A flurry of paper creations sparks delight for a budget-conscious homeowner who picked up her scissors—and couldn’t put them down.
by JODY GARLOCK photos JANET KWAN
Every holiday season Wendy Lau’s love of crafts and decorations kicks into high gear. She’s up and down ladders, dangling paper snowflakes and stars from ceilings and draping garlands across doorways. As much as she tries to show restraint, a little always turns into a lot, and soon she’s decorating her Toronto home with abandon. “There’s a lot of cardio for me at Christmas,” she says.
Her decorating aerobics can be traced in large part to the snowflakes she snips from brown and white lunch bags. They now number in the hundreds and are her creative strategy for a high-impact look. “I’m the paper-bag princess,” she jokes. Earthy flourishes such as dried moss (Wendy’s reusable and easy-to-store alternative to fresh greenery) and handcrafted papier-mâché mushroom ornaments supplement those statement makers.
If there’s one thing Wendy knows, it’s how to make the holiday special, even on a budget. “To me, Christmas is a homecoming,” she says. “It’s all about the cozy. It’s all about the nostalgia. But it’s also about affordability.”
Her paper-bag creations were an early pandemic project after she was laid off from her job as a flight attendant. (Her Instagram account, @thekwendyhome, drew so many followers that when she was called back to work, she took a leap to become a full-time social media content creator.) The 18 totes she lugs up from the basement each year are filled with a mix of her handmade decorations, hand-me-downs from her mom, after-Christmas markdowns, and thrift store and roadside finds.
She’s always on the hunt for clear glass bud vases, cloches, and containers she can use to add wintry sparkle or turn into snow globes. Three now-tattered paper garlands that spell “fa-la-la” and other phrases are sentimental favorites. Her husband, Kwan Chan, surprised her with the garlands early in their marriage so Wendy had something festive in their small basement apartment. “I smile every time I put them up,” she says.
When creating her seasonal wonderland in the house the couple has lived in for two years, Wendy sees herself as a shopkeeper. “I pretend I’m decorating a shop window, but for the enjoyment of us and our guests,” she says. “I like to think of my home as an installation.”
That starts in the entry, where snowflakes accented with fairy lights blanket the staircase. “They’re impactful, but I don’t know if I was going for impact as much as just thinking, Wow, what am I going to do with all these?” she says.
Elsewhere, snowflakes and purchased stars form arches that become magical backdrops for holiday photos of the couple and their friends. Above the dining table, more string lights shine from a canopy Wendy fashioned by cutting and piecing together different lengths of copper pipes.
And while her overall look is artful, it’s also simple and uncluttered—even with hundreds of paper snowflakes. “I have to include them,” Wendy says. “These things have become a big part of my story.”
“I ALWAYS ADD FESTIVE TOUCHES TO MY KITCHEN. EVERYONE SEEMS TO END UP THERE, AND IT MAKES COOKING AND BAKING MORE FUN.” —WENDY LAU
Wendy infuses her home with holiday spirit each year with these simple decorating ideas
1
GET CRAFTY
Easy-to-make papier-mâché mushroom ornaments and pompom garlands, far left, brighten the tree.
2
RETHINK GREENERY
Dried moss appears in displays, left, and serves as table runners, below, near left, and tree skirts. The only fresh greens are a few evergreen sprigs Wendy clips from her yard for accents, such as in her banister snowflake display, far left.
3
EMBRACE FILLER FLOWERS
Wendy’s holiday floral of choice is baby’s breath, left. Typically a bouquet filler, it goes solo in bud vases. “It has that snowflake effect,” she says, and it dries nicely so it has longevity.
4
SHOW SOME HUMOR
Guests know to look for surprises in Wendy’s displays. A mouse dressed as a chef named Gus Gus, above, near left, is one of them. “It’s fun building tiny inside jokes,” Wendy says. “It’s just playful and nonsensical.”