A record of Silver & White Christmas Tree

We did it. We busted out all of our Christmas stuff and officially decked the halls. We are fairly organized about our holiday storage so it is not too difficult to unleash the Christmas beast in our house. We keep specific ornaments designated for spots other than the tree (hurricanes, bowls, etc) in labeled ziplock bags:

And we store all the other tree-only ornaments in an under bed storage container, which is straightforward to pull out and set at the foot of the tree for decorating in an instant. And because it is a hard container we do not have to wrap our breakables in newspaper since they are all gently placed in the bin for protection until next year.

We are consistently up for a before and after, so here is what the living room looked like before we began:

And here is the wrapped up product. Well, wrapped up is a relative term… we are already planning to add some lime green to liven up our silver and white scheme.

We are big fans of introducing a few unexpected elements, like a starfish stuck an a random branch and a plethora of sheer silver bows filling in all the dark spots in the place of garland. And who can say no to a little disco ball or three?

It is remarkable how the rest of the room sparkles when you add a tree. As soon as we plugged in the lights we were already feeling downright festive. And when John put on some Christmas tunes and whipped up something warm and tasty, we truly began to feel giddy with Christmas anticipation.

Here is that “something warm and tasty” that John disappeared into the kitchen to make. Some mint hot chocolate (Trader Joe’s- yummy) with some whipped cream and even a dusting of chocolate shavings to take things to the next level. Oh and his pointer for making chocolate shavings (he in fact grated Hershey’s kisses himself) is to store your chocolate in the fridge so it is hard sufficient to grate without getting all smushy and melty. Good to know, eh? He’s my little Martha Stewart.

Oh and one of our go-to substitutions is our two-sheepskin-rugs-from-Ikea in place of a traditional tree skirt. So floofy and inviting. And they look adorable with a whole mess of presents on ’em.

And yes, our tree is 100% artificial, faux, fake-ola. Even though they are not consistently the “classiest” by reputation, we like that we can reuse it for decades instead of tossing it on the curb come January 1st. But we totally understand how the smell and the look of a real tree can be sheer magic around the holidays, so to each his (or her) own. Glad decorating! And stay tuned for more festive ways to get into the holiday spirit on the low-cost and in a flash.

Update: You can check out all of our go-to holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15!