Is it OK to kinda sorta deck the halls?

I spend a chunk of my holidays in the car, going from one family event to the next.

We drive north the weekend before the 25th to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family, which generally involves a family grouse hunt, a massive bonfire, beer slushies (hey, it's cold out there) and Led Zeppelin. Christmas day is spent in town with my husband's side of the family, which generally involves a family bingo game, a football game on the big-screen TV, a glass of merlot and Johnny Mathis.

For the past couple of years, we've carved out Christmas Eve as a stay-at-home night. The evening is blissfully relaxed, with only a small fire in the fireplace an no TV. We usually have just a few family and friends, none with little kids in tow. And the menu is simple.

For this event, I do what I've come to call "a little, tasteful decorating." We typically put up some form of a tree. (Last year it was a teepee-like affair made from birch branches, strung with lights and hung with a few ornaments. Odd but cute.) I decorate the mantle with evergreens and candles, fill a silver bowl with ornaments and put it on the coffee table and I always get a Boy Scout wreath and dress it up. (Here's a great video if you want help dressing up a wreath.)

And, of course, I love to dress the table. (Here's another quick video on holiday "tablescaping" -- Doncha love that word?)

But it takes an all-out party to get me to line the walk with luminaries, drape evergreen garlands from every horizontal surface, hang mistletoe in every room, put tiny trees in the guest room, string lights around the ficus tree . . . uh, you get my idea.