Marilyn Decorates · The Handbook · First edition
For thirty Christmases I dressed the windows of a grand Cleveland department store, the ones children pressed their faces against. This book is every trick I used, in the order I used them, room by room, written so you can do it yourself, feet on the floor, no ladder, and hardly a dollar spent.
This is the year your front room glows again. ▶ Watch the short video
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Most readers take all three: the Handbook shows where everything goes, Christmas by the Decade brings back the looks you grew up with, and the DIY book shows how to make them for a few dollars.
Launch price: $19 instead of $35 while the clock runs · --:--:--
A word from Marilyn
The video is coming soon
The green cloth book: a sketch of every window I ever dressed.
I. Why I wrote it down
It's usually said in a whisper, as if it's something to be ashamed of. "Marilyn, I've got boxes and boxes of beautiful things, and the tree still looks… flat."
Last year it was my neighbor Ruth. Thirty years of ornaments, two good strings of lights, and a tree that looked like it had given up. She was ready to drive to the store and start again.
We didn't buy a thing. We took everything off, fluffed every branch, put the lights in deep, and hung her ornaments in three layers the way I used to dress a window. Then we added one thing that glowed, one thing that moved, and one thing she didn't expect: her mother's old felt angel, right at eye level.
Ruth stood back and cried a little. So did I.
Your tree didn't need more. It needed the order a window dresser works in, and nobody ever taught you.
That order is what this book is. Every room, every step, the way I did it for thirty Christmases, so you can do it in one weekend with what's already in your attic.
Marilyn
Keep a little Christmas in the window, dear.
II. What's inside
Every chapter has the steps, a short "buy, skip, use what you own" list, and photos of how it should look when you're done.
Part One
How a window dresser looks at a room before anything goes up.
5 chapters
Part Two
From a flat box tree to one that looks lit from within.
8 chapters
Part Three
The room the whole street sees. This is where I started.
4 chapters
Part Four
Building each one back to front, like a shop window.
5 chapters
Part Five
Where Christmas smells like Christmas.
4 chapters
Part Six
Boxes down on Friday, feet up by Sunday supper.
3 chapters
Part Seven
So next year takes half the time.
2 chaptersAt the back of the book
III. The honest part
Your mother's ornaments stay. The chipped ones too. I'll show you where they look their best.
The window look came from how ribbon was folded, not what it cost. Chapter 10 shows you the fold.
Trends come and go. A well-dressed room with things you love never goes out of style.
The top of the tree gets dressed at table height. Nobody climbs anything in this book.
IV. Everything you get
My promise to you. Read it, try it on one room, and if it isn't for you, email me within 30 days and you'll get every penny back. No forms, no questions.
From the same kitchen table
The Handbook shows where everything goes. These two bring back the Christmases you remember, and show you how to make them by hand.
Book Two · 140 pages
Fifty years of Christmas, the way it looked in our living rooms. For every decade you'll see what we hung, why we loved it, how to get the look today for a few dollars, and which pieces in your attic are worth keeping.
Silver aluminum trees under a turning color wheel, bubble lights and glass ornaments from the five-and-dime.
Snowy flocked trees, foil garlands, and glowing blow-mold carolers on the front lawn.
Big colored C9 bulbs, ceramic light-up trees, felt and macramé, and popcorn strung at the kitchen table.
Calico bows, wooden cutouts and baby's breath, then lace and the Victorian revival.
Lighted village collections, burgundy and hunter green, and ribbon cascading down the tree.
The first LED strings, inflatables in the yard, silver and ice blue, and the first return of retro.
Scroll sideways →
Book Three · 24 projects
Christmas is made, not bought. Every project uses what's in your kitchen drawer, your yard or the dollar store, with the store price printed next to what it cost me to make.
Save $44 on the set of three, at the launch price.
V. A note from the author
I started at seventeen, wrapping gifts at a grand department store in downtown Cleveland. A few years later I moved to one of its stores out in the suburbs, and for thirty Christmases every window and every tree in that store was mine.
The night before Thanksgiving we'd pull the brown paper off the glass, and before we'd folded it, there were children's faces pressed to the window. People gave those windows three seconds. I learned to make them count.
I kept a sketch of every window in a green cloth book. It's on my kitchen table right now, and most of this book came out of it. The rest my mother taught me, stringing popcorn and cranberries at that same table.
"One thing that glows, one thing that moves, and one thing you didn't expect. It works in a living room too."
These days I share what I know on my YouTube channel, and I've gathered all of it here, in the long version. If you want it, it's yours.
Marilyn
VI. Questions
Right after you pay, you'll get an email with a download button. It arrives in about a minute. Check your spam folder if you don't see it.
No, it's an e-book you can read on your phone, tablet or computer. You can print any pages you like, and the printables are made for printing.
No. It starts with what's already in your attic and closets. Every chapter has a short "buy, skip, use what you own" list, and most of the time the answer is "use what you own".
Yes. Nobody climbs anything in this book. Chapter 11 shows how to dress the top of the tree at table height.
Yes. Chapters 6 and 7 cover fluffing an older tree and adding light from inside so it looks full again.
Yes. Chapter 22 is all about small rooms, and the window rule works in a studio just as well as a big house.
Of course. Forward the download email to someone you love, or print it and tie it with a ribbon.
The whole book is built on what you own and a few dollars here and there. The DIY book, in the set of three, is nothing but projects that cost very little.
Email me within 30 days and you'll get a full refund. No forms, no questions.
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Most readers take all three. The Handbook shows where everything goes, the other two bring back the Christmases you remember.
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All three booksThe Handbook, Christmas by the Decade and The Christmas DIY Decorating Book
The HandbookMarilyn's Christmas Decorating Handbook
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