Holiday Decorating Ideas: a house log
Nothing makes a house (especially one that we have lived in for 6 months) feel like a home like a little holiday coziness. So along with decorating the front of the house, and setting up our tree, each year we enjoy to document how we festive-ify the rest of the house (here is that post from last year, two of them from 2011, one from 2010, one from 2009, and one from 2008). This year was an especially exciting year because it is our first Christmas of living in this house… which means I have new spaces to play with – like a distinct fireplace mantel, and stairs for the first time in seven years of home-ownership!
For nearly every other space I simply used what we already had, but for the stairs I ran to JoAnn and picked up some faux garland (and an evergreen sprig for my green HomeGoods jug). It was $14 for both of them thanks to 50% sales on the Christmas stuff. To hang the garland on the railing, I simply used red ribbon from last year (I am the girl who saves every ribbon when I open presents to reuse it) – one at the top, one at the bottom, and one in the middle. I also brought in a clear zip tie at the top (under that ribbon) to be sure things stay put.
The bench is a HomeGoods find that we are planning to eventually use at the foot of our bed (once I recover it) so I tossed a furry blanket on it and plopped it in the foyer for now. I got the idea for the whole garland/bench thing when a few people showed me this photo from Country Living and said “I cannot believe that is not your house – there is even blue trim in the room next to the stairs!” – how funny is that? So it was certainly the inspiration for this little holiday moment. Although the first thing we did in the foyer has already turned into a new holiday go-to: The Christmas Moose!
We grabbed him at HomeGoods back in September for $9 (weirdly sufficient, it was John’s idea – I think I am rubbing off on him) for the express purpose of hanging him up for the holidays. In short John picked him up, declared that his name was Morris The Moose, and said “we should bring Morris home and hang him every Christmas, so he can live out his destiny as The Christmas Moose.”
Sold.
He’s fairly much Clara’s go-to holiday decor item ever (if live seals cannot be brought in for the roof, at least there is a silver moose in the foyer). The best part is that I did not have to make any holes in the wall to hang him. I simply used the screw that was holding up the Ikea frame that typically lives on that wall, so it should be straightforward to swap out that picture for a moose every December. And then I simply stuck some remnants of ribbon and pom-pom fringe around his neck along with a few pink ornaments and called it a day.
Next we have the living room mantel, which has a bunch of stuff that we have enjoyed for a few years in a row. The green feather trees (they are hand-me-downs from John’s sister, but she originally got them from Target) are pleasant up on the ledge, along with some wrapped presents. Those are my go-to no-fuss accessories to break out every year because they are fake and I wrapped them back in 2010 but they are such an straightforward way to look like I am this master gift wrapper (meanwhile I have shopped for about 6% of this year’s gifts and wrapped 3% of them). Oh and our stockings are right now labeled as “Mommy & Daddy”, “Clara”, and “Burger” but we are thinking when the bun comes along next year we will get five of them (one for each person) so there is no more random stocking sharing going on.
My go-to detail of all in here is the cardboard Burger (a reader hand-made him at a book tour signing last year) who is sherpa-ing a present. Cracks me up every time.
A few folks asked where our outdoor star pendants ended up in this house (you can see where we got those here), and the answer is that we at last got around to hanging them in the corner of the sunroom-turned-veranda, so we can gaze at them from the sofa in the living room every night.
The console in the foyer also got some casual cuteness, mostly in the form of leftover ribbons, and a homemade reindeer.
I have these little letterpress “enjoy” blocks out year-round, but a pink ribbon and two compact ornaments make it a little more cheerful…
… and this reindeer was handmade by John’s grandpa, so he’s hugely sentimental and we enjoy seeing him standing on his ribbon pile when we come down the stairs.
Our leaning chalkboard in the office got a little holiday message on it as well. Clara asked me to add the birds and snow. Now I simply need her assist decorating a snowman down at the bottom (she loves to chalk things up down there). She’s also a fan of drawing bunnies these days, so we might get some of those in the mix…
Clara and I also got to do a lively little Christmas craft together, which was in short making a giant mess with fake snow (it was THE BEST and SO HILARIOUSLY MESSY). Otherwise known as making these two snow-filled boxes, complete with compact trees and mini dogs.
Do not mind Captain Barnacle’s legs in this shot (he still goes everywhere with Clara). This is what we used for the project:
I grabbed two of these glass boxes from TJ Maxx (I think they were $7.99 each) along with a bag of fake snow, a two-pack of little trees, and one package of compact ceramic dogs from Michaels (they are meant for those little holiday villages that people make under the tree with various buildings and skating rinks, etc).
Then Clara simply had lively covering the kitchen with fake snow filling each of the two boxes with a mound of snow, and adding a few dogs and a tree. Now they sit on the media cabinet in the living room and Clara can typically be found standing about 2″ away simply gazing at them. She even named a few of the dogs (Elmo is the one on the right, and the one in the top hat is Gru). The good news is that the hand-vac was able to suck up all the little glittering snow particles that exploded all over the table and floor during our little crafting session.
So that is how we brought in a little more holiday lively to the house. It certainly feels homier with stockings and ribbons and a big ol’ silver moose. What have you folks done inside? Is anyone else having the best time ever decorating their stairs? I cannot be the only one walking in there every ten minutes simply to smile at the railing.
Psst – Still in the holiday spirit? Here are nearly 40 other holiday posts from the past:
Update: You can check out all of our go-to holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15!
