The Holidays are big at our house and it's not a shock to anyone that holiday decorating is one of my favorite events of the year! I enjoy it yearly with my family -we all pitch in to celebrate and commemorate the season in our home (pictured is my daughter Fliss putting our treasured mercury glass tree topper atop the tree with my husband's help). But decorating for the holidays can be a challenge for many of our clients, especially when we enourage simplifying and de-cluttering your home environment. Here are a few simple ideas from our home to yours this Holiday Season:

Mercury Glass is abundant these days in stores and online. I love to add touches of it throughout my home during the Holiday Season. It picks up natural light and reflects the light from lamps and holiday lights in the evening. Mercury Glass is often used for candle holders, lamp bases, vases and vessels. Our treasured tree topper is Mercury Glass and I have glass bowls throughout our home full of mercury glass ornaments.

Laquer Trays are a staple of my home staging business. I use them in bathrooms for toweling, on ottomans as drink holders, on coffee tables to hold candles and in kitchens as serving pieces for tea. They work beautifully to house holiday decor -especially when they are in festive colors - blue for Hanukkah, red for Christmas, green for Kwanza, silver and gold for everything! I love to display all the holiday cards I am sent in sleek tray in my front hallway. I serve champagne with red pomegranite seed garish on an oversized tray at my Annual Holiday Party. I also house my 1954 Modern Mexican Nativity Set in a Gold Tray in my living room. Trays allow a simplified and clean edged space for these elements.

Holiday Kitsch is often the biggest challenge to incorporate into the home when trying to avoid an over cluttered look. We associate so much of the holiday season with these items. Pictured here are some contemporary nutcrackers available from West Elm - this is a sleek way to add holiday items to your home that are neutral and tasteful in design. Items such as these can also be used as inspiration to give your older items a face lift - spray painting older decorations one solid color can work wonders for renewing and freshing the look of your holiday decor.

Glass Jars are awesome additions to any room - Green for Christmas - Blue for Hanukkah. Use them to house branches - we spray paint our branches a different color each year (silver, red, even pink for my daughter's room) and hang ornaments from them. Set them atop a flocked mantle,on a tray or down the length of your dining table. Our branches will be white this year, in clear bottles placed on a large shimmering gold swatch of fabric and burlap.

Holiday Pillows are a great addition to any home and add a touch of the Holiday Spirit. It's a great excuse for materials you normally can't find the excuse to use - like glitter or faux fur! I love to place my glitter pillows next to some natural burlap pillows -creating a true marriage of natural and embellished elements.

Ornaments, in my opinion, are the best elements for holiday decorating! I hang ornaments everywhere - from the ceiling, from branches held in glass vessels, on furniture/cabinet hardware and of course on the tree. Choose ornaments that tie together the look of your other elements or give your holiday decor the final touch you may be missing. If every other element you have used is neutral - the tree may offfer the room for you to add color to your space. I love colored glass inside plain glass like these on the left. I love bold matte ornaments like those pictured below from the children's store Land of Nod. I love a touch of neutrality on a tree too - I am a fan of only one color of lights (I use white but I have seen stunning trees in all royal blue in a dual religion household and all orange in a modern 1950s home). White perforated porcelain ornaments are readily available this year on the internet and add the perfect relief to a world of color.