Christmas Decor 2013

This is my last year to decorate this house for Christmas, which makes me sad, but at the same time, I love this house at Christmastime, so it's really a fun, creative thing for me.  I pretty much stick with similar holiday decor but add something new each year.  So, here's what I cam up with (I'm DREADING taking it down because I love it!).

This was just a little centerpiece in the large living room.

This photo really doesn't do our tree justice.  It is an amazing tree.  It's about 8 feet tall, very full, and smells divine (I can't get enough of that pine smell during the holidays).  My friend's family owns a local tree farm and we got this tree from them and are extremely happy with it.  We had such a good time picking it out too.  We were originally going to cut it down, but ended up picking up a pre-cut one in the evening shortly after Thanksgiving.  We were afraid all the "good" trees would be gone, but there ended up being a lot of great choices.  Ruby had fun running through the tree lot and picking out her favorites.  Here's a dark photo from that night.  The pole was used to measure the trees.  

Anyway, back to the decorations….

This shelving unit had a few new things added, like the letters spelling out JOY and the chalkboard printable in the frame.

We refer to this little tree as our "4 Calling Birds" tree.  The mercury glass vases were used to hold Christmas cards and candy canes until I finally figured out a new way to display the cards:

 This photo was taken mid-late December, so the wall is actually fuller now, but I love having the Christmas cards like this.  It's right by our table, so it's fun to look at all the faces of our friends and family and think about them while we are eating or working at the table.  I'm planning on leaving them up through January and then transferring them to the inside of our kitchen cabinets.  Ruby loves to point out people she recognizes, which is really cute!

The mantle this year had live greenery on it (a must!), new letters that spell "merry," red and silver accents and of course, white lights.  I put simple glittery letters on the stockings this year, but I hope to find something a little more permanent since they kept falling off.  Oh, and if you are wondering about that 4th stocking with two letters….it's the dogs' stocking, of course.  

I put together a couple of these peppermint-cranberry candles in the large living room for some color.

This was a quick afterthought and again, the photo doesn't really do it justice, but we strung up Ruby's holiday artwork above the sofa since it was so cute.  I actually really like this display and might take down the holiday artwork and replace it with other pieces she's completed.  Most of these are made while she's in daycare.  Oh, and she likes to show it off to visitors.

The entryway remained the same as year's past with the woodland display.  For some reason I didn't get a good photo of it, but here's a portion of the display.

I think I was just playing around with my camera and happened to just take it randomly.

I made a really simple display on my new end table in the large living room, but I ended up really liking the simplicity of it all.  Ruby pretty much left the glass vases alone, so it has stayed up the entire month without issue. 

Our outdoor light display has stayed the same for a few years now, but it remains one of my favorite parts of our Christmas decor.  Noa puts it all up every year and does a fantastic job.  I know that colored lights are fun, but the white lights are so warm and inviting.  It really makes the cold, dark winter just a bit more inviting.