12 Ways of Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like … next Christmas … everywhere you go. With shelves newly bared of holiday merchandise and seasonal displays only recently dismantled, retailers may want to focus on spring flowers and Mother's Day gifting. But believe it or not, it's time — now — to start preparing for the next traffic-stopping holiday vignette.

This is one of the cruel realities of being a gift retailer: As soon as you're done with one Christmas selling season, you're faced with decisions for the next Christmas season. Display themes and merchandise have to be chosen well in advance so that everything will be in order for the fourth quarter.

Luckily, key vendors do a wonderful job of decking their "halls" at gift markets, drawing retailers out of the post-holiday doldrums, providing much-needed inspiration, and assisting in the planning and placing of early orders. Because as we all know, if you don't order early you may not be able to get what you want, when you want it.

Lifestyle Decorating

Because the holidays are very tradition-based, and decoration collections are accumulated from one year to the next (even from one generation to the next), customers aren't likely to throw out last year's ornaments for this year's new looks. Still, that doesn't mean that consumers won't want to "update" with some of this year's hot ornaments on their trees and in their homes. After all, Christmas decorating, like much else, has become an expression of personal lifestyle; consumers are looking to add decorative elements that reflect their own taste — and they're looking to retailers for inspiration.

In addition, more households are beginning to put up trees in several rooms, spreading holiday cheer throughout the home. This presents an opportunity to create different looks and themes in different rooms, as is done in stores and holiday showcases.

Lifestyle, fashion and color trends are also playing a big role in what's new/next in holiday decor. Looking ahead to Holiday 2007, here are some of the directions noted at the winter gift markets:

• Silver and gold decorations that create a more elegant look often combined with crystal and clear glass
• All-over white, highlighted with icy blue or transparent aquamarine for a shimmering arctic look
• Black, red and gold for a dramatic, sophisticated look
• Traditional looks, never out of vogue, updated with yellow-green and burgundy, combined with traditional red and green for a more modern traditional look
• Natural materials such as birch bark, exotic looking feathers, seashells, twigs and preserved leaves that create "eco-conscious" looks
• Bright red and shimmery white that create a dramatic yet playful, modern look
• Deep jewel tones, especially royal purple, peacock blue and jade green that create a rich look reminiscent of Venetian glass and the Three Kings
• Flocking that adds decorative interest and texture to ornaments and trees
• Glitter that reflects light for sparkle and icy shimmer
• Oversized ornaments, used judiciously, to create a focal point to vignettes