I love this time of year, but to be honest, sometimes it makes me feel claustrophobic in my own home. To the point where on December 26th I’m ready to take the decorations down–and I do! It’s not too merry of me. I was sure there was another way. This year, I really focused on keeping our Christmas decorations non-disruptive of our regular furnishings and decor, but still enough to fill our home with holiday spirit. That meant no trees in the middle of the room, no rearranging furniture to accomodate Christmas decorations and only a few swap outs of regular decor and we struck a perfect balance. I also stuck to the main area of the home (in past years, I also decorated our bedroom, the guest room and the girls’ bedroom, plus the bathrooms!), and discovered once again how far lighting some good holiday scented candles, keeping things squeaky clean and playing holiday music goes–spoiler, a long way! It puts everyone in a good, Christmas spirit almost subconsciously.
In the entry:
A live wreath mixed with faux garland (that would fool anyone!) on the stairwell is a balance I can live with. I love the simplicity of the ribbon we used to tie the garland in place.
Wreath | Wreath hanger | Bells (similar) | Front Door
Faux Garland | Ribbon | Railing | Honeycomb Chandelier
In the reading room:
When we bought this house, I knew that this would be the perfect spot for a Christmas tree, since you can see it from the street. But, as a family, we spend the majority of our time together in the great room. So this room still gets a Christmas tree, but I kept it simple by just stringing a few pompom strands on it (which you can barely see in these photos) and skipping the ornaments. But the shelves I made festive by swapping just a few decor pieces, for little houses and trees (my favorite Christmas theme).
Stockings | Nutcracker | Wooden Trees | Tree | Tree Skirt | Felt Garland | Area Rug | Fur throw | Tree topper | Stocking holders (Target Dollar spot) | Paint Color: Pine Grove by Clark+Kensington
In the Living Room:
The focus of this room is definitely family. Our flocked tree in here is filled to the brim with ornaments attached to memories. Chris and I love to pick up an ornament on every trip we take–we have one from our honeymoon! When I went to Mexico for my sister’s wedding! One I made in a glass blowing class he got me for my birthday one year! The girls’ first ornaments. Charly’s paw print. It’s a really happy, special tree. Besides that, I layered a plaid blanket over the striped one that’s almost always on the arm of our Charly sofa, added a few faux snowballs to the coffee table and put a small faux tree in a basket.
Couch | Rug | Coffee Table | Tray Basket | Snowballs | Navy Velvet Pillow | Green Velvet Pillow | Basket | Small Tree | Flocked Tree | Tree Collar | Wood Metallic Ornaments | Letters to Santa Ornament | Felt Letters Ornaments | Clay Paw Print Ornament | Star Tree Topper
In the Dining Area and Kitchen:
You read about our dining room update in yesterday’s post, but I didn’t touch on the simple branches on our table. They are real, trimmed from a friend’s Christmas tree!, and I love the smell as much as the look in the textured white vase.
We always strive to keep our open shelving functional, so I don’t keep strictly decor on here ever, but I swapped out our normal mixing bowls for a few more festively colored ones (that we use all the time!). On the counter, a cookie jar–a must for this time of year!–another small faux tree and a good candle.
Tree (sold out, similar) | Striped Bowl | Gold Bowl | Wooden Tray | Candle
Something I didn’t get a picture of is our exterior (I’ll try to put one on Instagram at some point)–The girls love exterior lights, so we always line our roof with white lights and wrap one tree in red and one in green. (We actually pay a landscape company to come do it and they do such a good job, plus take them down and store them all year, worth every penny.) That, plus a wreath over each light flanking our garage and we’re good.
How do you decorate for the holidays? Want to know something crazy? This is the first year that I’ve incorporated red into our color scheme! When we had our dark indigo rug, I always felt like red clashed, but now I’m loving the warmth it brings. Hope your home is feeling merry!
How did you like the garland from Lowes? Planning to use it again this year?
It was great! We’ll likely use it on our stairs again.
I love that all of your ornaments are special to you all and are tied to memories and experiences. How did you make sure the ornaments came together well when you were picking them up slowly over several years? They all look so great together!
Honestly, the flocked tree really helps with that. I never think about how they would look together. We have every ornament color, size, material and shape under the sun–but the flocked tree really is a great backdrop for all of them. I also do hang some large round ornaments in gold and white all over the tree and that helps tie it together, too.
My husband and I just made our 1 year anniversary in November and we do the same thing with our ornaments. We get one on every trip we take and just made a paw print ornament of our pup! It’s my favorite thing we do! Love love love your tree! :)
Love love love your family tree. Just want to reach through the screen and hug it. Man i shoulda gone flocked!
I usually feel the same way about our Christmas decorations!!! Totally taking some tips to simplify this year :)
Where did you get the house cookie jar? Did you paint the kitchen shelf brackets? I thought they were gold before.
The brackets have always been stainless. Rejuvenation has some pretty brass ones, but we needed deeper than what they have! The house cookie jar is from Crate and Barrel last year. :/