A pastel Christmas with Charlotte Jacklin
Pour yourself a festive drink and pop on a special playlist for this one! We're about to take you on a pastel-hued adventure into a land of velvet ribbons, twinkly lights and vintage-inspired styling.
Your guide is content creator extraordinaire, Charlotte Jacklin. Charlotte is a fashion and lifestyle creator, with a knack for styling a Christmas table that's almost too beautiful to touch! A locker lover too, we spoke to Charlotte about her favourite holiday traditions, her tips and tricks for gorgeous gift wrapping, and why she thinks there's no such thing as too many bows.
be home for Christmas
Whether you wait all year to break out your favourite ornaments, or you love dreaming up a new theme each time, there is something magical about decorating for the holidays. "Decorating the house is possibly my favourite thing," Charlotte tells us, "alongside having downtime with my children and husband to play games, eat fun food and watch festive films. I also love the amount of fairy lights that I see everywhere I go, they never fail to make me feel happier."
a festive rainbow
Charlotte's key to creating a cohesive Christmas 'theme' starts with colour. Her favourite styling colours are pink, green, red and burgundy, with touches of gold to dress them up. "There is always a strong correlating theme, and I think that's because of the colours that I use, and the metres and metres of ribbon. Blush pink is my go-to colour for so many things. I think it's just so easy and fun, pairing it with green is one of my favourite colour combinations. Green is such a strong colour in nature, so therefore I think it goes with everything."
"I also have festive mugs and plates," Charlotte says. "I pack away normal everyday things like this, and make sure that we use the festive ones to make things feel extra special." She's also partial to a gingham tablecloth and plenty of candles to finish the look!
The Lowdown in Blush + The Baskets in Blush
lock up the gifts!
If you've got wandering eyes or little explorers at home, Charlotte has the ultimate hack to keep Santa's stash secret. "My Mustard Made lockers are going to be my best friend this Christmas! I used to hide everything in my office that I had at home. But this year we welcomed our second daughter, and the office is now a nursery, and there's nowhere left to hide presents. The fact that you can actually lock the lockers and hide the key so nobody peeps inside is so clever!"
put a bow on it
Speaking of gifts, we think wrapping them is half the fun. We asked Charlotte how she makes her wrapping extra special. "Would you believe me if I said velvet ribbon?! I just can't get enough of the stuff, and I think there's nothing better than a beautifully wrapped present with a simple bow. Sticking to a colour theme is good – this year, I've gone for plain pink and green wrapping paper and pink and green ribbon, it looks good whether you mix and match it or do the same like for like colour. Also you can buy in bulk which makes it a little bit more affordable, and also use it outside of Christmas. No one will know!"
The Midi in Sage + Bone Wordbits Magnets
cheers to you
When Charlotte's Blush Lowdown is hard at work as a gift wrapping station, her Sage Midi is on drinks duty as a perfect bar cabinet. What's Charlotte's signature Christmas drink? "I love something fizzy to be honest. I don't drink too much, so when I do, I really like it to be champagne — I think Cava and Crémant are great too. I like to keep it super simple, so serving it straight up or adding flavoured ice and garnishes, such as pomegranates, cranberries or fresh herbs for an extra festive touch."
the main (meal) event
Ask Charlotte what her favourite holiday tradition is, and she doesn't hesitate to say that it's setting the table. "I have linens that I only use at Christmas that I bring out of my garage storage each year," she says. "I have candles on the table at any time of year, but I think the more the merrier at Christmas. Clashing napkins and tablecloths work really well, not everything has to match. As long as they have a similar colour theme somewhere, it usually works. If I'm doing a buffet-style meal, I like to decant all the food onto various bowls and plates. It looks really inviting and also like you've made much more effort than you actually have! For a full sit-down meal, I really like serving things family style, so everyone can dig in."
Like many of us, family is what it's all about for Charlotte, who shared one of her favourite Christmas memories with us. "When I was little we would go to the cinema on a coach, and it was so much fun. My Nanna was actually the caretaker at my school, and her and all the cleaning staff would take us all to see the latest Christmas film. It's such a happy memory for me, and it was also back in the day when there was an interval during the film, so we all got to have ice cream too."
What a perfect reminder that it's not always about the biggest, shiniest box under the tree. A Christmas film and a treat is pretty hard to beat!
