*I can’t believe it’s already Christmas this week!* In this post, we’re giving you a tour of our Christmas decorations, from outdoor lighting, to our mantle and tree. With the holidays upon us, this post just felt right to spread some cheer to you all.
Traditionally, we like to wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate for the holidays, but we got a head start this year. What can I say, we were feeling the Christmas spirit early. A.K.A. we noticed our neighbors decorating their homes, so that gave us the green light to decorates ours, too. We’ve had our decorations up since the week of Thanksgiving, and have been enjoying them all month long!
Outdoor Lights
If you’ve been to our Instagram page recently, you’ve seen this picture of our lights! We don’t go too crazy, but we like our house to be bright and colorful during the wintertime. The bushes are covered with multi-colored net lights (the wires are green so you barely notice them during the day). We also wound a string of multi-color lights around the lamp post. For the roofline, we attached white icicle lights with clear clips. All of our lights are the Holiday Time brand from Walmart. Pete is such a good sport about climbing the ladder every year to put up the icicle lights! I’m a wimp and afraid of heights, so I hold the ladder and cheer him on.
Fireplace Mantle
Next up, we have our fireplace mantle. We placed artifical fraser fir garland along the top, which has lights and makes our living room feel so cozy at night. This is a pricier garland compared to what’s out there, but it looks and feels real, and doesn’t shed at all. We added in a sparkly strand of gold beaded garland, the silver bells in the middle, and the bedazzled tree-shaped stocking holders, which are all from the Christmas Tree Shops (their holiday decor is SO good and inxpensive). The classic red velvet stockings are from Pottery Barn.
This year, we added a gold, smaller set of bells to our collection (also from Christmas Tree Shops) to match the ones on our mantle. They loop perfectly around a doorknob – ours are on the inside of our front door. Now, we get a glimpse of holiday cheer every time we walk downstairs.
Media Console
Here we have our media console. The gold, glittery trees on the left are from (you guessed it) Christmas Tree Shops. These sold out quickly, and came in purple, green, and gold. They tie in nicely with our brass lantern, which sits out year-round. We took out the scented pillar candle that usually lives inside the lantern, and added some sparkly ornaments to make it festive. The gold starbursts are actually tree ornaments – we liked the way they looked lined up on the top shelf there. Don’t they remind you of the ornaments in Home Alone that Kevin places on the floor inside the window?
Our Christmas Tree
Saving the best for last, our Christmas tree! I don’t know about you guys, but I love having a real tree. They smell incredible, and are so wintry and festive. It’s also one of my favorite holiday activities to go and pick out the tree with Pete and tie it on top of our little Corolla.
As you can see, we love the classic Christmas look – red, green, gold, and glitter! The decorating process starts with strings of white lights, followed by two types of wiry ribbons. To stay true to the red and gold theme, we bought red and gold ribbons from Michaels. Then, we filled in the rest with ornaments! We bought a starter pack of Christmas ornaments a few years back, and have acquired more personal ornaments over the years. Our favorites are the gold starfish, blue whale, and the one from our honeymoon in Grenada that we filled with sand and little shells from the beach. You know we love the beach! The giant bow tree topper was last year’s DIY project.
And to really accentuate that fresh-cut balsam tree scent, we’ve been burning this candle from Bath & Body Works! It smells exactly like a Christmas tree in the best way possible, without the sap and pine needles. Happy Holidays everyone!
