Christmas 2017

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  I love the spirit, the traditions, the lights, the decorations, and especially the Christmas tree.  Every year I start to decorate our home during Thanksgiving week.  I like to have the decorations up early to get into holiday spirit.  (Come January 2nd I’m ready to put everything away though.)

For the entryway, I used a mixture of faux and live wreaths.

I love the look of a simple live wreath with beautiful ribbon.  It’s also a bonus that it’s budget friendly (especially when you buy the ribbon on sale).

I took the below picture at night, right before our friends came over for dinner.  I love the look of candles on every step.  I will admit that it’s a bit of a task to light them all up so I only light them when we have guests over.  Do the glass containers look familiar?  Recycling is awesome.

I like to take my existing things and move them around to give them an entirely different look and feel.  The bonus part is that it’s super cheap.  It looks new but it was free.  😉

I usually keep my blue and white vases in our family room, but I moved them to the entryway and added some festive decorations to give it a wintery look.

I really dislike wrapping presents and I usually go on a crazy wrapping bender all at once when it’s nearly Christmas.  I thought I’d try something different this year in an effort to make the process of wrapping more fun.  I wrapped the presents ahead of time, taking great care in the folds and adding ribbon, and whatnot, so that I could use them as decorations throughout the house.

Yes, I already have my Christmas shopping done.  I was home sick on Thanksgiving day (which sucked) so I took advantage of the boredom and shopped from the couch.

I set up a “make your own cocoa” station on the kitchen table.  The only downside to this idea is that I want to sneak a marshmallow (or 7) whenever I pass by.  (If you want to call that a downside.  😉 )

I added faux swags to the kitchen end chairs.  I bought them last year but this year I added a berry pick to give them a different look.

This manager is very special to me.  It was the one my parents used when I was a kid and they have passed it down to me.  While I love having a manager under the tree, you can’t see it very well due to the way our furniture is arranged.  This year I’ve given it a spot of its very own.

This year’s mantel and fireplace is my favorite that I’ve ever done.  I might have gone a little crazy with the red berries (or so my husband says).

Hello, Santa.  I bought him this year from the Home Goods store.

I really love the combo of wrapping papers that I picked this year.  I bought all the wrapping paper from TJMaxx.

I love the pops of red on the fireplace.  It’s so festive.  🙂

I always keep the decorations on the cocktail table and end tables very simple.  We spend most of our time in this room and less clutter means less things in the way of everyday life (i.e. in the way of our TV or things that prevent the signal from the remote getting to the cable box).

You can’t go wrong with candles.  They add warmth to any room.  If you like candles that actually smell when you light them, then I recommend the ones from Bath and Body Works.  I love the cinnamon scented one, but they appear to be sold out of it.  If you’re looking for an evergreen scented one then I highly recommend their fresh balsam scented candle.  I’m very, very picky with candles that try to smell like Christmas trees and this one is really good.

There’s a sneak peak of our tree!

Blankets and pillows add fun textures to the decor.  How cute is this llama dude?!  I had to buy him when I saw him at TJMaxx.  He spoke to me.  😉

More presents, which do have real gifts inside.  😉  The best part is that when people open them, I have fewer decorations to put away.  Total victory!

The piece de resistance is our Christmas tree.  It’s my favorite decoration by far.  There is something about coming home to a Christmas tree with all of its lights and ornaments that puts a smile on my face.

In case you are wondering, this tree is live.  Every year since my husband and I have been married, we go pick out our tree.  (I just love traditions.)  This one is about 10.5 feet tall.

Decorating this tree is no small task.  It takes us all day but it’s worth it.  I always have Christmas music or movies playing when we decorate the tree.  (More traditions.  😉 )  My husband is in charge of putting the lights on the tree and he always does an amazing job.  He prefers colored lights and I prefer white lights so we alternate them every other year.   Once the lights are on, I load up the tree with a variety of ornaments that we’ve collected over the years.  I usually can’t use them all because I end up running out of strong enough branches before I run out of ornaments.

I hope you have a warm holiday season filled with love (and yummy food)!