since Christmas is officially one week away, i thought i'd share a few of my favorite Christmas decorations with yall! the house is so festive at Christmas, which i think is why january is so sad and boring. oh well, we'll enjoy it while it lasts!
here's a picstitch i did on instagram a few weeks back when we first got our tree and decorated the house. michael is 100% the master of outside decorating, so i can take credit for little to none of that. we did a lighted garland with bows on our porch railing, 2 wreaths with bows in the front windows, and lined the inside of the upstairs windows with lights.
as for the tree, it's real, which is a tradition i really wanted to have with our family. we love the angel on top :) we use clear lights and mismatched ornaments that we've collected.
we also started a tradition of having the place where we buy our tree saw off about 1" ring from the bottom of the trunk. we let it dry, write the year on it, drill a hole, and hang it on the tree with a ribbon. i'm hoping to do that every year-how cool would a tree full of just tree trunk ornaments be one day??
these are some sweet little glitter deer that i picked up at target last year. i love them! i also have some Christmas coasters made from cocktail napkins and modpodge (so smart) that i got as a gift forever ago. they've held up really well!
this is our Christmas mantle...excuse the iPad, which is used for blaring music before i get home from work. :) the L and K stockings are for the pups, of course. we have plain brown stocking holders, but when we fill up the stockings they tend to tip over. the "noel" blocks on top of the holders are actually candles that we usually keep in our downstairs bathroom, but they look so cute on the mantle! (thanks hubby) also, the "noel" has actually been living as "leon" thanks to my brother, who for 2 years now, changes it. not gonna lie, it makes me laugh every time.
every house needs mistletoe! this little archway between our downstairs bathroom/closet and dining room is the perfect spot. i just tack it up there with a clear push pin.
i think nutcrackers are really cool Christmas decorations. we only have 2 so far, but i hope to have a whole nutcracker army one day. (by the way, why are they always soldiers?) anyway, they look super cute protecting our wedding photos in the living room.
these little trees sit at the far end of our mantle, and i love how bright they are. our mantle and fireplace are both black, so it needs some color. the stockings plus these trees is perfect! i picked these up last year at black lion.
our staircase gets a simple lighted garland with some neon green glitter bows at each end.
for our formal dining room table, i keep our usual bamboo placemats down, but i put Christmas-themed ones on top. that saves all the hassle of switching out everything on the table. the bamboo placemats are pier 1, and the Christmas ones are from target. the white table runner is from homegoods.
in the middle of the table, there's a blue tray that usually holds the candles you see below. for Christmas this year, i just took a cute plaid dish towel and put it on top of the tray. along with the usual candles, i added a gold gift box that i've had for a few years. simple but fun!
another shot of the tree (not lit). i went with gold and silver wrapping this year, which turned out really well! (minus the glitter that's covering literally everything in our house)
last but not least, a sweet beachy wreath that my friend jill made me last year. this hangs on the inside of our front door so you can see it from the living room. i love the green color, and it's original! can't beat that.
7 days and counting!
