Christmas Tips from a Beginner!

When we did our first window we looked at the Facebook page for ideas from previous years. The ones that stood out to us were the ones using silhouettes (the 2 Ronnies, the Delia says Defrost, and the Morecambe and Wise ones). We thought using black card, with a back-light would be the easiest format for us to try.

Our first year we did Gremlins. Not being the greatest artist, I used the internet to get designs. I copied pictures into powerpoint, blew-up to A3 size, then printed them out. We then cut around these and traced onto black card using a white pencil. This worked well. One other thing we did was buy coloured paper, then cut out holes in the design where we could (Gremlins eyes, Christmas tree stars) and glued in the coloured paper. With the lights shining through, this seemed to work well.

(Read more below…)

The next year we did “Fairy-Tale of New York”. We pretty much did the same again. We were worried people may not get it, so this time we added a line from the song to give a clue to our window’s theme…

Other tips:

We are quite lucky as our curtains are backed with white material, other wise we might have had to create a background so as not to hide the design.

For the lighting, we just taped white fairy lights around the window frame, that gave off enough light to make the design stand out.

Start early (a couple of weeks before your designated date), even if you don’t put all the design in place until nearer your night. We created an area on our front room floor that was the size of the window, and placed all cut-outs there. This makes sure when its up that the design fills the window, and leaves the design with no space needing to be filled.

PVA glue is easy to use and does come off pretty easily once you take your window down! We also bought a timer which plugs in so you can set the time to come on and off each evening.

This may sound obvious, but we learnt the hard way that any words you are using need to face outwards not inwards!

It’s a good idea to have some help with the final window construction.

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