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Trading Space's Carter Oosterhouse & Amy Smart Use Edible Holiday Decorations

Photo credit: Vivien Killilea - Getty Images
Photo credit: Vivien Killilea - Getty Images

From House Beautiful

Not everyone has the same taste in Christmas decorations. Some prefer to go all out like on The Great Christmas Light Fight, while others prefer a more subtle, natural, or even edible approach. For Carter Oosterhouse and actress Amy Smart, it's all of the latter, since they're not quite at the Just Friends holiday decor level yet (e-x-t-r-a), Amy shares. "We're way more subtle," she laughs.

When your spouse is known for shows like Trading Spaces and Million Dollar Rooms, it might be a struggle to agree on a style, but thankfully, Amy notes that she and her husband/fellow SmartHouse founder have similar styles, so they don't really butt heads on much.

"He's very great at the technical things like getting high up in the trees to string lights and I do more of the fine tuning of the little details on the mantle," Amy shares. So, with the couple's combined ornament collections, a bunch of decorations passed down from Amy's mom, and items they've gathered on their own, the Oosterhouses turn their home into a peaceful, quiet, and inviting wonderland for the holidays each year.

Aside from the classic, decor approach, Amy also has several unique ways of giving the Oosterhouse home "the sort of old fashion, vintage" holiday feel she loves-all without spending extra money. Try some of these if you want to add some festive flair to your home this season.


Bring In The Natural Elements Of The Season.

Though people tend to spend quite a bit less time outdoors during the winter, it's really fascinating how big a part nature plays during the season. Items like driftwood, logs, berries, pinecones, and pine needles-"anything you can find outside," Amy notes-make their way into our homes. In the Oosterhouse home, these are a key part of the decor, in addition to her beloved ceramic houses and white string lights, of course. "I love to bring in the natural, comfortable homey elements."

Use Food As Decorations.

Centerpieces like flowers barely last a week, but that doesn't have to be the case for all fresh focal points. An alternate option for Amy is, wait for it...food! Fruit and nuts in particular. "I use pears, because it's a winter fruit, they're green and red and they're really sort of Christmas colors. If you get them a little unripe, you can keep them in there for a couple weeks and then, [instead of throwing them away] you can actually eat them."

Take The Pine Scent Into Your Room (And Have It Last Year-Round.)

Another tradition that Amy loves, which she hopes to one day pass down to her daughter Flora, is to bring that Christmas tree smell into other rooms in her home-particularly the bedroom (and even your clothes.) "Every time the season ends, we would take pine needles from the tree and put them in little cloth bags and put them in our drawer all year round...You just take them from a tree or from a wreath, you can even take a sock and stuff it, and tie it up and then stick it in your clothing drawers. Then, every once in a while you can squish it in your hands and all the smell comes back. It lasts for a long time!"

Get Your Tree From A Living Christmas Tree Farm, So Your Tree Doesn't Die.

"When we can there's a local company that's called the Living Christmas Tree," Amy reveals, though it sadly wasn't open last year. "They deliver a tree and we water it, water it, water it in its pot and then they pick it up. It's a cool way of not killing a tree...I love the concept of having a tree that you can plant afterwards to keep it going." Since Christmas trees tend to only last a few weeks before they die, this is a great way of returning your tree back to nature, so it continues to grow.

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