Holiday Decorating with Balsam Hill

You want your home to look gorgeous for the holidays, but unless you're Martha Stewart, it can be intimidating to decide on a great holiday look, and it can be even harder to make everything look as good as it does in your head.  Luckily for Bay Area folks, the Balsam Hill showroom is now open for the holidays!  Located in Millbrae, customers can gaze at dozens of beautiful Balsam Hill trees, all done up for the holidays, to get ideas and inspiration.

Last week, Balsam Hill invited me and a group of bloggers to attend the showroom opening.  Everything looked so beautiful -- their trees and wreaths and garlands are so lush and thick, and each one was decorated in its own unique style. Balsam Hill also sells decorations, so everything you need to decorate your home is right here.

The main event for the evening was a wreath decorating contest. Balsam Hill provided eight contestants with a beautiful Balsam Hill wreath, wire, scissors, glue gun, and glue.  We were allowed to pick anything we wanted from an assortment of leaves, berries, bows, ribbons, ornaments, and all kinds of beautiful things to decorate our wreaths. Just like the design challenges on the Food Network, we were given 30 minutes to decorate our wreaths, then each of us presented our wreaths to a team of judges, who decided on a winner.    It was so much fun!

I've never really decorated a wreath before (tying a red ribbon on a wreath does NOT count!), but luckily I love crafting.  Also, I had my secret weapon:  two awesome helpers, 3Po and Jammy.  We decided on a red and gold theme.  We scattered red holly berries around the wreath and added five golden flower accents, one for each member in the family.  3Po added five red robins to the wreath, also to represent each one of us -- he even put two robins together in the center to symbolize Alfie and me!  Jammy made a big gold ribbon in the center and glued a glittery Santa Claus ornament in the center of the bow. We worked right up to the last second, but we managed to finish... and it looked fantastic!  The boys were so proud of their creation and so pumped that they had participated in the kind of challenge that we love to watch on TV.

While waiting for the judges to decide on the winner, we were given a demonstration of Balsam Hill's amazing Flip Tree.  The Flip Tree is so easy to assemble -- just roll it to where you want it, flip it over, and attach the tree topper!  It's pre-lit, so you don't even have to worry about stringing lights.

Here I am with my friend Cam, posing with our wreaths.  Cam delegated the decorating of her wreath to her mother, and her wreath was so GORGEOUS that I was sure she would win first prize.  I was right!!

For winning the contest, she received  a beautiful Balsam Hill 7-foot holiday tree!  She is so lucky, because Balsam Hill holiday trees look just like real trees, without the fire hazard and the stress of having to water it and sweep up fallen needles.  The only thing you'll miss is the fresh pine smell -- but guess what, Balsam Hill sells scented ornaments ("scentsicles") will fill your home with a natural pine scent.

We're not at all bummed out that we didn't win (although Jammy whispered confidentially to me, "I'm SO proud of our work!!  Even though we didn't win, I think ours stood a pretty good chance!").  We had a great time.  I never realized what a fun family activity wreath decorating can be!  You can get individual wreaths for everyone and make it into a contest, or  you can all work together on one wreath.  If you use wire instead of hot glue to secure your decor to the wreath, you can dismantle it after the holidays are over, and reuse the wreath every year!  If you have a sturdy, high-quality wreath, like the Balsam Hill, you'll be able to enjoy it for many years to come.  Thanks, Balsam Hill, for introducing us to a new holiday tradition!

Disclosure: I was invited to a blogger event and received a wreath and ornaments to take home. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
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