Have a blue — or purple — Christmas

The colors red and green have always symbolized Christmas — green holly with red berries, a green Christmas tree decorated with red ornaments, and even Santa’s red suit. But there are more options for decorating today and a rainbow of colors can still represent the traditional sentiment.

Traditional decorations include real or artificial Christmas trees in natural green styles, red and green wreaths, poinsettias, garlands and mistletoe. For a modern twist, add sequined stockings, feathered wreaths or colored tinsel trees. Carrie Chen, vice president of marketing for Treetopia, which specializes in colorful holiday trees, offers these tips for introducing a few new ideas into holiday decorating:

Decorate an extra tree: Keep the traditional green tree with white lights in your main room and add a silver or pink tree as your second tree.

“We know that a lot of people buy the fun fashion colors at treetopia.com for their children’s rooms,” Chen said.

Try winter white: “White is a good color if you’re feeling timid about decorating with colors other than red and green,” Chen said.

Prelit white trees are increasing in their popularity. Even traditional artificial tree retailers such as Balsam Hill, known for its lifelike varieties, offer a white tree.

Follow the fashion trends: “Last year we saw stark contrasts,” Chen said. “Black artificial trees decorated with all white or red decorations, for example.”

This Christmas, the anticipated must-have color is purple. Look for Christmas stockings, garlands and even tinsel trees in this not-so-iconic color.

“As with fashion, we look to Europe to interpret the trends for décor. Based on what we saw there in 2006, we know that our Purple Groove tinsel tree is the hot colored tree for this holiday season.”

Celebrate your surroundings: Finally, if you’re celebrating the holidays in a warm climate, decorate accordingly. “If you are at the beach, you can set up a prelit artificial palm tree in the garden or even inside the house,” Chen said.

Have a little fun with your holiday decorating this year and try something new, whether it is a brightly colored tree from treetopia.com or just a few purple accents to your home.

For information on ordering or to view the entire collection, visit www.treetopia.com.

Information courtesy North American Precis Syndicate