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It goes without saying that many of us are more excited than usual for Christmas this year. With Christmas 2020 seeing many have to stay at home and avoid seeing family due to coronavirus restrictions, we're all hoping that Christmas 2021 will be a very special celebration, with this year hopefully marking a time when things can return to some kind of normality. It appears Christmas is already on many of our minds, with Retail Week's industry report, The Christmas Forecast, predicting that our Christmas spending patterns will be more reflective of 2019 than 2020.

But, it's not just buying gifts for loved ones that makes Christmas such a special time. Getting ready for Christmas is a time that helps make many of us feel more optimistic and connected to our loved ones, which feels more pertinent than ever this year.

If you're already getting into the festive spirit and thinking about how to decorate your home in a way that you and (hopefully) friends and family can enjoy, we asked 11 experts for their homeware trends predictions for Christmas 2021...

If you're someone who likes to follow a theme throughout all your decorating at Christmas, the biggest trend that is emerging this year is rustic, homemade looks.

"A huge trend we can expect to see is DIY décor," says Emmie Brookman, Creative Director at homeware store, Silver Mushroom. "We've become a nation of crafters and Christmas is a wonderful time to proudly hang our homemade decorations around the house," she says. "If you're not much of a crafter yourself, but love the look of homemade items, fear not, this too will be another big trend this year. The glamorous decorations will switch to a more subtle, stripped back, country style this year using mostly natural materials. For Christmas décor the trendiest pieces will be made from wood, feathers, pine cones and even dried fruit!"

Ashley Baker, Senior Interior Designer at Vesta, a firm of interior designers, echoes that DIY trends will be popular. "Expect to see garlands made from dried oranges, foliage & berries and other handmade items for décor," she says. "As Christmas 2020 lacked friends & family, there will be an emphasis on décor that brings people together. We will be more focused on creating experiences together which is why DIY décor and group activities will be even more popular."

The Christmas table is one of the centrepieces of your home; a blank canvas for you to decorate and enjoy serving Christmas dinner on.

Sustainability will be a big trend for the dinner table, according to Good Housekeeping's Deputy Homes and Interiors Editor, James Cunningham. "Think re-usable crackers (try the fabric designs at NotOnTheHighStreet), recycled glassware and handmade or hand-finished dinner plates," he says. "You can also consider re-purposing last year's Christmas cards as placeholders and use foraged pinecones to hold them."

For a new take on a classic Christmas table, James suggests opting for snow white shades with frosted silver and clear glass. "This colour combination creates a beautifully elegant look that will be popular on this year's table," he says.

Alex Head, Founder of catering company, Social Pantry, adds that personalisation will be a big trend around the Christmas table this year. "Add a personal touch to your table to make your guests feel extra special this Christmas," she says. "Whether you want to push the boat out with a velvet ribbon or napkin that has your guests' initials embroidered on or keep it simpler with a hand-written place name and menu or fun photo at each place, your effort will be appreciated as guests never get tired of a personalised gift."

When you think about Christmas, the traditional colours that come to mind are red, green and gold.

When it comes to Christmas 2021, expect twists on old favourites. "A trend that's on the up is burnished berry tones," says Good Housekeeping's James Cunningham. "Pair shades of raspberry, plum and grape with décor that features gold detailing. It's a dramatic, sophisticated look that's a move on from the classic red and gold."

There will also be a focus on nature-themed colours, according to Beth Greer, owner of Ivy&Bee Interiors. "We're predicting this year's Christmas 2021 colour trends to have a focus on earthy, muted tones," she explains. "Our customers are shopping more consciously with a renewed sense of appreciation for nature. We're seeing an increase in demand for artisanal decorations, gifts and tableware sourced from sustainable materials; offering an overall more sophisticated feel with softer, more natural tones."

No Christmas is complete without a wreath. Whether you put yours on the front door or prefer to look at it inside your home, a wreath is a beautiful way to get you feeling festive. Many people also opt to display beautiful blooms inside their homes, too, especially as a centrepiece on the Christmas table.

So, just what colours and types of foliage can we expect to see this year? "We are seeing two very strong and very different themes this Christmas," says Kate Kern, Head Florist at Maison de Fleurs. "Firstly, a very natural, neutral, home grown look, and secondly - on completely the other end of the spectrum - a very modern, contemporary, almost embracing the unexpected look."

Kate predicts that both these trends will be available in florists come Christmas. "This Christmas for our collection we are doing a little bit of both," she explains. "We have created wreaths and garlands that embrace the best of British; gorgeous natural foliage intertwined around dried fruits all in very neutral colours - creams, whites, beige, light pinks etc. We are also embracing a bit of the magical as well; we are using real succulents in one of our wreaths! They are such a lovely addition to a wreath; they really bring it to life and add that special touch of unexpected magic."

Lighting is another way to bring festive cheer to your home, be it inside or outside.

With Christmas 2021 set to, depending on the situation, be a time when we can once again see friends and family, get ready to reminisce on the good times when it comes to lighting design. "Nostalgia is a key theme for this Christmas, with the use of old festive trinkets, retro tree lights and vintage styles capturing the joy of the season perfectly," says Lucy Kirk, Creative and Photography Manager at lighting store, Lights4fun.

If you're looking for lighting for your garden, 2021 is the year to go all out to bring joy to neighbours and visitors. This year, animal lights will be particularly popular. "From large stags to charming acrylic penguins, style these together to create a heart-warming display to be enjoyed throughout the Christmas period," says Lucy.

One theme stands out for Christmas 2021 when it comes to cards and wrapping paper: sustainability.

Over the last few years, interest in sustainability appears to have grown, with people now searching for cards, wrapping paper and even gifts that are sustainable in some way. Smaller retailers and bigger brands, like Paperchase, have put emphasis on selling sustainable cards and wrapping paper. "Sustainability is a huge focus for us this year," says Katie Leamon, founder of her own luxury stationery brand. "We are focused on the theme of being as environmentally friendly as possible at a time of year that can otherwise seem rather frivolous, so our cards are all made from recycled coffee cups otherwise destined for landfill, and all our inks and wraps are 100% recyclable," she says.

Gifting can be hard at the best of times, especially when you're looking for that friend or family member who is notoriously hard to shop for!

Experiences, whether big or small, will be at the forefront of many people's minds when it comes to gifting this year. "With many families and friends having spent last Christmas apart due to an unexpected second lockdown, this year people will be looking to make up for lost time and make it truly magical," says Richard Hurd-Wood, CEO at Virgin Experience Days.

With the coronavirus drastically changing how we see and interact with our loved ones, the way we gift is changing. "One key expected Christmas trend is the post-Pandemic desire to get out and do things," says Shaun Powell, CEO at Find Me A Gift. "People have had enough of being at home and so want exciting experience gifts."

Richard Hurd-Wood echoes this sentiment. "Even at the peak of lockdown, the appetite for experience gifts remained strong," he says. "Over 250,000 experiences were sold during Christmas 2020 - from digital experiences like cocktail classes and chocolate making kits to gifting experiences where people could reconnect when lockdown eased in the following months."

Experts also predict that fans of more traditional gifts will keep supporting their favourite shops on the high street. Moreover, if this Christmas follows trends from 2020, people will continue to support small and local businesses, too. Research by eBay found that, when Christmas shopping, nearly six in 10 of us are keen to support local businesses."Shopping locally has a huge benefit to the local economy, local jobs and communities - as well as providing a great source of individual or unique buys," explains Caroline Bloor, Consumer Affairs Director at Good Housekeeping. "Local shops often source goods nearby which means they are reducing their carbon footprint and you are making your shopping habits more sustainable, too. Look for campaigns like Small Business Saturday, on the first weekend of December, to help find and support shops near you."

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11 experts on the most popular trends for Christmas 2021

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It goes without saying that many of us are more excited than usual for Christmas this year. With Christmas 2020 seeing many have to stay at home and avoid seeing family due to coronavirus restrictions, we're all hoping that Christmas 2021 will be a very special celebration, with this year hopefully marking a time when things can return to some kind of normality.

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Nearly 4,000 Mississippi K-12 students tested positive for the coronavirus last week and over 24,000 students, teachers and staff were quarantined after possible exposure to COVID-19.

Mississippi State Department of Health's Tuesday report added the numbers were impacted by Hurricane Ida and school closures.

Of 669 schools reporting from 71 of Mississippi's 82 counties, there were 330 COVID-19 outbreaks in schools statewide between Aug. 23 to 27, according to the health department's Tuesday report. The 23,450 students in quarantine make up over 5% of the public school population.

Since the school year began, there have been over 880 total coronavirus outbreaks in schools. More than 13,700 students have tested positive for the virus.

From Aug. 16 to 20, the Mississippi State Department of Health reported over 28,000 students in quarantine statewide, accounting for 6.5% of the public school population. In that week, over 5,700 new COVID-19 cases were among students. Over 900 teachers and staff tested positive and 1,100 were quarantined.
Aug 16-20: Over 30K Miss. students, teachers, staff quarantined after possible COVID-19 exposure
On Tuesday, the Children's Foundation of Mississippi published data on children and COVID-19 that showed increasing infections in young people since the virus crept into the state in March 2020.

The first week of August 2020, average hospitalizations for Mississippi children with COVID-19 was below five. This August, the average was around 15. According to the report, August 2021 brought the highest number of coronavirus-related pediatric hospitalizations.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center, which has the state's only pediatric hospital, had 22 pediatric patients with COVID-19 on Tuesday morning.

State health officials have contributed the rapid rise to the lack of a mask mandate for schools combined with the highly contagious delta variant. The Children's Foundation data noted mask-wearing to be 80% effective in quelling the spread of COVID-19.

Along with mask-wearing, health officials have urged young Mississippians who are eligible - those 12 and older - to get vaccinated. Around 20% of those 12 to 15 years old are fully vaccinated, while 25% of people 16 and 17 have gotten the shot, health department data showed Tuesday.

Since the start of the pandemic, the Mississippi State Department of Health has recorded 12,711 cases in infants to 4-year-olds and 58,119 infections in people 5-17.
No curriculum for heartbreak: Have a health story? Or a health-related tip? Send it along to shaselhorst@gannett.com, on Twitter at @HaselhorstSarah or call 601-331-9307. Smith County 8th grader who died of COVID-19 leaves imprint
A total of six Mississippi children have died of coronavirus-related causes.

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Over 23,000 K-12 Mississippi students in quarantine after COVID-19 exposure between Aug. 23-27

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Nearly 4,000 Mississippi K-12 students tested positive for the coronavirus last week and over 24,000 students, teachers and staff were quarantined after possible exposure to COVID-19. Mississippi State Department of Health's Tuesday report added the numbers were impacted by Hurricane Ida and school closures.

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Mackenzie Collins

Turkeyfoot Valley

Though it is different in every area, I truly believe athletes do receive special treatment. Whether it is football or softball, many rules are bent for those students. Some examples are if they had a late practice and could not get their assignments done, the teachers would push back the deadline. Also, if the student-athletes are beginning to receive bad grades, they are given free tutoring to boost it up. Just to make sure they are eligible to play. If a regular student were to ask to get extra time to do their work, the most obvious answer would be that they would not extend the deadline. Another special treatment is that they do get away with more. I have seen it myself. Either they were being disrespectful to an adult or bullying other students. These actions were just put off because they did not want them to get in trouble, which would make them ineligible. I think it is wrong for athletes to receive special treatment just because they are fantastic at a sport. They are still regular students, they should be treated as such.

Amy Lorence

Somerset

Student athletes are widely recognized around the school for the sports that they play. These student athletes receive attention from the community and their fellow classmates. Sports games can draw people in from everywhere to watch. Other extracurricular activities like quiz team or forensics do not get the same publicity that sports teams receive, which may bring some people to the conclusion that athletes get special treatment and more attention. However, I believe that student athletes do not receive special treatment while in school but instead are held to a higher standard than some of their classmates. Athletes must maintain good grades while devoting their time after school to games and practices. Student athletes do not receive better grades than others just because they play a sport, but instead have more than is expected of them from not just their teachers, but also their coaches. Although student athletes may be perceived as superior from their peers around the school because of the popularity of their sport, receiving special treatment from teachers or administrators is not guaranteed.

Hannah Platt

Shanksville

In my opinion, athletes receive special treatment in school environments. For instance, if an athlete cheats on a test and is caught, the teacher may bend the rules to help that person out. This doesn't happen often, but if the student is a key part of the team the teacher may let the student off with a warning. The teacher might give out extra credit points to boost the grade or may even allow the student to retake the test. I have witnessed a student athlete cheating before, and when the student cheated and got caught, they got to retake the test instead of automatically failing. This really only depends if the teacher is strict or not and how valuable the player is to the team. If a non-athlete student cheats on a test, he/she typically automatically fail depending upon the teacher's criteria for cheating. Another example of special treatment toward the athletes is when athletes get home late from a game. Sometimes they may be allowed to come to school late to get some sleep. I have been a part of a two-hour delay for athletes before because we got home at midnight.

This doesn't happen every time the athlete would get home late, but it might've happened on occasion. The non-athletes on the other hand, have to get up and go to school at normal times.

Finally some teachers allow student athletes to go to the gym during study halls to practice if they have a game that day. Last year, I went to the gym almost every day to put up quality shots before my basketball game. Non-athletes would get upset because they would have to stay in study hall because they wouldn't have a reason to go to the gym. These instances show that athletes sometimes don't realize they are getting special treatment, until it is brought to their attention.

Kira Labosky

Windber

In George Orwell's well-known allegorical satire "Animal Farm," the farm rules state, "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." At this point in the text, the animals truly recognize that the concept of equality does not exist. Sadly, this concept is also true in the American high school system, especially in regards to the treatment of students and student athletes. Pep rallies are frequently held in honor of school sports but almost never held in honor of academic or extracurricular activities or achievements. Student athletes also receive more media attention than students involved in non-athletic activities. When a sports team wins a championship or important game, it garners congratulatory newspaper articles and billboards; however, when an extracurricular activity achieves first place in a competition, many people will not hear about it. With sports seemingly taking precedence over extracurricular and academic achievements, it is understandable why student athletes and teams may seem to receive special treatment in the school environment.

Emily Rosenberger

Meyersdale

I believe that athletes do get special treatment in school environments. Some athletes may be exempt from certain rules and may not receive a fair punishment for violating those rules. For example, an athlete and non-athlete may break the same rule, but the athlete will receive a lesser punishment. A reason that athletes may receive special treatment is because athletes spend more time with the teachers who have volunteered to be coaches. Because these students spend more time with teachers outside of the classroom, they get to know each other better and form a bond that goes beyond classroom walls. The athletes and teachers/coaches get to share their love and passion for the sport they are participating in. As a result of this bond, a perception may be made that student athletes obtain special treatment when accommodations are made for student athletes.

Sable Leone

Salisbury-Elk Lick

I believe that athletes do receive special treatment in school environments. Here at Salisbury-Elk Lick Junior/Senior High School, almost everyone is expected to participate in at least one sport because of our small number of students. The students who don't participate in sports are somewhat shamed by the school population. Even those students who aren't athletic and prefer to express themselves through the arts or academics are shamed and pressured into participating in a school sport constantly throughout the year even if they have made the claim that they don't want to. Athletes are given academic leniency as well as free school merchandise. Teachers sometimes excuse late assignments or give extensions to those in sports. I don't think that any student should be treated differently if they participate in school sports or not, but there is definitely a visible bias toward student athletes in my school.

Abby Stoltzfus

Berlin

I believe that athletes receive better treatment within the school environment but not to the extent that the media may portray it to be. Athletes obviously don't get complete control and freedom over every action, but they do receive some special treatment. Often times because of some sport-related achievement, they will be rewarded to a degree that can feel almost unfair to other students. It could be a teacher overlooking a tardy arrival or helping to make sure a student has good enough grades to play out on the field. When one student tries his or her very hardest on an assignment and turns it in on time, an athlete might be handing it in late the next day without any repercussions. It seems that staff members forget that some students may have after school activities unrelated to sports.Although most teachers try their best to ensure complete equality, there can be exceptions made to athletes by some staff. Overall, the Berlin school district is a pleasant and fair educational institution that provides an unrivaled program to its students despite the occasional slips of inequality among athletes and non-athletes.

Emma Ream

Rockwood

As far as high school goes, student-athletes are not given special treatment. Teachers do no care if there is a game that day far away and students will not return home until way into the night. They expect the homework to be done either way. One could argue that when a student is dismissed early during a period, they had a test, that it is unfair to the kids that had to take that test that day. The faculty have no part in giving that student an advantage over the others. Student-athletes must juggle practice, games, schoolwork and home life all at the same time. Without a doubt, there is no special treatment given to student-athletes at the high school level; athletes are expected to earn those A's the same way a student who is not involved with after school activities would.

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Question of the week: Are student athletes treated differently?

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Though it is different in every area, I truly believe athletes do receive special treatment. Whether it is football or softball, many rules are bent for those students. Some examples are if they had a late practice and could not get their assignments done, the teachers would push back the deadline.