It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas 2014

I absolutely adore Christmas decorations, and put them up the weekend after Thanksgiving every year.  So here are a few pictures of the Christmas decor in the main living areas of our house.  Hopefully (if I can get them cleaned up and looking decent) I can get some pictures of the decorations in the bedrooms.  But here is the Christmas Tour Part 1!

I keep it pretty simple with my outdoor decor--just a couple of wreaths, some garland and classic red velvet ribbon.

Here is the view from the front door.  I really love what I did with the mantle this year.  We usually have a live tree, and I use the branches that we cut off of the bottom and arrange them on the mantle with some picks and ornaments.  But we invested in an artificial tree this year, which meant no branches for arranging.  So I picked up a pre-lit garland at Wal-Mart, pulled out a couple of small trees that I bought ages ago, and added some picks and feathers to go with the "outdoorsy" look the Hubs has forced upon me with all his hunted animals, but that's a post for another day.

This is our main tree where the gifts wait until Christmas morning.  It is a hodge-podge of ornaments that have been gifts from family and friends or handmade by the kids.  I love how sentimental it is since I remember who gave me most of the ornaments on it.

I also have my Fontanini nativity set on my grandmother's antique library table.  I have several pieces of it and got even more for Christmas last year.  I wish I had a bigger table to set it all up on, and I might just put some on my mantle next year, but for now I am keeping it on the library table.  The stable is empty since Mary and Joseph are traveling around our house on their Journey to Bethlehem which you can read about here and here.

Since I have chosen to embrace the wildlife hanging on the walls in my living room right now (hence the Santa hat on the deer), I also decorate the fish hanging by the front door.  My mother-in-law gave the Hubs these ornaments years ago and hung them up on his fish then.  I have continued the silly tradition every since then.

Heading in to the kitchen, this is the view into the eating area.  I absolutely love the tree in my kitchen.  It has a framed picture of my kids in their Christmas pj's from every Christmas of their lives.  I think it's my favorite tree in the house--and I have five, so there is plenty of competition.

The snowman hanging from the fan was a gift from a student my last year teaching school, and I made the Merry Mail Christmas card holder a few Christmases ago.

Leaving the kitchen and going back into the living room, I have this little arrangement set up on the counter.  The Happy Everything plate is from Coton Colors, and I love that I can change out the Santa attachment at the top to fit whatever holiday or season I am celebrating.  The Santa's Cookies plate was made using B's handprint as Santa when he was three.  The mug was made the same year using C's foot as the reindeer head when she was about 6 months old.  I love them and use them every year for setting out milk and cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.

 

So that's Part 1.  Hopefully, I will get to Part 2 one day next week.  Stay posted for updates.

I have linked up with Andrea at Momfessionals.  You can show off your Christmas decorations by linking up here.