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Holiday Decorating At The House & The Beach House

Room Styling

Holiday Front Porch With Garland And Faux Trees

Wanna see how we decorated our house (and the beach house) for Christmas? We have a ton of photos for you, so let us get right into it. Since we got an entirely new exterior for Christmas (literally all I hoped for Christmas was a white brick house, ha!) we had so much lively trying some new things out front.

We did some plain warm white exterior LEDs (why are those so hard to find?!) on the trees on each side of the door. Remember I upgraded those to these larger faux ones because I cannot kill them and the taller height looks nicer on the porch with all the white brick. Those pots are in fact the same ones we have had for 4+ years… I simply spray painted them “Copper Rose” by Rustoleum (built in primer for the win – took about 30 minutes tops). Oh and we switched out the lights by the door for these slightly wider & bigger ones.

And of course I brought in my magnolia wreath that I make at this lively Wine & Wreath event that I go to with some of my go-to ladies every year (and every year my wreath gets bigger… I am learning to let go you folks). This year we also brought in two fresh 14′ evergreen garlands from Trader Joe’s (simply $7.99 each!) and I gotta say, we enjoy the real greenery so much that I think that’ll be an annual tradition right along with my wreath-making pilgrimage (John strung up some more of the same warm white LEDs in there and we put the garland lights and the potted plants on the same automatic timer so they switch on and off every night on their own).

Other than that we simply have our go-to LED battery candles in all of the front windows (more timers for the win! no running around turning them on and off every night – they are fully autopilot!). We debated adding some more lights to the bushes and I am not gonna lie, I campaigned hard for these white deer for the porch… but John was simply not that into them. So while the exterior decorations do not exactly rival the Griswolds, we do have FOUR CHRISTMAS TREES INSIDE (!!!) so our Christmas spirit is still alive and well.

I cannot wait to take a picture of the house all covered in the ultimate holiday decoration… snow! I might simply lose my mind when I see it blanketed in fluffy white stuff for the first time. So, picture of that to come!

We also grabbed one more of those fresh 14′ garlands from Trader Joe’s to hang around the windows in the kitchen, which only took a few minutes (we simply tapped a small picture nail into the top of the molding on each side of the window – which is also how we hung the one outside around the door surround). They are such small nails that we put into the quite top of the trim in both cases, so they are in short invisible. So lazy me is debating simply leaving them there year-round so they are ready to hold garland each December.

I also tucked a few of my go-to little holiday things around the house, like these pink wooden trees that I got a few years back, which I stuck together in a group on our living room built-ins.

I kept the mantel plain this year with one of my go-to big pink bottle brush trees (it is from Target years ago but here is a similar one). I also brought in a pink mercury glass tree that I picked up (one of my only holiday buys this year – they are simply so sweet I could not resist – and they have little lights inside that glow thanks to two small batteries in the base).

On the other side of the mantel is a little faux flower pot that I got perhaps 6 months ago at Target (they did not sell them as holiday decor – I think they were in fact out in the spring) but they look so festive with their red & green (and pink – ha!) tones to me. And then I dragged in this pink vase I got perhaps a year ago (sadly no longer sold) and brought in a little strand of battery lights to the inside because DANG IT IS SO CUTE balancing out the glowing pink tree on the other side of the mantel.

This is the exact tree we have (I think, they keep moving the link & changing the name) and it has not had a “theme” in years. We simply pile it full of handmade ornaments from the kids and friends and things we have made ourselves (like these silhouette & handprint ornaments and these made from kid-art along with ornaments we have collected over the years, or during our travels. Viva la mish-mash!

The kids’ stockings are the same ones I got a few years back (here are some similar ones). Each year I add little elephant chains (random alert!) simply because it is a lively pop of color and hey, if I cannot get John to go for leopard print stockings, at least I can get some sassy little elephants in there.

Over in the dining room I grouped my remaining bottle brush trees (all collected over the years – here are some similar ones) on our old green sideboard and called it good.

But about those four Christmas trees I mentioned… while we are fairly minimal with most holidays (like zero decor for Saint Patrick’s Day or Valentine’s Day or Thanksgiving) I think Christmas is simply our fav. And I cannot tell you how much we enjoy seeing this little tree glowing in the bonus room window at the end of the hall. We spend movie nights in here and can even see it glowing in the window when we pull into the garage, so it is a pleasant spot for a little tree. And the kids enjoy hanging the mostly felt & plush stuffed ornaments all over it – complete with the abominable snowman on top.

Oh and simply like we do downstairs, we use a faux sheepskin rug around the base. We only need one for this little tree, and our main tree in the living room gets three.

Another tree lives in our son’s room, and it is a retro feeling green tinsel one (here is a similar one) with colorful lights that our boy picked out himself last year. It looks truly lively with his bright green closet door (it is Irish Moss by Benjamin Moore). Also that sequin banana ornament is from Target and he loves it. Oh and the wooden reindeer next to the tree was made by John’s grandpa many decades ago.

Before bed each of our kids walk into the hallway and ask Alexa to turn off their tree and it magically goes off, which thrills them to no end. Speaking of which, John “Lover Of Smart Tech” Petersik made a swift video to show you how a smart plug can make turning a tree on and off whenever you want a LOT easier (especially one with the plug in an annoying spot). You do not need Alexa or some other hub for this plug, by the way – you can simply control it from your phone, which is pleasant. Sure, we could put this tree – or any of our other trees – on a basic timer like our exterior lights, but we enjoy that we can turn on all the trees in the morning with one command (you can bulk multiple actions to happen at once). And similarly, we can turn all four of our trees off at once if we are running out the door to a meeting or dinner. Note: You may need to click through from your journal reader to view the video player. And you can watch it on YouTube here.

Our daughter has also enjoyed having a tree in her room for a few years now (here is a similar one) and she takes strong joy in redecorating it fairly much every morning. I like sticking her tree into a colorful basket that I painted (it is a lively deviation from having a tree skirt – and it looks cute with her bold closet door, which is painted Cinco De Mayo by Benjamin Moore).

If you listened to our latest podcast, you know we thinned out our decorations in an attempt to keep things simpler this holiday season (since I have been working on simplifying the house in general over the past year, I did not want to undo all my efforts by cramming every surface with holiday decor). And thanks to that paring down session, we ended up with a bunch of “overflow” holiday decorations that we could bring to the beach house! We will be spending some time there with family over the holidays too, so we were truly excited to decorate it for the first time. So three cheers for not spending a ton of money throwing all the things into my cart at Target, and getting to in short decorate this whole house with leftover stuff (aka: free!!!). I did purchase one tree – but literally even the ornaments on it are things we already had, so I am calling it a win.

You likely remember seeing these red boots with faux evergreen branches all over our house (both out on the porch and inside under the console table, depending on the year) and now they are living it up at the beach house, along with these little faux trees that used to be on our porch before we upsized them.

The wreath on the door is one that we picked up last year but they still sell it (I ENJOY the little gold bells with the gold transom numbers over them). Everything was so plain to plop down on the porch, and I enjoy the bright red color of the boots with the pink siding (see this barn for more on my enjoy of pink & red together for the holidays).

Inside you will likely remember this faux magnolia garland as the one I used last year on the mantel. I liked keeping the fireplace mantel more cleared off next to the big green tree this year – and adding our garland to this table was a pleasant way to bring some rich green color into our mostly-white-and-gray entryway. Plus I was able to double it up so it looks extra thick on that marble top (more on that remarkable dresser here).

Over in the living room is the tree we picked up – the single solitary purchase we made for the whole beach house decorating effort. I have consistently hoped one of these “Charlie Brown Christmas Trees” with charmingly sparse branches – and they had a big pre-holiday sale so I got this 6.5′ one for around $160.

All of the ornaments are ones that we already had from trees we did ages ago (we did a pink and green tree waaaay back in the day, and have also done a citrus one which is where the little green pear is from – oy, do not mind those horrible photos from like a decade ago). We have found as we add more collected and homemade ornaments to our main tree in the living room of our house, the themed ornaments from those older trees have been used less, simply because we do not need 10 pink balls when we can have 10 random preschool masterpieces – ha! But I am so glad we saved them because they are ideal for this little tree here! Especially since it is the pink house ;)

Oh wait, but we did buy the garland! I enjoy that little yarn pom-pom stuff. It took three of them to do our 6.5′ tree and honestly if there had been four that would have been even better, but I got the last three.

Over in the back wall of the kitchen are a few other things I am sure you will recognize if you’ve seen past holiday tours. Like these red reindeer that I painted seven whole years ago (how does time fly that fast?!?!) and a hammered bowl full or ornaments I have had forever on all sorts of surfaces. I also brought in a few feather trees to the kitchen and the pantry and in about 4.5 seconds it was feeling fairly jolly. My go-to thing is the letter board my girl did for me. I gave her free reign and simply said “how about a holiday quote?” You can tell we watch a lot of Home Alone around here.

The funny thing is that John later remembered that I put that same quote on a black letter board last year. Apple does not fall far from the tree. And I like her spacing better than mine.

Over by My Go-to Pink Stove Of All Time (yes, that is its proper name), I leaned up a little plate I got a few years back (here is a similar one) and two white ceramic nutcrackers I have had for years. It is so sweet how simply a few things can make the whole kitchen feel ready to host a whole group of friends and family. I enjoy that it does not take much!

So there it is, a tour of our house all decked out for Christmas, along with some sweet stuff that we mostly repurposed for the beach house. We’d enjoy to hear what you folks are doing to decorate for the holidays over on Facebook or Instagram, and if you’d like to see last year’s holiday tour, and the one from 2016, here are those links. We also have a few other holiday ideas for you below:

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