According to tradition, Christmas trees and decorations should go up on the first day of Advent, which is the fourth Sunday before Christmas. This year, that falls on Sunday 27th November 2022. Once upon a time during the Victorian period, Christmas trees were traditionally put up much later in December, often on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. So, what’s your persuasion straight after Halloween or Christmas Eve? For some, Christmas decorations go up as soon as Halloween ends on 31st October, and so Christmas lovers embrace 1st November as the start of the festive season and begin decorating their home at this time.
Research has shown that putting up Christmas decorations early extends the excitement of the festive season. It acts as an ‘anchor or pathway to those old childhood magical emotions’ and so ultimately makes you happier. It has also been shown that decorating your home for Christmas early can create a neurological shift that can produce happiness causing a spike in dopamine a feel-good hormone. So, whether you’re turning your home into a grotto on the August bank holiday, or a Christmas eve decorator enjoy the festivities and follow our helpful tips on how to keep your hard floors looking pristine.
Use a Tree Stand Mat
This isn’t something that a lot of people know about, but there are mats that go underneath your tree stand. Most of the time people just use tree skirts to go over the stand, but that leaves a margin for error when the tree shifts on the floor (after it’s loaded up with heavy lights and tons of ornaments, of course). These mats not only help keep your floors pristine and scratch-free, but it keeps pine needle tar from accumulating, and the tree doesn’t shift even when someone jostles it. If you buy a natural tree, you run into more potential problems than those who use synthetic trees. Apart from pine needles being a risk for scratches on the floor, watering your tree is a major risk. In fact, we would argue that watering your tree and spilling water onto the floor is one of the biggest hardwood threats during the Christmas season.
Invest in a good inside and a good outside mat. The outside mat should be rubber which will scrape the worst of the mud and any debris off of trainers and walking books. A coir matt inside will dig a little deeper into the groves of shoes and absorb some of the dampness too. Even with two stages of shoe shuffling and scrapping, we still recommend a ‘no shoes on in the house’ policy in the winter months. So a shoe rack in your entranceway is also a good idea.
Vacuum but Don’t Sweep
Brooms can be more abrasive than vacuum cleaners on hardwood floors. When you brush pine needles around with a broom, you could scratch your floors. All those little scratches let moisture, dirt, and grime into your floorboards and increase the risk of moisture expansion during humidity changes.
Use a specific hardwood floor-ready vacuum cleaner, these are very different from all-purpose, multi-surface, or carpet-specific vacuum cleaners. These are gentle on your floors and rely on suction more than rotating brushes.
Keeping your floors looking pristine can be a time-consuming task, but we can help you with that! Providing the gift of time so you can step into Christmas making precious memories with loved ones. Get in touch today with our domestic cleaners in Fleet, Farnham, Alton, Milton Keynes, Cheltenham, Bishop’s Stortford, Winchester, Chandlers Ford and Eastleigh, Bath, Petersfield and Guildford and Godalming.
