Tips From the Top

Holiday decorating doesn’t have to be a challenge. Here’s how to make it fun, memorable and beautiful from holiday pros who know their way around a tree

By Chuck Ross
CTW Features

If the idea of holiday decorating fills you with dread, try putting yourself in Brett Beaudette’s boots. As head visual designer for the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., he’s faced with hanging enough lights, wreaths and ornaments to make the 4.2-million-square-foot facility feel warm and festive. And then there are the Christmas trees – more than 400 of them, two of which top out at 44 feet tall.

Despite the impressive statistics, however, Beaudette faces many of the same challenges homeowners experience when planning his holiday displays – just on a slightly larger scale. He and other holiday decorating experts say any successful design, large or small, is built on the same basic principles of scale, color and creativity.

Focus Your Efforts

Beaudette approaches his annual decorating duty with military precision – a natural for him, since this Army Ranger also is a member of the U.S. Army Reserves. For maximum efficiency, he concentrates his team’s efforts on areas where they’ll make the biggest punch. For example, the two 44-foot trees are erected in the mall’s main entrance. And the facility’s 7-acre indoor park, a favorite family gathering spot, features 400 live trees decked out in 750,000 lights. He says a similarly focused approach also can be successful in home-decorating efforts.

“I think it’s important to prioritize your rooms,” he says. “If you design by creating little vignettes, you’ll be able to provide more impact than by spreading [decorations] all over the place.”

Have a Holiday Theme

Creating a theme for your decorating plans is another idea professionals promote. As with Beaudette’s vignette idea, a unifying concept gives even modest home displays a professional sheen. For Barney’s New York, the annual holiday theme becomes a governing backdrop to all the retailer’s marketing efforts during this time of year.

“The holiday theme impacts so much of what we do at Barney’s – the shopping bag, catalog, merchandise – that we need to plan, plan, plan,” says Simon Doonan, Barney’s creative director and the mastermind behind the store’s famous window displays. “The ideas come from the zeitgeist – I try to zero in on what’s in the air.”

This year, the air, itself, has caught Doonan’s attention, so Barney’s plans will focus on environmental concerns. The designer was mum about many details, but noted that a certain sleigh-bearer will figure prominently in displays.

“We have a giant reindeer made out of tin cans,” Doonan divulges. “Rudolph the Recycling Reindeer!”

Few places understand the value of a theme as well as Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. There, designers come up with separate plans for every park area and resort property. For example, Christmas in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” area takes on a distinctly dark tone, with black Christmas trees covered in bags of coins and telescopes.

“We just wondered, ‘What would a Christmas tree look like for a pirate?’” says Lisa Borotkanics, Walt Disney World’s manager of holiday services. “It would carry all the treasure they had found.”

How Much is too Much?

One question home decorators often ponder is, just how much is too much this time of year? Kent Fritzel says this is really a matter of personal taste. As chief creative officer of Bronx, N.Y.-based American Christmas, Fritzel oversees holiday designs across the country for such customers as Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s, and suggests thinking of your decorations as jewelry for your home.

“I don’t want the decorations to steal the focus,” he says. “I want to add an ambience. In a way, a family’s decorations are their Christmas card to their guests.”

When determining the scale of any single decoration, Fritzel considers how close a viewer will be when admiring the piece. So, large and simple makes sense for outdoor decorations, which will probably be seen at a distance, while intricate details make more sense with interior tabletop displays.

Pros at Home

So how do these professionals tackle their own holiday decorating? Doonan, who’s already thinking about Barney’s 2008 plans, prefers simplicity. He plants two ornaments from Las Vegas’ Liberace Museum on his mantle – still in their original boxes – and calls his efforts finished. Both Borotkanics and Fritzel prefer traditional approaches, with the Disney designer favoring a keepsake theme and Fritzel opting for a tree filled with European hand-blown glass ornaments.

Beaudette has spent several holidays on duty overseas – in fact, he’ll be spending this Christmas on base in North Carolina before heading back to Iraq in January. He often must take a more creative approach to the season’s decor. He may take some ribbing from his fellow soldiers, but he still makes sure to bring some holiday cheer wherever he may be stationed.

“I tell people, you can laugh all you want, but I’ve still got the best-looking foxhole in Iraq.”

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