Like any design choice, your seasonal décor communicates who you are and what you value. How do residents, patients, customers or clients feel when they encounter your holiday installations? Whether it’s nostalgia, excitement or a warm glow, these visual and sensory experiences can play a key role in conveying welcome, hospitality and a sense of how you value your people.

We spend 90% of our time in built environments. The proven impact of surroundings on health and wellbeing means that paying attention to elements of those spaces can have lasting benefits. A space that invites approach causes relaxation and releases endorphins. Experiencing beauty can be physical, lowering heart rate and blood pressure and fighting inflammation. Choices can be curated to elicit beneficial responses, many of which are unconscious.

The goal is to create a space where people want to be. Hybrid work patterns of recent years mean that employees may prefer the quiet and the amenities of home over a typical work setting. Sometimes referred to as “workspitality” or the “magnet office,” the concept involves creating lounges or other spaces that invite collaboration and social interaction, often missing in a work-from-home scenario. 

Biophilia (“love of life”) is an approach that seeks to reconnect people with the natural world. Recognizing the proven health and well-being benefits of this approach, biophilic design seeks inspiration from and incorporates the shapes, textures and patterns of nature, and incorporates natural materials and elements. Ideally all senses are involved, with natural light (or a replication of it) playing a key role. A biophilic approach creates both a sense of protection in a space and invites curiosity.

Gathering ideas is really about what you pay attention to. I am always attuned to color, texture and form, particularly when they evoke strong feelings in me, and I document these with photos, notes, and collected items. I find particular inspiration in nature, in the endless extravagance of blooming plants and in the subtle interplay of pattern and movement. A day spent at Longwood Gardens is a gold mine! And I love to look for surprises–like a courtyard filled with greenery, flowing water and dappled light that suddenly appears when you step through a gate from a nondescript street. It’s all a process of gathering visuals, materials, and even feelings that can be used in my work.

There is no one-size-fits-all plan! Changes can be small (adding focal point planters, for example) or broaden to include furnishings, finishes and decor. Christmas installations can be introduced organization-wide, or phased in over a period of years. Each setting is unique, with its own scope and budget.