Christmas Decorating

It's never too late to do some decorating for Christmas. 

We always put up our tree on December 1st and take it down (my job...always) on New Years Day. Is that what you do? 

Anyway, one of the things we love to do, since having the pickles, is hang stockings on the mantle, above the fireplace. We're pretty lucky to have found a home with a fireplace since they're not all that common in Australia. When we found this home, the fireplace was boarded up and had been tiled over (weird) the mantle was intact so we could hang our stockings, it's one of the things that sold me on this house. 

I knew there'd be a job for Mr3P to do down the track.

So, "we" got rid of those ugly tiles and ripped off the boarding....

to reveal a dusty old fireplace, sans fire.

I cleaned it up and the rest was history........

until the extension and renovations began and the fireplace is out of bounds for the time being.

The pickles were very disappointed that they wouldn't be able to hang stockings this year, but there wasn't much we could do.

Until I had a little light bulb moment...which happily coincided with the 3M via Digital Parents Collective campaign.

Why not create our own, temporary, much "bling-i-er" fireplace, just for them???

So,  Mr3P, my trusty assistant/sidekick (it's my blog, so I can make the titles up if I like) and I got to work.

I pointed... & he did the physical stuff. 

The 3M Command Clear Hooks are great for showing off your decorations, unobtrusively. You wouldn't even know they're there (that's why it made them hard to photograph...but that's good, right?)

So we made the mantle with silver tinsel, the hearth with red beads and the "fire" with a red/yellow tinsel mix.

We used a mixture of 3M Command Clear Hooks...they're available in a range of sizes suitable for different weights – including

the Mini, Small and Medium hooks as well as the Utensil and

Decorating Clips priced from $6.99 (RRP) .

They're damage-free hanging and you can decorate without a single nail hole , they go on easily, hold on strongly and come off cleanly while working on a range of surfaces, including dark, wooden and the unusual. 

All you need to do is apply them in the outline that creates your shape (the sky's, the limit)...maybe do a little sketch first to plan where you'll need to stick them and then run your tinsel along, using the hooks as support.

Then we hung the stockings, bow and 2 faux candles on the bigger 3M Command Clear Hooks.

Quick, easy & effective.

Pickle #3 was impressed.

And the best bit was when the 2 big pickles came home from school. I got them to close their eyes and led them into the room.

I will never forget the delight on their faces when they saw the "faux place" we created for them. It was like we gave them a million dollars. 

It's funny how the little things can mean so much and create so many wonderful, happy memories.

And it only took 15 minutes to create.

You can purchase the 3M  Command Clear Hooks at all leading supermarkets and retail outlets

across Australia.  

If you want to see other decorating ideas using the hooks, you can go here for a cool video demo.

Have a lovely Christmas.

I am participating in the #3M Christmas campaign. I received a VISA gift card for this post courtesy of 3M via Digital Parents Collective. I am also in the running to win an iPad3. As always, all opinions are purely my own.