Decorating

First stop on our road trip is Midland Texas.  Midland is an hour flight west of Dallas, and is the middle of oil country.  In this Texan town of about 150,000 people you will find Miss Cayce’s Christmas Store.

Next stop is a flight to Chicago and an hour drive out west to visit Lisa Frost.  Lisa is an artist and designer of Christmas and other special occasion items.  I have seen a little of Lisa’s work in Australia and her style is right up my alley – whimsical, bright and loads of fun.

About 2.5 hours north of Chicago is a Christmas shop Kristmas Kringle outside the town Font du Lac.  I visited this store with a friend 10 years ago when she was living in Chicago and we took a little road trip up to Osh Kosh and thought I would check it out again for the road trip.

Ok, I have to say straight up that the 2.5 hour ferry ride across Lake Michigan was hard to take.  Could barely stand up it was so rough and the multiple travel nausea tablets only just did their job.  But, we were on a mission so as the saying goes, “suck it up Princess” and after the ferry trip we drove a further 3 hours to Bronner’s the biggest Christmas Shop in the world.

About an hour South of Bronner’s at Lake Orion, Michigan is the gorgeous Canterbury Village.

This complex is a designated historic site in the state of Michigan.  The main building, while extended, was originally an ornate barn, part of a “week end farm” for a wealthy local, William Scripps. 

Four days into the Ultimate Christmas Shop Road Trip and we cross the border into Canada.  One of the prettiest towns I have ever seen is Niagara-on-the-Lake, a gorgeous town about 1/2 hour or so from Niagara Falls.

The biggest highlights for me on this trip were meeting the designers of some of my favourite Christmas decorations, Patience Brewster and Lisa Frost.

The final stop before reaching NYC on our road trip is Barrington, New Hampshire and the store is Christmas Dove. I originally came across Christmas Dove 12 years ago when I visited Boston as they use to have a store there (and I admit I helped boost their sales that day!)

Traveling through North America in mid October has two main bonuses –  pumpkins and Halloween displays scattered throughout towns and neighbourhoods, and Autumn leaves wherever you go.  One of the best locations for Autumn foliage is New England, which is where we were heading next.

Sometimes you want that "wow" Christmas display piece but you don't have that special location, such as a mantle or stair case, or don't have the floor space for a big display.  We created this Decorated Christmas Pole for exactly this reason.

We all want Christmas day to be perfect- or at least start out that way.  And the perfect way to set the scene for a very special Christmas day is with a beautifully set Christmas table.

We've created this simple video for making a halloween wreath from deco mesh. Obviously, by simply changing the colours and decorations you could use the same format to create a Christmas Wreath.