Holiday decoration

I live in an apartment in suburbs, in a high-rise. Our apartment is a 60 sq.m. apartment (About 650 sq.ft). There is a big living room, a hallway, a bathroom, a kitchen, a bedroom and a balcony.
I am holiday crazy, so I want everything decorated from floor to ceiling.

It helps to divide the area one needs to decorate into sections, go through everything on paper, and then decorate it in one go, as it's best to store all the decorations in types, rather than "kitchen decorations" - that makes it easier to store them, see new possibilities in decorations, switch up things a little, and mend and replace certain items. If all your lights are in one box (or set of box, if you have a lot), you can just take that box out of the storage and put it back when the fix is done.

I start in the order people enter my home, that is, at the front door.
As I live in a high rise, multiple home house, the fire safety is important, and all the decorations outside the apartment should be kept flat and fire resistant. There shouldn't be any loose parts that can fall to the floor as people pass the door, as that causes more work to the cleaning personnel. I nevertheless choose to put a small wreath on my front door. Ideally it would be painted metal.

Scott Gustafson - St. Nicholas in His Study

The fun really starts when one opens the door. I usually try to put the punch in at the entryway, to create the sensation of entering magical fairyland, almost like stepping through a portal to Narnia or Santa's workshop or something seasonally appropriate like that. To create that, one is to be greeted by all the five senses - now - in practice it's only three, as taste and touch are basically impossible to stimulate without the participation of the subject :-D But, it should look magical, smell magical and sound magical. It is, of course, appropriate to give the people entering an opportunity to taste and touch as well, so there is a welcoming treat table at the door, and things that invite people to touch them.

Now, this magical fairyland shouldn't hinder the use of the entryway.
The entryway has two uses - one for the people who live in the home and another for guests. Both should be accommodated. My idea of how to "season" this is to make it feel as if you entered the seasonal fairy's home. :-D
(The seasonal fairy - at Yule that's Santa, of course. At Ostara the Bunny. You see, "fairy" is a name for a magical being of any description, and each Sabbath has a "personification".)
Of course, I imagine all these fairies' homes to be different, but mine is the same all the time - and I am not a personification of a Sabbath :-D So I have to disguise my personal items, to fit the theme. It's like giving your home a masquerade costume.

In my hallway this means:
- the rug
- chair covers
- garland framing the doorways made of seasonal floristry (for example, at Yule it's evergreens, at Mabon Autumn leaves)
- I hang the holiday cards on the mirror frame
- the pictures are either changed to seasonally appropriate images or "holidaised" :-D (bunny ears on people in pictures, or santa hats etc.)
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Fall decorating ideas for your apartment home

The second part of the apartment is the bathroom, which is going to be used by everyone, household and guests alike.
It is important to me that the bathroom is clean, and feels clean, too, so there shouldn't be that much things. Basically just the season appropriate textiles, towels, and so on.

Frugal Homemake - 31 Days of Fall Inspiration: Fall Mantel

The living room is on the one end of the apartment, so I'll tackle that next.

There are a couple of special spots in the living room.
1) the big window. It is important to me to decorate the windows in every room, and this, the biggest of them all, is extra special.
2) the tableau scene
3) the sweet table - here will be all the candy, cakes and other such things set on the Big Day, and the candy will be here during the whole holiday season.
4) the "tree"

Also, the sofa needs to be decorated with seasonal textiles, cushions and blankets, the mantelpiece needs to be decorated, and the coffee table.

Mommy Decorates

The kitchen is on the other end of the apartment

Country Living

Now, I do have a "back door" to my apartment, as I have a balcony, and that door can be decorated as lavishly as I wish :-D I usually decorate my balcony as if it was my porch.
I also try to remember that that area is what the neighborhood sees, so it's a bit of my "Christmas light" area - a gift to my neighbors and a reminded of what the season is all about.
We also see the balcony from our kitchen table, so that needs to be minded as well when decorating the balcony. What goes on should be enjoyable from inside as well, and I don't want to hide the God's decorations either - after all, what goes on in the nature surrounding the house and the neighborhood is more important than what I decorate :-D I want to see the changing of seasons in the nature as time goes by.

@nia_renteria, instagram

The last is the bed room, where the guests aren't welcome :-D (of course they may enter if I want to show them something, but bedrooms are private.)

I have created myself a handy little table about the correspondences of the different Sabbaths. It is easy to just "convert" an idea to fit any Sabbath.
I love the creativity of people celebrating different holidays, especially Christmas and Halloween, and this makes it possible for me to extend my own imagination to decorate for the lesser known Sabbaths, like Lughnasadh. The poor darling... 
 

	Samhain	Yule	Imbolc	Ostara	Beltane	Litha	Lammas	Mabon
color	orange black colors of soil and root vegetables	red green gold silver	white red indigo pink purple ice blue silver black, grey colors of soil and stones  snow and ice	yellow green pastel colors	green white red pink	blue orange colors of water and sun/fire	green brown gold colors of grain and cereals straw, dry grasses	burgundy orange colors of wine, grapes, and autumn leaves
symbol	pumpkin	firtree	candle	egg	flower	sun	ear of wheat	leaf
tableau	Ceridwen Hekate	Birth of the Sun	Brighid Idunn	Cybele	Freya Chloris/ Flora	Death of the Sun	Ceres and Persephone	Mabon Dionysos
	ghosts witches monsters	gnomes santa elves snow people  cailleach	angels Brigid fire creatures snow people  gruvrå	Easter bunny	fairies sprites, elves sinipiika	merfolk water creatures  näkki bäckahästen kelpies  selkies	maahinen vättar vittror jordrå the fairy people who live in mounds	fauns and nymphs baccants skogsrå huldra
Animals	black cats bats crows	pig reindeer robin and other winter birds	wolves burrowing animals sheep red and white winterbirds, like bullfinch, redpoll and snow bunting	bunnies chicks lambs	white deer goat cow butterflies spring birds, especially lark and finch	fish horse wren  swallow swan	mice rooster sparrow bull	leopard and other spotted cats hunting dogs blackbird
Flowers	black :-D marigold bare branches	evergreen Christmas flowers, like poinsettia, Christmas rose, hyacinth etc.	snowdrop white flowers pussywillows	daffodils spring flowers, especially crocus, tulips	starflower birdcherry hawthorn elder rowan bluebells liverwort buttercup wood anemone lily of the valley	daisy summer flowers, especially the ones that bloom on meadows, rose peony - birch	poppy, cornflower, daisy – flowers that bloom on corn fields sunflower grain lavender	chrysanthemums and dahlias wine ivy maple

So, how to use this?
You find a nice photo, but let's say it's a photo of a Christmas decorated kitchen, and you want to change it to fit your Lammas. It has cute little café curtains made of a jolly Christmas print. So, get cute little café curtains made of a jolly Lammas print. There's plenty of prints with wheat, but if you can't find any, take something with soft sage green or gold.
There is a large wreath in the window. That's easy to replace, with a wheat wreath or similar.
The kitchen textiles should, obviously, be Lammas themed, green, golden brown, wheat colored, yellow, maybe with roosters. Gingerbread houses are perfect for Lughnasadh, but not decorated with white icing, because it's not winter - duh :-D Change the garland into one with lammas motives and colors. You can't find a lot of these special holiday items for Pagan Sabbaths in stores, but you can make a lot of them yourself.

Huldra by Maria Friberg Berntsson

Now, there's a lot of witches, ghosts, bats and cats around for Halloween, but not much for the Autumn feasts - at least not the same style. I can find something similar, easily, for Ostara, Yule and Samhain, but the rest of the feasts are a lot more difficult. Now, for Mabon, I replace things with forest animals, especially foxes and squirrels.

First day of Autumn :-)

Some years ago I created myself an "Autumn bucket list", to be done from 1st of August to 31st of October - or Lammas to Samhain. So, this year I am actually going to do it :-D

Now, there is one specific thing (and I say "one", even though there are several points on "that thing") on that list, that will cause me some problems:

"Have a teddy bears' picnic, October 27th (The International Teddy Bear Day)"
 
"Host or attend a fall festival with fun games, crafts, and prizes!"

"Celebrate Lughnasadh August 2nd"
Yes, it should be on the list, but isn't... 

"Stay up late and watch the harvest moon 28/9"
The harvest moon is on October 1st. Which means, there is 2 full moons in October, the other, the Blue Moon, falls on... Samhain :-D YAY!

"Celebrate Rosh Hashanah September 14."
18th of September this year.

"Celebrate Yom Kippur September 22."
27th of September this year

"Celebrate Sukkot September 28-October 5"
2nd-9th of October this year.

"Celebrate the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival September 27"
1st of October. (Which also happens to be my husband's birthday :-D)

"Celebrate Mabon 23/9"
22nd this year

"Celebrate National Potato Day, 19/8"

"Celebrate Oktoberfest"
Should have happened 19/9-4/10, but is cancelled because of Corona, but I wouldn't have been able to go to Germany in any case, so that is not a problem.

"Have a Halloween bonfire with hot apple cider"

"Have a Halloween masquerade party with apple bobbing"

Why will this cause me problems? You know, I always have big plans and then it fizzles into nothing.

Autumn Bucket List
Autumn Crafts

2 days to Lammas, 7 weeks to Mabon, 13 weeks to Samhain...

Time passes, whether you are ready or not...

Meara's Potion

Another Lughnasadh I won't be celebrating... much. *sigh*
I really hate the fact that I'm sick, and don't have the energy to do what needs to be done.

I so want to decorate the house from floor to ceiling, from wall to wall, from door to balcony.
I would love to brew and bake and cook and serve 8 days of celebration of harvest and grain and all the wonderful things that can be made of grain. (You do realize Seitan is the perfect "meat" for this feast? :-D). Bread IS life. Bread IS culture. Bread IS the base our civilization is built on. (Well, bread and beer :-D)
I would love to dress up.
I would love to have the "Christmas movie tradition" there is for Christians. And the other traditions there are for Christmas. :-( Like 1st Advent, Lucia, St. Nicholas, Befana, Three Kings' Day, 12 Days of Christmas...
(Yes, I do have a serious tradition envy. It's so easy when the whole society has been permeated with your religion for some 1000 years. And you have been appropriating the Pagan culture, traditions and habits the whole time. So much so that now you deny the Pagan influence. Pitiful. But - I know traditions are just for a few generations. 90% of anyone's "holiday traditions" are not older than oneself is :-D)
I want to have a little tableau, like the creche, but illustrating an event of my mythology.
I would love to have a Lughnasadh playlist and games... Lammas carols, wassailing, Oktoberfest...
I would love to give gifts. I love giving gifts.
I would love to have a big dinner for my whole family, and have them sleep over... and then have a huge brunch with board games and so on the next day.
Oh, and send lovely cards to everyone!

And the same for every Sabbath.

After Lammas comes Mabon, then Samhain, then Yule, then Imbolc, then Ostara, then Beltane, then Litha, then Lammas and everything again and again, forever and ever, so mote it be.

Now, there isn't much I can do for Lammas this year, but I have 52 days until Mabon, and that I can do something about.

Then there's 45 days from that to Samhain, and I can do something about that, too.

Hosting book club

So you want to have a book club?

Why? That is the first question you have to ask :-D
There are many reasons to have a book club. You might want to meet new people who share your interests (reading). You might want to expand your reading. You might want to use the book club as a reason to keep up reading even when you don't feel like reading at the moment. All these reasons and the others set different expectations you have to think about and try to meet with your book club.

Unique and totally awesome book club theme ideas

 Your book club is only as great as its members. You can do everything and the book club will never "fly". You can do nothing and everything will work just fine. It all depends on the members.

If you don't have any friends who like reading AND DISCUSSING books, then start with hoping for the best and inviting total strangers.

2) You should have some sort of theme of what books you read. Fiction? By some reading challenge? Prize winning books? Classics? The 100 books you should read before you die?

3) Meet once a month, come sun come rain. Create a meeting form.
Like "every Saturday, at 18.00, at the home of the club members; every member hosts a meeting; you have a potluck where you pick from the hat which member brings which course etc."
The hostess presents the book, reminds everyone to read it (or at least find something to say about the book by reading reviews or so). Then everyone says what they thought about the book, and then the discussion is free.
Or how ever you want to have it. But there should be some sort of protocol in place.
You could also find a booktube video about the book and watch that to have some fodder for discussion.

4) Decide the place. Cafés are fine.  Homes are fine. Just mind a couple of things: everyone should fit comfortable and have a seat. It has to be possible to have free discussions without interruptions or disturbance - and you should be disturbing anyone else either. It has to be easily accessible for all members. If someone needs to travel for hours to get there, it's highly likely they won't come.

It's OK to host the meeting online. Especially now, on Corona times... and with internet video chatting being relatively easy. 

The food and drinks:

Many authors have their favorite food or signature drinks or something like that, that makes the club meeting "more". Google it.
Also, there might have been something specific edibles and drinkables mentioned in the books. For example, I would love an Enid Blyton picnic or Halloween party à l'Harry Potter with pumpkin juice and pies :-D

Literary Drinks

You might want to have some party favors for your book club meetings.
I think bookmarks are always great, but I read paperbooks and several at the same time, so I use bookmarks :-D
A couple of teabags or a pouch of good coffee is also a good idea, as a lot of people like to drink hot beverage as they read.
A lot of people like to munch something when they read as well, so perhaps some candy, chocolate, snacks? Choose edibles that don't leave fingers greasy or stained... ;-)

Outlander series premier party

Apart from that... thing... pretending to be a thistle, I like this idea as a party favor.

Some ideas:

How to Start a Book Club That Doesn't Suck

This is not a book club, but nothing stops one from stealing some ideas for the book club meeting. Frankly, I like the idea of dressing up as librarians for the book club meeting, to make it a little more exciting :-D
I also like the idea of reading each others' favorite books, and not just popular new books.

Vintage Librarian Book Swap Party from Little Yellow Couch
aka Your Favorite Books Party

The invitation says: "Pick used copies of 5 of your favorite reads. Fill out one of the bookmarks for each book.
(Title:
Author:
Recommended by:
Genre:
Read this when you are in the mood for:)

Bring your books and bookmarks to the party and you will go home with 5 new selections to add to your reading lists."

And dress code: "channel your inner vintage librarian" :-D