As per usual with our holiday home tour, in the infamous words of Pops from the 1990 movie Ski Patrol, “I’m a day late and a dollar short”. Okay, so maybe Pops wasn’t the one who originally came up with those words but he still speaks to me in a sarcastically deep way. Anyway, before we skipped town to visit my folks for Christmas, I ran around our home like a madwoman and snapped a bunch of pics to share with you of our holiday home 2013. Despite Etsy store craziness, I somehow managed to whip together some semblance of a holiday home, mostly in the living room.
I picked up a couple of new pillows (the red ones were from Home Goods and the white ones from Target) and also swapped out the usual orange lamp for a more neutral one which had been living upstairs in the craft room. The coffee table was new this year (a yard sale find) so it was fun to style it up and add some baskets of ornaments to the bottom shelf. I also switched up some of the coffee table top accessories, opting to integrate a few sparklies here and there.
The media cabinet also got a bit of a festive upgrade with a pair of red candlesticks that I received as a Christmas gift last year (thanks Gram and Pat!). I’m such a sucker for turquoise and red as a color combo! It’s my favorite!
I picked up a whole mess of votives (we’re talking about 20) from Target this year. And by this year I mean about two days before Christmas. They were already on clearance for about a dollar each. I plopped them down all over the house, wherever a bit of festiveness/sparkliness was needed.
Including all over the bookcase.
How could I have a holiday home tour without the creme de la creme…aka…the Christmas tree. Side note…I hadn’t yet switched out the orange lamp for the neutral black lamp yet. But see why I did it?! Orange just doesn’t say “Christmas” to me. It screams high security prison instead.
I feel like such a weirdo in the blogosphere as I decorate our tree exactly…the same…every…single…year. But can you blame me?! It’s for sentimental reasons. Every year for Christmas since I was a wee one (we’re talking 26 years strong) I have received the Hallmark Mary’s Angels ornament. Here are a few of them:
I have them all. Every…single…one. And I can’t bear the thought of not displaying them over the Christmas season. But I am jonesing to do something different with the tree. Maybe a second tree is in order next year. Like maybe this one (which is a fake tree) can be our traditional tree and hopefully by Christmas 2014 the porch will be all done and we could do a “for fun” tree out there. Maybe even a real one (a small real one).
We can’t forget what’s under the Christmas tree…the Christmas presents.
Goose was scoping out all the goods and trying to figure out which one was his. Goose loves presents, especially ones that contain bones or cookies. This year’s presents were wrapped with a red/rustic motif which included red candy cane striped paper from Target, a floral paper from Hobby Lobby, and some kraft paper mixed in.
The dining room also got a tad of festiveness mixed in including a Target Christmas clearance 2012 wreath (it was 90% off and only about $3…crazy), an old centerpiece I’ve had for ages, and a few other touches.
I love hanging ornaments in the window every year. It’s pretty much my favorite piece of decor.
And let’s talk about the decor in the china hutch for a second. The ceramic house was a gift from my Grandma. It used to be hers and she passed it down to me because she knew I would appreciate it. As a child, I used to spend hours, HOURS, rearranging all those little “light” pegs in the house and in the tree. HOURS. #simplemind
Mosying down the hallway from the dining room, you’re greeted with a bit of Christmas art that we made during our first Christmas in the house (learn about how we made the art back here and here…caution…it was during our early days of blogging so the pics are a bit…uh…rough-ish). I love putting these out each year…especially the underwear piece.
And then there’s the jingle bell garland that we showed you earlier this week back here.
Even our kitchen, albeit a total mess in that space (hence the zoomed in/cropped photo) got a bit of festive cheer.
Including our new, bronzed Christmas reindeer that I found at our local antiques store on sale for $18. I shall call him Brutus. I love Brutus and couldn’t resist his charms, kind of like when I first met Colby.
I pretty much contained my Christmas decor to the first floor, but did add a few jingle bells to each of the four doors upstairs.
The bells were from Target (again purchased this year just a few days before Christmas already on clearance). Not only are they adorable but they make it impossible to sneak off to the bathroom in the middle of the night without waking the Goose from his beauty sleep. And we all know how much Goose needs his beauty sleep since it’s hard to get away with things when he’s not looking his cutest.
So that concludes our cribs holiday home tour. You’ve seen our deer, you’ve ogled our presents, now you gotta go (now go back and read that channeling your inner MTV Cribs celebrity home tour).
Pssst…How did you guys decorate your home this year? Do you decorate your tree the same every year? Or mix it up? Maybe make your own ornaments? Do tell!
Pssssssst…Check out our 2012 Holiday Home Tour and compare notes. I love seeing how our Christmas decor collection grows just a smidge each year.
Your home looks so cozy & festive!
My hubs and I decorate our tree the same way every year, too. All of our ornaments are the ones we had as kids, mixed in with ones we’ve collected from trips we’ve taken since we got married. Both of our moms usually buy us a new ornament each Christmas. It wouldn’t be the holidays without those memories around!
And I love your bronzed deer! Hope you had a Merry Christmas!