Christmas decorating starts early for some, including Instagram content creator Caoimhe McGinley whose account, @thebighillhouse, is a source of interior design inspiration for her 142k followers. Once her Halloween decorations come down on November 1, she launches straight into preparation for Christmas, something prompted by her time living in Abu Dhabi. “You started early to get a month before coming home for Christmas,” she says, but since the family moved into their self-build home on her family farm next door to her parents in Co Tyrone in 2021, decorating is underway in early November.
“I do a deep clean and start decorating with the main tree in the hall,” she says. “Over two and a half weeks I’ll get all the decorating done with a tree in almost every room. I want the atmosphere to be magical.
” The effect is certainly magical and it’s also stylish, but it begs the question, how does it all survive until January with her young family of Dáithí, age 10, Tomás, age 8, Cobhládh, age 5, and Páidí, age 2? “It’s child-centred,” she says. “They’re involved in putting up all the trees. They even have trees in their bedrooms.
It’s chaos here most days. I’ve learned to embrace the mess and they’re happy in their space.” Christmas is such a special time for her and the family that when she was planning what is a substantial Georgian-style property, she had it in mind.
“In my open-plan kitchen, dining, living space, I made a corner .