Christmas is my favorite holiday. A lot of people think it’s Halloween (which I also love) because I get dressed up every year and decorate my house – except for this year, thanks to the bronchitis! But Christmas is my favorite. This year, as I hauled down about five boxes of decorations and two boxes of ornaments from my attic, I thought I might be set with all I needed for the house. But as I unpacked them, I realized that most of what I have is very knick-knacky.
That’s fine, but I needed more to decorate my home! So I picked up LOTS of fake greenery and put it everywhere – around the bathroom mirrors, wrapping the banister, decorating my bedposts, along the mantle and around the fireplace, along windows, gracing bookshelves, and behind guest beds. I increased my lights both inside and outside and took out almost every piece of glass I own after reading about how clean, shiny glass can make your holiday decorating sparkle. I put up a fake tree in my little entryway and a real tree in my living room, set the table for holiday guests (though I’m only having one person stay with me before Christmas!) and set the mood with Noel oil for my lamps downstairs and upstairs. It’s very festive here!
Some rooms were easier than others to decorate. In my dining room, I put a lovely checked tablecloth I’d picked up at Kohls on the table, followed by a runner I’ve had for years from a Pottery Barn sale. I finally found red chargers (these are technically candle displays, so I’m told, but they work as chargers) at Michaels and I used my everyday dinner plates on top of them. I added my reindeer napkins and a metal napkin holder to complete the place setting. Then, I added a glass bowl full of lovely potpourri and plastic ornaments from Walmart on top of a candy cane platter and included some other glassware and small snowmen to make it more festive. Over the window, I put up some greenery, anchoring it with the shade hooks already in place and by adjusting the metal of the greenery itself around the edges. I found a couple of giant plastic ornaments at Target, and strung them up with some Christmas ribbon over the table, and draped some garland over my lighthouse picture in the corner of the room – it didn’t take me too long to get that done!
The full effect
The table is set
I really am very excited about these chargers!
The downstairs bathroom was similarly pretty easy to decorate. I picked up some new guest towels at Kohls, and they make me happy every time I see them. I had some looser greenery, which I wrapped several times around the mirror (held in by the corners of the doors, so I can’t really use the cabinet right now!). And I added a few snowmen knick knacks (I have a collection of snowmen, so there are a LOT of them in this house!).
Very festive! I even added some potpourri in a mug on the counter
My towels!
Then, things started to get a little more difficult and that’s when the yelling, swearing and accidentally breaking things started to happen. I had picked up some hooks to use in my living room to hang up the garland around the fireplace. Last year, I had used push pins, which had not only left small holes in the wall, but had required me to regularly push them back into the wall and repair garland decorations. I was pretty pleased with myself about the new garland hooks (which are plastic, with foam stickers on one side to stick to the wall), so I cleared my mantle and got to work putting up the garland and white lights. It looked great! For about five minutes. Then, piece by piece, it started to fall a little. Okay, I thought I just needed more hooks. I added them. It stayed. I put my decorations back on the mantle. And it fell down, knocking a favorite blue glass vase into the mantle and shattering it. @#$^&%.
Not to be deterred, I knew that getting frustrated would make it worse. I decided to try a different hook I’d gotten as well. No dice. Finally, I reverted to the push pins and added those in with a few more of the other hooks and so far, it’s stayed (knock on wood). It looks beautiful, but I’m afraid of what it will look like when I take it down in January!
I also added garland to the mantle, using the second kind of hooks I’d gotten. They worked pretty well at securing it, but I had to unravel parts of them (that’s how they’re designed) and bruised my fingers nicely in the process. So next year might be a whole new set of hooks! To add to the festiveness of the mantle, I also put up some red Christmas ornaments.
Once I had gotten past my anger about the garland and I believed it was going to stay up, I added some candles to the hearth, as well as my puppy’s stocking, and replaced a photo in a frame with a Christmas card. A few days later, I picked up some red beaded garland at Michaels and some gold stars, and I cut the garland, using the beads as “cranberries” in with my candles. The gold stars added some glitz.
This is pre-tree. Some small changes had to be made once my tree arrived - a separate post will show you why. And yes, that's Daniel Craig on the mantle.
Here is my candles & "cranberries" - I think it's my favorite decoration this year
And more glassware moved to the coffee table post tree
I almost felt like giving up after all that work in the living room, but I finished up my decorating that first night with the upstairs bathroom. In here, I was so happy with the garland, but it was again a struggle to get the hooks to hold onto the vanity and the garland to grab the bottom of the cabinet. I was so afraid I’d pull it off the wall as I worked, but eventually, I managed to finish it. I just can’d open the leftmost section of the vanity, so it’s a good thing I don’t really keep anything in there!
The upstairs bathroom - I added more potpourri and eventually my peppermint handwash and lotion (and of course, a snowman)
Over the next few days, I worked on the guest room, my office, and my bedroom, along with the entryway. The guest room was fairly easy – I had pretty much mastered the evil garland by then, so I put some along the headboard and window and added stockings to the side tables. I put up some Christmas lights (or fairy lights as they call them in England – I like that so much better!). And I added some reindeer and two pillows I’d made to the bed – I think you always need homemade things around at Christmastime!
Ready for guests!
This is my other favorite area of decorating, mostly because I adore these curtains. I added electric candles to the windows facing front - they had been battery-powered, but were always low and ate batteries!
In my office, I added garland and knick knacks to the shelves, including a few of my favorite snowmen.
Doesn't this guy just make you happy?
I like this one too!
In the hallway, I put a lighted garland around the bannister and tucked a tree at the bottom. It makes the entryway feel very welcoming and warm, particularly when it’s lit at night!
I think I've had this tree for a decade!
And finally, I wanted my bedroom to feel festive as well, so I put up a few knick knacks and added a garland and lights around my bed.
It's like Santa lives here!
My favorite part!
And of course, I have a homemade quilt to sleep under – I made this when I was in college, using two big sheets and a bunch of my old tee shirts. It’s very warm and full of memories as well!
Don’t worry, I didn’t neglect the outside of my house! I’ll get into that and my tree adventure in separate posts!
