Christmas Décor Ideas from Akanksha Arora's Jaipur home

From decorating the tree to a family secret Santa, Akanksha brings out the festive feel in her beautiful Jaipur home. “I do this for my kids…I started when my son was born five years ago. Even when they eventually find out that Santa isn’t real, I hope the tradition and memories continue to grow. I hope they remember the joy, excitement and family time spent together.”  Her top tip for celebrating with the kids – involve them in the whole experience. “Festivals with kids is chaotic, no doubt, but a lot of fun. I always have them decorate the tree with me. My daughter, who is one-and-a-half-years old, loves the shiny baubles and keeps running away with them. That’s part of the whole experience.”
 

With a tree and large snowman that she bought from Khan Market, New Delhi, Akanksha has a special attachment to the baubles she’s been collecting over the last five years. 

Every year, the family gets together for secret Santa and Christmas dinner before everyone goes on their vacations. “This year is obviously different,” she continues, “I had finally agreed to go to London for Winter Wonderland, but we had to cancel that. We usually go to Goa because I don’t like the cold.” However, just because the trip has been cancelled, doesn’t mean Christmas has. Akanksha set up the tree, one runaway bauble at a time, with the kids. “The tablescape is also very festive, I use my red dinnerware and table linen. We make hot chocolate because who doesn’t love that! I am not personally a fan of the traditional Christmas log cake so I make my own chocolate version. I move the tree down to the lawn and we have our secret Santa with hot chocolate and a bonfire.”
 

One of the biggest lessons she hopes to teach her kids is that festive fun does not need to involve wastage. “That’s one thing we should collectively be more careful about. I think all festivals have so much wastage after we are done; it takes away from the whole experience. As educated people, we need to be more mindful of our actions. Even for Diwali this year, we made sure all our decor was sustainable. For example, I used flowers from our farm instead of buying them,” she explains.