Christmas as a journey – about decorating, memories and coming home
For me, Christmas is not a date on the calendar.
It is a feeling that slowly finds its way in. As the days grow shorter and the light softens, something begins to shift. As if the house — and perhaps I too — is preparing to slow down.
What I love most during this season is decorating. Not quickly, not all in one afternoon, but as a ritual. Every string of lights is placed with care. Every candle finds its spot. Because decoration is not meant to be displayed, but to be felt.
A tree filled with travels
At home, I don’t have a traditional Christmas tree.
My tree is a travel tree.
Each ornament holds a story. A city where I wandered, a place where I found calm, a journey that set something in motion. Year after year, these ornaments have been added, as if the tree has grown alongside me. While decorating it, I relive moments — small flashes of faraway memories, gathered in one quiet corner of the house.
Perhaps that is why Christmas touches me so deeply: it connects. Places. Memories. Past and present.
Christmas is family
We always celebrate Christmas with family.
Gathered around the table, familiar faces, stories that are told again every year. These are moments that linger, long after the lights have been taken down.
But because Christmas is so full and warm, we also feel how precious it is to pause. After togetherness, there is a need for silence.
The front door I had been waiting for
This year feels especially meaningful.
Since building our home, I had been waiting for this moment: finally being able to decorate the front door. Like the houses you see in America or Canada, where Christmas is celebrated not only inside, but also outside. A wreath, greenery, soft lights — a welcome before you even step inside.
It may seem like a small detail, but to me it felt symbolic. Like a long-held wish finally taking shape. Christmas no longer begins in the living room, but right at the threshold.
A moment of calm at Hôtel Koru
This desire to slow down is something we consciously carry with us to Hôtel Koru this year.
After celebrating with family, we allow ourselves a moment of rest — a pause to breathe again.
At the hotel, Christmas is gentle. No rush, no expectations. Just warmth, stillness and attention. Soft lighting, natural materials, and space simply to be. Exactly what Christmas means to me.
Christmas is coming home
For me, Christmas is ultimately about coming home.
To people. To places. To memories. And sometimes, to silence.
Each year, I get to hang that story once more — in a tree filled with travels, on a decorated front door, or in the atmosphere of a place where calm lies at the heart of everything.
