It’s almost spring here in the southern hemisphere and I’m facing my usual dilemma about seasonal decorating. At this point you may be asking what on earth I’m talking about. While this happens with every change of season, I find it most difficult to decorate my house for Spring. Want to know why?
If you read blogs or watch You Tube videos about decorating, you’ll have noticed that my Northern Hemisphere friends have been getting out their fall decorating. I’m talking oranges and browns, dried leaves and pumpkins. It’s wonderful to watch but so irrelevant for me as I’m heading into spring.
What makes it even harder is that I need to write about it. If you’ve been around on the blog for a while, you’ll notice that I don’t really talk much about seasonal decorating, except Halloween and Christmas, as those are big deals in our house.
So, here’s the problem is that spring colours don’t go with Halloween! Can you imagine a scary pastel pink and green rabbit? Not really!
If I decorate for spring now (beginning of September), then in a few weeks I must tear it all down and decorate for Halloween. While my Northern Hemisphere friends can transition easily from Fall décor to Halloween décor, it’s not quite as easy if your house is already decorated for spring.
Halloween is the only season I don’t struggle with. We love Halloween – Andy’s a huge fan, so we go all out. I do add those oranges and reds and the pumpkins, just as though it was the fall. I don’t really care if it doesn’t go with spring. We just go with it. It’s sad that it only lasts a few weeks and then it’s gone.
The other season that causes the most issues is Christmas. As you know, for us Christmas in the summer. Don’t even get me started on what this does to our food choices for Christmas dinner!
We still decorate for Christmas as though we lived in the Northern Hemisphere. We have a tree, covered in baubles and lights. We often place a piece of fabric around the bottom to mimic snow. We add Father Christmas dressed in his red suit, he’d rather be at the beach.
We paint snow on our windows. We add cushions that say things like “let it snow” and “baby it’s cold outside” when it’s actually 25 degrees (Celsius).
Does all this seem ridiculous to you?
There’s also the issue that I have a coastal décor scheme so red and green doesn’t quite go. This year, I’m planning on trying something different so stay tuned.
Christmas lights aren’t a big thing here in New Zealand. They are becoming more so now, but in the past, it hasn’t been ‘a thing’, simply because it’s not really practical.
While the Northern Hemisphere is celebrating with snow and wonderful long nights, it doesn’t get dark here until after 9pm in December. So, what is even the point of putting up Christmas lights? We do it because we love to do it.
Generally, the week before Christmas, people (especially those with children) get in their cars around 9pm and drive around the streets looking for houses with lights. We live way up on a hill and most people don’t even know our street is here, so we light up the back of our house which faces the valley, as well as the front. It’s like a beacon for those looking. It’s a big adventure for children to be allowed to stay up late to go look at the lights. By this time, they have usually started their summer holidays.
How long do you leave your Christmas decorations up? For me, I usually spend my New Year’s day packing them up. What happens then? Do we decorate for summer? It’s about a month before we get into autumn so it seems silly to me to be getting out special décor pieces.
We spend so much of our time outdoors during the summer that I don’t really bother.
Should I?
What are your thoughts?
Fall or, as we call it, autumn decorating is much easier. It’s starting to get cold, although we usually have good temperatures until late March or even through to Easter. So, cosying up the house can seem a bit premature.
But wait, then it’s Easter, right in the middle of our autumn season and as you know, all the Easter colours are spring colours. So, do I decorate for spring in the middle of the autumn/early winter season?
I don’t.
I might add a rabbit or two, but there’s no way I’m going all out to add pastel colours when I’m feeling cold and want to be cozy.
The next problem comes in a few weeks with winter. Without the snow (no, it doesn’t snow where I live), and Christmas decorations, how do I decorate? Usually, it’s the same as the autumn decorating with warm colours and cozy touches.
Some people might add Christmas in July to this but to me it feels like way too much work.
I know that sounds silly because this is the time I could really ramp up my Christmas decorating and go all out, but in the middle of winter, all I want to do is relax and enjoy the moment.
Here’s my take on how I think things should happen:
So for all you southern hemisphere decorators like me, what do you think? Would you go all out and follow my calendar?
And to answer the burning question! Yes, I will still be adding all that ridiculous cold weather decorating in the middle of summer.
What do you think I should do about all of this? Do you think my plan is right or do you have any other suggestions for me? I would really appreciate your take on all of this so why not leave me a comment below.
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August 30, 2022
Hi, my name is Carol Karl. I live in little old New Zealand. My family and I strive to live the most ‘real’ life we can – by that I mean that we eat real food, we live real lives and just generally be our most authentic selves.
