I’m finally here, all decorated for Christmas and breathing a sigh of relief. I had planned to post on one room each day leading up to the home tour, but didn’t get it all done in time. I know I’ve said this numerous times in the last month, but I wasn’t prepared for how this pregnancy would affect my energy levels and change the way I planned for Christmas. What I normally would accomplish in one weekend has taken two weeks and it greatly scaled back. If you are here from The Nester, thanks for coming and I hope you enjoy the tour!
For the outside, I don’t usually use lights. My house is old and there are barely any original interior outlets, much less outdoor ones. Rigging up electricity for the porch is sometimes a dangerous feat! Instead, I usually hang wreaths on each of the seven windows, but always decorate them differently each year. One year it was bright red ribbon, another year were sparkly floral picks. Last year, I used burlap ribbon and acorns. This year I added various fresh greens and metal stockings.
Here is close up of a few vignettes on the porch. I wired the metal stockings on the two window wreaths that flank our front door and filled them with greenery. Since I’m notorious for killing plants of every kind, I don’t waste my money on things that have to be cared for when it’s too cold to go outside! Instead, I add oasis inside these big urns and use clippings from the yard to fill them up. This year I used loropetalum, boxwood, magnolia leaves, holly berries and fir trimmings. I also added large faux acorns and a few pine cones. I’m really happy with how they turned out and I CAN’T kill them… they’re already dead!
Above are photos from the living and dining room. This is the last year we’ll have a “spare room” at our house, so we took the opportunity to move our dining furniture into what will be Sophie’s room and got the tallest, fattest tree that would fit in our dining room. It is beautiful and this is the first time since we’ve been married that we had enough room to hang every ornament that we own on the tree.
I added a few stacks of red books to our niche, along with Ella’s gingerbread house and we used small green trees on the buffet, breakfast table and side tables. I love our family tree being just beyond the arch – we can see it when we walk in the front door, can enjoy it from the couch when we’re watching tv and there will be plenty of room on Christmas morning to open presents and play with our toys. Instead of a tree skirt this year, I used a quilt that my grandmother made and we wrapped it around the base. I didn’t have any lower branches trimmed from the tree, so we’ve put all of our wrapped gifts on the bookshelves behind the tree. I’m using all red and white paper for the gifts this year and I love how pretty they look!
Ella just recently started attending Sunday School a month or so ago and we love all of the crafts she brings home. Last week she made this sweet nativity scene that we have sitting on our breakfast table.
The kitchen is probably our least decorated room, but I did add a few fun touches for Ella. We’ve got metal presents on top of the fridge with Ella’s red wagon and some greenery. I wanted to put lights up there, too, but I can tell you that watching a pregnant woman attempt to move a refrigerator in order to plug in lights is a comedic event not to be rivaled. I didn’t bother asking SD to help when he got home! We have a small tree on a cake plate on the counter, Santa salt & pepper shakers and cream & sugar and even Scout {our elf} managed to brighten the kitchen today by hanging out in the candy jar.
Here is our one and only bathroom. It is mostly white with black & white toile wallpaper and a bright green dresser for storage. I used all of my silver Christmas trees and a small green tinsel tree with red and green ornaments. I love the lime and red together!
In our room the only decorations are a length of garland along the mantel and the bookcases. I added fat white lights, gold ribbon, silver beads and sparkly ornaments. I love laying in bed at night and reading with these lights on. SD & I have always had some kind of lighted garland in our bedroom during the holidays and we lovingly refer to it as the “Christmas Spirit.”
I’ve already shared these photos, but thought I’d add them to the Christmas tour anyway. This is the white tree in Ella’s room and we decorate it with pink, white and silver ornaments each year. We used two pink tutus instead of a tree skirt and topped it with a tiny silver star tree topper. Also in her room are pink snowman sheets and fluffy, white feather wreaths on each of her three windows. She loves having Christmas lights in her room, but was disappointed when she realized her tree was “tiny.”
And last, but not least are our Christmas stockings. I bought these just after Ella was born and we added Sophie’s stocking last week when we found out she was a Sophie. Sometimes I wonder if I’d prefer more grown-up stockings, but these remind me so much of the ones we had as children and my little ballerina loves hers so much!
Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you enjoy these decorations as much as we are and come back to visit again soon. Make sure to click the link at the beginning of this post to visit The Nester’s site and enjoy many more beautiful Christmas decorations.
