Holiday hassle: Lakewood Ranch designer decorates homes for Christmas

The Thanksgiving design deadline has passed, and those who haven’t trimmed their tree might be getting nervous.

Most retail stores and shopping plazas decked the halls for Christmas the day after Halloween. Homeowners seem to be decorating earlier every year.

But what about those who are too busy or stressed to decorate?

Lynda Nixon, owner of White Rose Interior Designs, takes the pressure off people who don't want to deal with tree stands or blinking bulbs. She does holiday decorations while the owners are at work.

Nixon opened White Rose on Lakewood Ranch Main Street in 2014 but previously owned a company in Canada. She used to set up hundreds of personal holiday displays in Canada, with people booking even two years in advance. She did one family's Christmas every year for 20 years, she said.

She brought the idea here to her clients in Lakewood Ranch.

“You can pay someone to set up your Christmas,” she said.

For busy professionals or snowbirds who don’t want to transport their decorations, Nixon’s service, which starts at $75 per

hour, becomes a viable solution.

She looks at her client's everyday home décor and then plans a course that will “make the magic happen.”

“Decorating Christmas is like decorating your home, it has to be thought out and prepared,” she said.

Nixon said it is important to fit holiday decorations into the pre-existing design of a home so the two ideas don’t clash.

If a living room has a turquoise and green palette, for example, Nixon recommended incorporating those colors into holiday decorations, such as ribbons on the tree or candles and other touches.

Adding festive touches to each room also tie holiday décor to the whole house, instead of one area being filled with red and green and the rest left barren. Nixon said she puts a few items in each room to continue the feeling of the holidays, such as a decorative pillow or silver candles

In her own home, she placed a treasured, vintage hand-carved figurine of Santa Claus on her dresser. Rooms like bedrooms and lanais should not be forgotten, either.

“It’s more than adding a tree, make it a little festive in each room, but not random,” she said.

Lakewood Ranch resident Vicki Fitzgerald has been frequenting Nixon’s store for about a year to purchase décor for her home. During a visit to the Lakewood Ranch Main Street location last week, Fitzgerald saw a tree Nixon had decorated and purchased the whole thing, decorations and all. Nixon brought the tree to Fitzgerald’s home and then decorated an additional

tree for her and the mantel on an outdoor fireplace.

“She matched it to the rest of my house,” Fitzgerald said.

Nixon took the colors of her client’s home, a calming scheme of creams, gold, silver and a touch of blue, and weaved them into her holiday design. The tree has hydrangeas, birds and decorative glass balls with complementing colors.

“She’s got the creative touch and more of the imagination on creating something that is unique,” Fitzgerald said. “She really

did a nice job tying it into my home.”

In the past, Fitzgerald has decorated her own home and used traditional colors and schemes. This year, Fitzgerald wanted a more calm theme.

“I’ve always had the ‘big red bow,’” she said. “It was nice to do something different than the traditional red and green.”