children up earlier than usual and serve hot chocolate and something home-made, like spice bread (loaf) and cinnamon buns. They will have plenty of time to open the presents, play and eat before going to school.

The holiday issue of Sweet Paul Magazine is out! It's my favourite e-magazine and I can't wait to browse through it with my latte. Enjoy your day!

photo credit:
top-left: Charlie Drevstam
other photos: Anna Kern

21 comments:

  1. Sounds really nice - I love christmas traditions! Our boys always finds a little gift in their stockings at the morning of Christmas eve. :-)

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  2. Simple christmas decorations are always the best! Lovely place setting with the napkin on the plate like that. I like to pick a colour and stick to that as a theme each year. Our tradition is lots of homemade greek biscuits, some fruity christmas cake, a ham and a roast - no matter how warm it gets in Melb, there always has to be a roast on Christmas day! Bizarre I know!
    Helen:)

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  3. we have the same tradition over here for the 6th of december. it's always been great as a kid :)

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  4. i really love the idea of simple, and add rustic i would totally embrace it.

    in many parts of the world January 7th is important. so interesting the different traditions. i love that you retain your ancestral ones.

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  5. The images you picked are so beautiful, Lisa! Just my kind of Christmas too. I'm glad you'll embrace the 6th of December holiday. We have it in Romania too and it's called Saint Nicholas. Children love this tradition. :)

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  6. i agree its all on the small, but very significant details.
    you seem to manage that prettey well, i`d say : )
    i am trying to create a mixture of norwegian and greek traditions for us and the kids. and i `m cetrainly very minimal ( for once!) about christmas decoration.
    here in norway we have something called julekalender.
    a calender with a little gift ( it can be a little chocolate eachh day)
    for the kids for each day in desember.
    and i use a day were we are baking greek christmas cookies, with greek christmas music on.... i am looking forward to it : )

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  7. it's always so interesting to read about other traditions, thanks for sharing ladies ;-)

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  8. We also have the tradition here, we celebrate Saint Nicholas that helped three poor sisters because their father wanted to sell them. So, each year, Saint Nicholas left over the night a bag full of gold for each sister, first for the elder one that managed to get married because of the Saint Nicholas gift and after that each year for the other two girls. Here, the good children receive sweets and other gifts also, but the bad kids receive rods :)

    Very nice details for Christmas, Lisa ;)

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  9. I'm all for simple, minimalistic christmas decorations too. These are gorgeous ideas; I especially love the wreath with apples! I must go and take a look at Sweet Paul issue xx

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  10. Love these christmas decorations! Much more natural, sincere and original than what you can buy in most shops...
    xxx

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  11. oh, all ideas are simply beautiful...

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  12. What a lovely tradition, and I think your kids will really enjoy it. I know I would! Hmmmm.....do you think Hayk will think I am really strange if I start celebrating Belgian holidays, too?

    What are Icelandic Christmas traditions?

    I love that place setting...I remember last year you posted a blue-toned christmas setting and it was so unexpected and gorgeous. I think I'm coming around to the minimalist feel.

    Oh Christmas....this time leading up to it makes me so happy.

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  13. Love, love, love this!!

    I adore simple, natural, rustic, and earthy decorations. This is so beautiful.

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  14. Beautiful details, I definitely feel less is more for the holidays :)

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  15. we also have this gift tradition in Romania on the 6th of december, where kids get sweets in their shoes :)

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  16. ps. sweets for kids that were not naughty during the year:)

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  17. That's a great tradition to start and I like the simple Christmas ideas you posted....nothing gawdy or overdone.

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  18. Hi Lisa! I love those simple holiday decorations, especially when they are as much winter-themed as holiday-themed so they can be left up into January.

    Sweet Paul is great – love the new issue.

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  19. Gorgeous pictures, I love the deep red in the fruit bowl:)
    Decorating is such fun!
    Wendy x

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  20. Wonderful details for the holiday season.
    Loved your post on Dawn's blog as well.

    Have a wonderful weekend.
    Smile loads
    xx

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