Christmas is by far, my favorite time of the year! And with this being our first Christmas in our home it is just double the excitement. Last year for Christmas we were living with my sister-in-law and I barely got the tree up by Christmas Eve. I was just not feeling in the spirit last year, so I feel like this year I am making up for lost time. I got started super early this year, and I'm sure those of you who follow me on Instagram have been sick of seeing my Christmas tree for the entire month of November already. In my defense, I did have a perfectly good reason to decorate early, because our local magazine, Bayou Life asked to feature our home in their December issue. Such a dream and because of that, I had to have it decorated the first week of November for them to shoot. I'll share the link with you soon of our feature when it is available.
Anyways, onto the tour. I tried to keep things really simple this year. Christmas decorations can get really corny, really quick.....I'm pretty guilty of it myself, and I don't hate it in the least bit. But this year I wanted to do things a little different, so I kept it basic and neutral. As the season progresses I will probaly start breaking out the jolly Santas and all the red accents, but for now....
On the front porch I just threw a basic wreath on the front door and added a couple trees to metal buckets I usually have potted with flowers.
Stepping inside the front door to the living room.
For the sake of a good photo, I did convince my husband to take down our TV which is usually above the mantle for the magazine shoot. I am so sad that I can't keep this mirror up there though. It's so much prettier!
Our tree is one of my favorite things. I bought it from Hobby Lobby (here) six years ago and it's still just as perfect as the first day we put it up. True story.....our first Christmas married Andy and I bought a real tree. I always had a real tree to decorate growing up and I was adament on getting one for our first Christmas. We went to the farm, cut down the tree ourselves, it was shaken, and shaped, and packaged up, and put in the house, and decorated, and it was just PERFECT! All of my dreams coming true. Until a couple days later when I was sitting on the couch and noticed a big black blob on the ceiling above the tree. Thinking maybe it was a cobweb I thought I would brush it off the ceiling with a broom. And as I was doing so......HORROR!!!!!!!! A MILLION.....I'm so serious yall! A MILLION TINY BABY SPIDERS started descending from our ceiling. I'm getting the chills just thinking about it. So after an extensive pest control expense, that perfect little tree went right outside the back door into the pond, and we went and bought this sweet thing. NEVER again will I have the desire to have a real tree.
Years ago we had a cat and our tree skirt collected a ton of hair, so I had the idea to stick our tree in an old metal tub I had. Now the tree stand won't fit inside of the tub, and until we had kids, we just propped it up in the bucket, but to make it safer and less likely to be pulled over, we actually cemented the tree into the bucket. Totally not practical when storing for most people, but if you are looking for an alternative, I've seen what they call a tree collar at Michael's which looks like a metal tub with the bottom cut out so it will fit down over your tree stand. Like why didn't I think of that.....because I would have totally gone on SHARK TANK! (Anyone else obsess over that show)
Most of the ornaments are from Target and collected over the years. The yarn stars I made myself by cutting the star out of cardboard and then wrapping and hot gluing the yarn around it.
In the kitchen.
The kitchen is very simple. I replaced my paper mache letters that usually say EAT with the word JOY.
In our master I just threw in a simple wreath above the bed and a basket full of trimmings from the back yard.
Continuing upstairs in the boys room, I added a sweet plaid moose that once belonged to my sister and I to each of their beds.
I also happened to find this faux tree at a garage sale for $5 and thought it would be perfect to put in the boys room this year so that they could decorate their very own tree. It's adorned in old family ornaments and lots of handmade goodies from when Andy and I were little. A few throwback Christmas photo ornaments of us back in the 80's and 90's that Madden found to be quite hilarious as well. He laughed the entire time he decorated. It was so fun for them to decorate a tree without having me hover over them and secretly rearranging ornaments when they weren't looking.
In the playroom, I drew a Christmas tree on our chalk wall, of course.
It's also where we have the boys' Little People Nativity set up. Andy's mom bought it for Madden during his first Christmas and it has become a favorite tradition every year. The boys are able to explore the nativity all season long as we read and talk about the Christmas Story.
And back outside on the back porch.
Another simple tree thrown in a metal tub (have you noticed a pattern here). A couple stockings hung from an old ladder and my antique picture frame turned chalkboard handlettered with Joy to the World makes this tour complete.
I hope yall all have a very blessed and happy holiday season. Merry Christmas!
Brittany
