Holiday House Tour – Come See The Christmas Decorating
I do not know why I am consistently compelled to start these holiday house tour posts by type-shouting “SMILING’S MY GO-TO” but there I have already gone and done it. ‘Tis the season. Moving on. Here is how we decked our proverbial halls for Christmas this year. As you may have heard in last week’s podcast, we are continuing last year’s mission to simplify our holiday decorations. We still want our home to feel festive, but in a way that does not feel too crowded and overwhelming (or take too crazy long to set up and take down). So the living room is fairly much simply all about the tree and the mantle.
sofa / side tables / chairs / round marble table / blinds / ottoman / similar lamps & TV table
The tree is an artificial one that we have had for over five years. It has some of the most realistic looking branches we have laid eyes on when it comes to fake trees, but at this point most of its original light strands are burnt out (we had a good run!) and last year we gave up trying to fix them (Sherry spent 30 minutes hunting down the wrong bulb only to replace it and watch the whole strand blow out again ten minutes later). So at this point it is mostly lit with these strands from Target.
It took a few tests to find lights that matched the warm-ish color temperature of the original bulbs (all the LED versions were too blue looking) so we have hoarded a few extra boxes for down the road. The ornaments are all a mish-mash of sentimental and homemade items we have collected over the years and I think this year was the most lively the kids have had helping us decorate it. Perhaps because they are at last both old sufficient that Sherry and I are shouting “BE CAREFUL!” and “DO NOT TOUCH THAT ONE, IT CAN BREAK!” less and less throughout the process.
Christmas tree / similar rug / similar tree skirts / similar stocking / garland / similar mirror
Our typically colorful fireplace (which you can see in last year’s holiday house tour) is more subdued this year, thanks to Sherry’s greenery kick and this faux magnolia garland she picked up a few months ago. She noticed it looked a little dark up there at first, so she brought in some ceramic white houses we have had for a few years (these are similar – ours are in fact ornaments with the hangers cut off) and some battery operated fairy lights to bring some lightness to the mantle.
faux magnolia garland / similar stockings / battery powered lights / similar ceramic houses / similar mirror
We did pepper in some nods to the season on the living room bookcases too, but they are straightforward to miss at first glance. I in fact did not notice the mouse until I uploaded this photo (which I took!). Let us play a little game of Where’s Waldo (Waldo the mouse, not that guy in the striped shirt).
Those small figurines are hand-me-downs from Sherry’s mom and it takes everything in Sherry’s power to not keep them out all year (miniatures are her true weakness in life). The holiday “terrarium” is a Hands-on project from a few years ago and we picked up the pink wooden trees at the gift shop of our local botanical garden last year during an office Christmas party (not our office – that would simply be weird – it was for the ad agency where I consult).
pink trees / gold frame / holiday shadow box / our book ;)
The kitchen is also showing some holiday restraint this year. We are using the area under the floating shelves to house the wooden house advent calendar Sherry picked up from the Magnolia collection at Target. I will be honest that we were a little perplexed as to how to in fact use it as an advent calendar. Do you pull the “block of the day” out front as you count down? Move a little bow from house to house as you go? We chose simply to turn them all around to hide the numbers and flip them to reveal each one as we go.
advent calendar / paper flowers / green candle / gold frame / shelf brackets
Hilariously sufficient, the description on the Target website does not even seem to acknowledge that it is an advent calendar – and weirdly suggests gluing them into their storage box (???). Guess there are plenty of ways to use this thing.
Sherry did pepper some ornaments and greenery elsewhere in the kitchen, though. And yes, we have officially jumped on the letterboard bandwagon thanks to our friend Mandi at Vintage Revivals who surprised us with this one. You can get them on Amazon or on her site (where there is a buy-2-get-1-free deal with the code FREEGIFT). We have been planning to take it the beach house, but chose we’d have some lively with it here first. Home Alone anyone?
letterboard / similar cutting board / blinds / page-a-day calendar
The K.I.S.S. greenery theme continues in the foyer (that stands for “keep it plain stupid” and not the face painted heavy metal band who famously flaunt their tongues). It does not take much to get that wintery feeling in here, since the white-on-white stuff with all those layered textures already feels fairly cozy, so Sherry simply brought in an evergreen branch and a white feather tree. I am glad to report that this vignette can last us well through winter, so do not be surprised if you still see it hanging around in March.
similar baskets / similar acrylic table / similar white feather tree / large glass vase / similar mirror
We also referenced Sherry’s hoard of bottle brush trees in last week’s podcast and this year she chose to cluster them in the office since they are so colorful. It works well because that room is fairly busy (both visually and literally) so they fit right in.
similar bottle brush trees // round mirror / parsons desk / bookcase
Nothing truly happens upstairs except for a few mini trees. My personal go-to is the one that sits in the bonus room, because it glows from down the hall and we can see it from outside in the driveway too. This is a photo from last year (forgive me) but it looks fairly much exactly the same this year. We boxed everything up together when we packed it away last year (the tree, its ornaments, and even the extension cord) so setting it up was straightforward and fast.
similar rug / vintage rocker / similar tree / sofa / globe
This is another photo from last year (gasp!) but again, it is nearly identical this season. It is our daughter’s artificial tree that we brought in several years ago when she was old sufficient to handle the “responsibility” of her own little tree (aka: do not pull ornaments off and put them in your mouth or attempt to hang them on the dog). The tree came with its own little plastic pot at the base, but Sherry likes to slide it into one of her woven baskets (that she painted) which looks extra cheerful.
similar lidded basket / similar tree / quote art / door color: BM Cinco De Mayo
What is new this year is our son’s tree, since he can at last be trusted with one of his own. He picked out this green tinsel tree himself ($8? sold!) because, well, he’s three and it was simply about the coolest thing he’d ever seen. Scratch that – it was the coolest thing he’d ever seen once we brought in a string of colored LED lights to it. Each year we let the kids pick out some new soft ornaments for the shared tree in the bonus room, but we let him sneak his go-to one (this knitted wreath, which he lovingly calls his “Christmas Donut”) onto his tree, along with some shatterproof balls.
dragon & gorilla baskets / similar woven baskets / similar rug / tree / lights / bookcase
I will admit it makes me feel a little Scrooge-y to keep talking about pulling back on our holiday decor, but as Sherry said in the podcast: we are truly simply trying to focus on the decorations that make us all the happiest, and cut out the parts that seem more labor than enjoy. Everyone enjoyed putting up ornaments this year, so we focused on the trees. Sherry’s go-to pun of her whole life is “boots with the fir” – so those fir-stuffed boots landed on the porch with glee. And she loves going wreath making with the girls, so she made this hilariously giant one this year (which you likely saw on Instagram).
similar wreath / red boots / welcome mat / fake trees in those black pots (yes they are fake!) / door color: BM Blue Lake
And, well, I enjoy my shed. So while Sherry was off wrestling half of planet earth’s magnolia leaves onto a single wreath, I picked up a few strands of colorful LEDs and some roof clips to bring some cheer to my little home away from home. I am not brave sufficient to attempt this on our real roof, but I thought this would be a lively way to dress up the backyard without being 30′ from the ground.
Plus, the kids are especially into rainbow lights this year, so it felt like the ideal place to deviate from the all-white lights that live in the front yard. Methinks it might need some more though. Perhaps next year!
In fact, the main thing on our list for next year is an artificial tree for the beach house. We do not think we are going to be there sufficient this season to truly make it worth it, but you can bet your britches I am gonna be hunting down a discounted artificial tree on the 26th to have there next year! Perhaps even an extra tall one since we have 9′ ceilings downstairs in there.
And for good measure, let us wrap this post up with a little “Get The Look” mood board that Sherry put together. It is not a comprehensive list since so many of our decorations are a few years old, but we did our best to find comparable items and to link to the exact things we have & enjoy whenever we could (like the magnolia garland, a few of our ornaments, our new advent calendar, and yes, that is our exact tree in the middle).
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18
Glad holidays everyone!
Psst- Want more holiday posts and ideas? Here are a bunch of holiday & entertaining posts from years past.
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