20 Ways to Celebrate the Holidays at Home

How are you spending the holidays this year? There’s no denying this is a year unlike any other, and for many of us, this will be our first Christmas spent without family or loved ones. Since we’re now in our third lockdown due to the worsening Covid crisis here in England, gatherings of any sort have been banned so – like so many others – we’re spending Christmas on our own at home. Although many of our most beloved traditions are cancelled, I’m enormously grateful to have a warm home, a husband, and a sweet kitty to be able to spend the season with and will be doing my very best to still make it feel as special as possible. So whether you’re also in lockdown once more, or your just playing it safe and staying close to home this year, here are some ideas for how to fill your home with festive cheer and make it feel like Christmas regardless of how our world looks this year:

Decorate the house

This goes without staying. But if you weren’t planning on being home for Christmas and so hadn’t decorated the house, now is the time to pull out that box of decorations. And even if you’d already decorated, make an extra effort to hang an extra set of twinkly lights, light all the candles, buy a special ornament for the tree, and set the table as beautifully as possible for Christmas day.

Make + play the perfect festive playlist

I’ve been working on my Christmas playlist for years now, and it’s pretty much perfect at this point. It’s filled with songs from The Nutcracker, Louis Armstrong, and Harry Connick Jr. I put it on whenever I’m baking, cleaning, working or doing just about anything from December 1st onwards, and it just makes me smile the second I hear anything on it.

Watch all your favourite holiday movies

This was definitely not a tradition in our house growing up, but now I take my holiday movies very seriously. I’ll watch all the Christmas movies I can find on Netflix throughout the month of December, but I save the top-tier favourites for Christmas week itself (preferably enjoyed whilst wearing my favourite candy cane pyjamas with a side of hot chocolate). 

Bake + decorate gingerbread

Put on your festive playlist and spend an afternoon making a batch of gingerbread people. It’s a bit of a labour of love, but such a fun tradition to adopt (with a sweet reward for all your efforts at the end).

Recreate your favourite family recipes

We might not be able to spend the holidays with family, but you can bring your family’s traditions to the table. Sadly most of my mum’s famously delicious recipes lived in her head and I’m not able to call her up and ask how to make them, but half the fun is trying to figure out how to recreate them every year. I’m sure she’d approve!

Have a board game marathon

If you’re lucky enough to be spending the holidays with someone else, pull out your favourite games for some old-fashioned competitive fun. The winner gets the the best-looking chocolate in the box.

Use all your favourite things + set the table for Christmas day

Now is not the time for restraint when it comes to things which will bring us joy. Pop the champagne, use your favourite china, add some Christmas crackers to your place settings, buy or gather some foliage to decorate the table, and generally act as though the Queen is coming over for lunch (even if it’s just Christmas for one).

Find your favourite festive beverage of choice

Whether your December tipple of choice is a hot chocolate, eggnog, spiced tea, mulled wine, a hot toddy, or anything else that tickles your fancy, find your favourite recipe and treat yourself to a cup of something delicious as often as you please. I’ve been making a pot of Fortnum & Mason Christmas tea every morning, but can’t wait to make my annual eggnog on Christmas Eve.

Make your home smell inviting

I have a rather serious candle habit at the best of times, but in December it becomes a nightly ritual. I love collecting beautifully-scented candles and lighting them as soon as it’s dark every evening (which is currently by 4pm…). If candles aren’t your thing, try mulling some red wine or cider on the stove or setting a vase filled with eucalyptus or scented paper whites on your hallway table to greet you with a gorgeous scent every time you pass.

Get all dressed up

Even if you’re not going anywhere or seeing anyone outside your household, it’s nice to make an effort to put on something a little special to mark the occasion. Given we’ve been eating almost every meal at home since lockdown first began in March, making a special effort to get dressed up and set the table as elaborately as possible will distinguish Christmas from being just any other day in lockdown.

… or spend a day in your pyjamas

Although I plan on getting dressed up on Christmas Day, I have every intention of staying in my pyjamas all day long on Boxing Day. There will be leftovers, hours spent curling up with a good book, and perhaps shopping the post-christmas sales from the comfort of my sofa.

Give your beauty routine a festive spin

Every December, I’ll swap my body wash + lotion for Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir and wear this perfume everyday (mine is a limited edition from a couple of years ago, so I’m thrilled to see they’ve brought it back this year), and then put whatever I haven’t used away in a cupboard to use next December (they’ll all stay fresh for a couple of years at least). My nails get a glittery makeover, and even my favourite toothpaste gets swapped for it’s more festive version. These tiny changes tell my brain ‘it’s the holidays!’.

Have breakfast in bed on Christmas morning

I’m normally too much of a neat freak to indulge in breakfast in bed (the crumbs!), but I make an exception for Christmas day. My husband will make a pot of our favourite Christmas tea and put some cheese croissants in the oven and we’ll enjoy them while opening our Christmas stockings in bed.

Call a loved one you can’t see

I’m by now used to being on the other side of the world to most of my family at Christmas, that scheduling a call feels like a normal tradition. If, like us, you’ve had to cancel your plans and can’t be with loved ones this festive season, plan a call to face time your favourite people at some point on the day.

Send snail mail

Christmas cards seem to be a somewhat lost art (I’m an old-fashioned girl and personally love putting pen to paper), but this feels like the year to send some joy far and wide. Write a stack of holiday cards (or adopt the French tradition of New Years cards if a mid-January deadline feels more achievable), put together a care package of treats for those you’d normally get to see at this time of year, or send a surprise delivery to someone you know will be spending the holidays alone this year. Don’t forget to show some extra gratitude to the staff at the post office while you’re at it!

See the decorations around town

If Covid restrictions allow you to do so, spend an afternoon taking in all the holiday decorations where you live. Since my friend and I couldn’t meet for our annual festive girl date (indoor meetings are still strictly banned here), we took advantage of the one weekend when we were both allowed to meet up outside to stroll around London to see the festive displays and store decorations around Mayfair.

Indulge in a tradition you can do at home

I don’t consider myself religious, so for me the holidays are all about beloved traditions which honour loved ones, celebrate togetherness, evoke happy memories and create new ones. While most of those traditions might not be able to go ahead this year (I’m listening to the Nutcracker on repeat to compensate for missing the ballet for the first time in over a decade, though my body is undoubtedly relieved I won’t be hurtling around a frozen ice rink), we can instead double-down into all those cosy familiar comforts we can still enjoy.

… and make a new one

I love the idea of adding new traditions over the years, even in this strange year when most of our holidays plans are cancelled. We don’t have a single photo of the three of us (me, my husband, and our cat Coco), so I plan to somehow arrange a self-timer family portrait (which in itself will be no small challenge given Coco is afraid of being picked up) which we can recreate again over the years.

Spread some cheer

If there’s ever a year we could all use a random act of (socially-distanced) kindness, it’s this one. Give your postal workers a box of chocolates tied with a bow, bake a box of cookies to leave on your neighbours’ doorsteps, and leave an extra large tip at your local coffee shop.

Help those less fortunate

This has been an incredibly challenging year for many, but for most of us there are many reasons to be grateful. Make an extra effort to help those hardest hit right now; donate to your local food bank whenever you do your grocery shopping, check which supplies your local homeless or animal shelters are in need of, and find a few other local causes in need of volunteers or donations and lend your help however you’re able.

However you celebrate and wherever you’re spending it, wishing you all a very safe, restful and happy holiday season.

Love, Briony xx