Wow, it is getting so dark so early, is it not?

Midwinter has cast a spell over the land and all of nature sleeps. We humans hearken to the center of the cave and gather around the fire to tell our stories as we wrap ourselves in furs and prepare for the dark night. The Archangel Michael is guided by the Northstar and this is his time. Thankfully, we celebrate festivals of light, Christmas, Hannukah, Winter Solstice and others. We need these times as we face the dark days. However, with the dark comes a mantle of peace and so we create peace in our own homes and add light to remind us to be loving and kind and warm to others. So, in this month of light, December, we can so appreciate the holiday lights on homes and inside our home too. Light is a very important decorating necessity but especially important this month when we celebrate the Solstice on December 21, the shortest day of the year. Then, all that turns around and we go into a period of more light each day. However, we need to be certain to get plenty of light in our home for all days but especially December.

Along with all your holiday lights, let’s address basic necessities in EVERY ROOM of our home but especially the community areas. First of all, overhead light does NOT count. Though it illuminates the room, overhead light adds NO warmth and NO cozy, comfortable feeling and in fact, overhead light simply makes a room seem cold and industrial and steely and gray. We need to ignore the ceiling light and place light at two levels in each room. We need light at our standing height, floor lamps or torchieres, and light at our sitting level (table lamps) and then maybe an accent light in each room. This can be a whimsical little lamp on a shelf or a fun light at the floor level or simply a light that is not necessarily used for reading or every day activities.

So, we only need one of the accent lamps but we need at least two or three of the reading lamps and probably at least one floor lamp.

This would provide us with light at different levels.

The lamps all need to be related. That is, they should not fight one another. They do not have to match but they have to go together and seem fine with one another. They should be alike in at least two ways, perhaps color, style, shape or form. One wouldn’t put an ultra modern sleek number with a traditional or classic Greek urn lamp. Well, maybe on would do that but it would look goofy! Very often, we can buy a floor and table lamp that are matching and then add our torchiere and accents. That would be the easy way out.

It is vital that you address the light in the rooms in your home if you indeed do want to bring warmth and welcome to the place. Lamps can be tricky but they also do not cost that much money. So, though you do not have to invest a lot of money, there is a huge payoff when a room is well lit. If you are worried about your choices, come on into At Home and we will help you light things up a bit. Wishing you peace and light in this wonderful month of December as we say good bye to another year here on earth!