How Shea McGee Decorates for the Holidays | Trees, Hosting Tips & More

Here we go. Here we go. I love the holidays because I also love the ritual of getting your home ready for guests. I'm going to share some of my favorite tips that I go back to year after year for decorating your tree, getting guests ready for a holiday dinner, and then a new way to do a charcuterie board. These tips are going to be great for your guests, but I think you're going to be surprised yourself. Holiday, it doesn't have to be stressful. It can be fun, and I'm going to show you how. The entryway is where you greet everyone first, even yourself, so let's make it special. I used a mix of pieces that I collect for every day here, and then it made them holiday with a few additional accents. So these hurricanes, I've used them in entry at client projects, and now they feel holiday because of what we've surrounded them with. I love silver and pewter finishes, and I love silver and groupings. More is better, and so we've done everything from this lidded box to this incredible bowl, and then I love this sweet flake. One of my favorite tricks is to take a bowl that I love and then fill it with ornaments, and we did that with the sugared fruit here. Let's talk about the tree looks this year. Every year, I concept three different looks, and I see myself in all of them, but what I love about doing this is that you can find the look or mix and match them for whatever is right for you. But before I talk about decor, let's talk about the tree itself. So we have a few different trees in McGee and Co., and our customers go wild for these trees. That is because they look so natural. I am so particular about a faux greenery, and every single branch, even the tone of the tree, the hand feel, it is so natural. And we do tiny little lights on our trees. They come pre-lit, and they have different settings. We have this one on a little twinkly setting here, and the tiny lights and lots of lights give it this just beautiful glow. For this tree, the idea here was a more monochromatic, minimalist look. As minimal as I'll go, I love a lot of holiday decor, but really keeping the color palette very light and all about the metallics. It's a little glam, but there is a mix of metals here. You may think that all of your metals have to match. All gold, all silver. That is not the case. You can mix them, and this tree is proof of that. One of my favorite things that we've added this year are these beautiful bows. They're pre-tied, and they have clips, so you get every one just right. You're not having to measure out the size, and we've mixed our garland types. So we have a little jingle bell garland, the star, and then we've even layered it. So you can see that silver and gold together with this garland that has this dark gray bead and little silver accents. We also launched this new beautiful tree skirt, and it comes in a stocking as well. And the construction type is called trapunto, and I am a textile nerd, and I love learning about this throughout the product design. Trapunto, it is a traditional wedding blanket that they often throw at the end of beds, but we have taken that and interpreted it as a tree skirt and stocking. You see why that becomes a heritage piece that you pass down for generations. This is our blue and citrus tree, and I'm so excited about a non-red tree. If you are wanting to experiment with a different color palette but still go all in on the holidays, this is the combination for you. And what's been fun is to see our team's reaction to each tree look, and our team seems to be obsessing over the blue and citrus. So we really all shades of blue from like a powder blue to a navy. This is this painted ornament that has the pattern from our Arboretum collection. And then we just really loaded up the tree with all the sugared fruits. And then if you look closely, you'll see that we even did a citrus garland. And I love this on the tree, but I would layer this on top of a garland across a banister as well. And then we've topped this tree look with a new turtle dove. It's this really great pressed metal tree topper. And then I love tartan plaid. I have my girls dress in tartan plaid at Christmas time, and we've done this as a tablecloth, a stocking, and a pillow. This is quilted. Our last tree look is our red maximalist tree. And we took the red beyond the tree and carried it throughout the decor in the room. And I love that this is a classic Christmas red, but then we've added some fun touches to really shake it up this year. I was really inspired by amaranthus and that deep burgundy color, as well as the organic shape. We've added picks throughout the tree and then paired that with this deep velvet ribbon. And I think just those two things alone gives you that big wow factor with the color. And then we've added from there. So lots of different mixed garlands and we've incorporated quite a bit of silver. I love red and silver together. I mean, it's a classic, but especially right now, as we're seeing silver trend, we incorporated a lot of that on this tree and even the tree topper. It's that sunburst inspired tree topper. It comes in the gold and the silver with the antiqued mirror. I'm so in love with this red embroidered textile. You see it peeking out from beneath the tree. It has this great border around the edge. And then we've carried that onto the pillow. Really choosing a color like red and then sticking with it gives you the most impactful maximalist look. And then carry that throughout the room onto the pillows, the garland, and the wreath. And it does pull away from the green, but I think that when you walk into this room, you get that like opulent holiday vibe. And while I love a decked out holiday tree, one of my favorite pieces this year is this little Charlie Brown tree. How sweet. It's droopy and a little sad in the best way. Let's talk about hosting holiday dinner. All season long, we're having people over. We're thinking about what we're putting on the table beyond the food. Let's talk about what I am dressing the table with this year. Our Coronet collection sold out. You guys loved it so much. We have added more pieces this year. And this one has my heart. It's this cream background with this red design. And you can now pair it with these scalloped napkins that you can have monogrammed. So good. They make a great gift. And every good host knows that the seating arrangement makes a big difference on how the evening goes. One, it makes people feel like you really thought about them before they got there, seeing their name, but also putting the introvert next to someone that's really good at keeping a conversation going. We have these sweet little bell place card holders this year. And one thing that I think is really fun is under your plate, put an icebreaker or something that is just going to get people chatting. It's a fun surprise and you'll never have a dull conversation. And then to finish off our holiday table, I love a mini wreath. These add a little more decor to your table, especially when it starts to get filled up with food. A lot of those extras can be removed, but then you have that wreath there so that it feels really festive. And a final touch, if you want to go above and beyond, make your own little menu card and just place that on top. It makes your dinner feel fancy. I love a good charcuterie board during the holidays, but if you're setting up for New Year's, maybe try something different. So this year I have set up an oyster bar with some caviar, potato chips. And the best thing about all that is it's wonderful and it's beautiful. And all of this silver barware that you could style with potato chips or popcorn, fill it with ice as an oyster bar, but you can also use it as a drink bucket as well. Here we go. So you know what? This is a good time to do this. This for the first time is on camera. Oh, oh, did I get it? Everyone's quiet. One. And voila. Got the start. Our holiday photo shoot is in two locations this year and now we're back at my house and I am all decked out for the holidays. I love to look at my front porch through a new lens every year and some things remain the same. I love garland everywhere, wreaths and a beautiful organic natural look, but I love to change up the accents as well. So this year I did one solid garland and then a statement garland that has multiple different types of greenery and this one has these cream berries and then tied a bow on these beautiful pre-lit juniper and they look and feel so realistic. And then I'll use these planters all year round, but I do love that they have this decorative garland motif on them that feels really fitting for the holidays. One of my favorite accents is a woven detail, whether it's on a tablescape or in a room and on my front porch. We have launched these new nutcrackers and I love the grapevine. These are pre-lit. You can see me for size. They add some nice height to the look and then across the way we have these woven sleighs and then finish the look off with a wreath sash. It comes solid and then you can choose the color of your monogram. I think this is great for yourself, but it also makes a really great personalized gift.