Christmas decorations: ‘I tried to have a bare tree with glass baubles one year’

When it comes to Christmas decorations, interior designer, architect, artist and TV presenter Róisín Murphy knows a thing or two about tasteful work. Not that her three teenage kids appreciate it.

“I drive my kids mad because I have a thing about a crafted Christmas look. I decorate with twine, card and paper, and I also use natural linens, tweed and wool. It’s a very crafted, Scandi aesthetic,” says Murphy while on a break from filming RTÉ’s Home Rescue. “I make my own wreath, and I used to make sacks too – they’d look lovely under the tree.

“But the kids prefer that I do a bit more tat. I tried to have a bare Christmas tree with glass baubles one year, but they snuck tinsel onto it. They’re young, and you can’t deny them that. I have silver disco ball in the house, so it’s not without its luxuries.”

Disco ball and teenager interventions aside, come December, the homemade, Hygge-happy decorations will be found across her north Dublin abode.

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The rustic style nicely reflects her job of transforming homes into alluring spaces that are near-impossible to leave. And that’s especially important in winter, when the long evenings and chilly weather mean we’ve little choice but to stay indoors.

“I love Christmas. It’s something to look forward to in the middle of the darkness. With Christmas, it’s all about decoration even though design is usually the opposite. You can put sparkly lights everywhere,” she says. “And many religions celebrate something about light at this time, like with Diwali. We’re instinctive human beings – we gather around a fire, and we come together to see each other. Those ideas of cribs and babies and buying gifts, if you analyse it, it makes no sense, but it’s an incredibly important part of life.”

Family get-togethers

For Murphy and her family, this year will be their first after the loss of her father, who died in September. “It will be hard,” she says with a deep sigh. “Losing people really impacts Christmas, especially the grandkids. And it will be my mum’s first Christmas without him. It wasn’t untypical for them to leave for Christmas. Occasionally they’d have lots of kids down, but they weren’t that traditional about Christmas as they got older – they’d often go off on a cruise, and my mum would also want to see my aunts and uncles. They’d always mix it up a bit.”

Understandably, this year the plan is to go big with the family get-togethers. “I’ve a lot of cousins in Connemara, and we’ve said we all want to meet up again,” says Murphy. “So I think we’re going to get together just before Christmas.”

For the big meal itself, it’s no surprise that Murphy gets creative. Past successes have been a chicken covered with prosciutto plaits, mincemeat and cakes, and last year she made a ham on the bone, slow-cooked in cider and honey. “The kids never used to like Christmas foods, but as they grow older, they’ve begun asking for certain dishes,” she says.

Of course, the aesthetics matter just as much as the taste to Murphy, and so she serves her dishes on Fermoyle pottery, with her glassware from Article and Waterford Crystal. There’s still space for a bit of fun and quirkiness – for example, her potatoes are served in a dish that itself looks like a potato.

Handmade goods

“I love how food can look,” she says. “Whereas our parents would have had fine China, we now have handmade dinner services. Hewn do beautiful handcrafted spoons, made in Co Clare. And a good set of carving knives from one of the Irish knifemakers is a good Christmas present.

“Handcrafted elements are environmentally better, and I think you’re buying pieces of art. Some makers use clay from the Dublin mountains, so there’s the idea that it hasn’t travelled far. And there’s a human intimacy about something that’s been handmade. It looks amazing, the quality is amazing, so it just feels better when you’re eating off them. And you’re supporting local business as well.”

For those looking for more contemporary Christmas decor than the reds and greens of every year, Murphy has noticed that trends have updated to her preferred rustic style. “The trend of white glass is slightly gone. And the trend has been pinks and plums for the last couple of years, but now, brown, amber and silver are becoming the big colours,” she notes.

Before she returns to Home Rescue duties, she has a final piece of advice for when the festive season is over for another year. “I pack away my decorations like presents, so that sense of them coming out is really exciting,” she says. “They’re usually wrapped in a ribbon – so unwrapping them is like Christmas has come early.”