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A Gothic Christmas

The holiday season is almost here but if you’ve left things a little tight this year, here are some tips for a very gothic festive period!

Have you decorated your tree yet? The traditional tree is a must-have whether you celebrate yule or Christmas but you don’t have to stick to a green one. Let your imagination and creativity run riot with these ingenious ideas:

  • Choose a sleek black tree and add silver ornaments and white lights for an understated but glamorous look.
  • Or opt for all-purple or blood red decorations for a really eye-catching centre piece.
  • Add small bone-coloured plastic skulls to a traditional green tree for a gothic twist and weave a few into your festive door wreath to match.
  • Dig out Halloween tinsel and trinkets for a full-on spooky look.
  • Customise shop-bought baubles with shapes cut from self-adhesive vinyl – snip out sparkly skulls, inky black ravens or even bronze-coloured steampunk cogs for cheap but unique hangings.
  • Instead of an angel or a star, try topping your tree with a light-weight skull, spider, bat or raven – the possibilities are endless.
  • Wrap your favourite Alchemy pieces around the branches; belt buckles (how about the versatile Alchemist Rex?), fabric black roses and Swarovski crystal-accented necklaces (try the glammy Crystal Witch pendant) would look great as unusual trimmings.

On the night before goth-xmas-tree-2Christmas, swap tired Christmas stockings for plush velvet ones or even long striped socks. Sneak in a few homemade skull-shaped biscuits for a tasty but dark festive treat!

Goth up your gift wrapping with black ribbons, lace and handmade glittery gift tags. All you need is some craft card, a hole punch and some string or ribbon. For a more personal touch, try jazzing up some plain card stock with glitter glue or sequins –black, purple, silver or red with give your presents a gothic look while bronze and gold would be great for a steampunk theme.

If you can’t find any wrapping paper that shows off your dark side, opt for a plain matte black, purple or red paper and stamp silver skulls on it.Or, for a steampunk approach, use the text-heavy pages of old books that were destined for the recycling bin finished off with plenty of black ribbons. The only limit is your imagination!

However you choose to celebrate, have a very merry festive season!

By Natasha Scharf, the author of the books ‘The Art of Gothic’ and ‘Worldwide Gothic’.Skull-christmas-tree



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