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Simple Christmas Decor 2016

Considering the holiday season is already ending (Happy New Year everyone!) I think it’s about time I shared my holiday home tour for the year.  A little late, but better late than never, right?!  I don’t know what it was about Christmas time 2016, but I was craving simple Christmas decor.  Not only was I craving simple Christmas decor, but also simple Christmas traditions.  Maybe it’s being super pregnant (t-minus 7 weeks until baby Campbell time) or maybe it was recovering from hosting 35+ for Thanksgiving (while being almost super pregnant). Still, I was tired and just wanted to soak in the simple things of the season.  So needless to say, our holiday home tour this year is more like a “simple Christmas decor home tour”.  Without further ado, welcome to our vintage, circa 1781 farmhouse all decked out and blanketed in snow for Christmas.

A white colonial farmhouse with Christmas wreaths on the windows for simple Christmas decor

If you look closely you can see puppy Merle in front of the house.  And for the record, this is as far as he goes out front of our house before he gets scared and runs to the back door.  So cute!

We went oh-so simple for the front of the house this year.  We did hang our outdoor Christmas lights again this year but rarely turned them on.  Note to self, don’t hang them next year.  But we did hang a series of pine wreaths with simple red bows on each of the front windows.  It’s one of those simple Christmas decor items I’ve always drooled over on Pinterest and am so grateful for finding 12 wreaths at Jo-Ann’s Fabrics during their post-Christmas sale in 2015 for a whopping $60 total to make this look possible.

Moving inside…

Simple Christmas decor in a farmhouse living room

Our old living room is a bit of a hot mess right now and is more like the land for misfit toys furniture, but that didn’t stop us from decorating it a bit.  We couldn’t not decorate the room since it’s where the fireplace and mantle are located.

Simple Christmas decor mantle featuring vintage wood beads and heirloom stockings

We went with super simple Christmas decor in this space pulling out our old family stockings, decor handed down to us, a simple pine swag, and other decor items that we already had.  It’s amazing how much Christmas decor I’ve amassed in the last ten-ish years yet, most of it fit in this room alone.  The only new thing I picked up this year was the trio of white ceramic houses that everyone and their brother has purchased from the Target dollar bin (although they cost more than a dollar…a whopping three dollars apiece).

Simple Christmas decor featuring vintage wood beads, pine swag, and Target ceramic houses

My favorite simple Christmas decor moment in our home most definitely is the tiny little “Charlie Brown” Christmas tree on top of the trunk.  We chopped it down in our yard from the “back 40” as I affectionately call the large, overgrown meadow beside our house.  We plopped the tree in a galvanized bucket and hung a few vintage ornaments from it.  Someday I would love to decorate a big, full Christmas tree with a ginormous collection of vintage ornaments.  But alas, my collection taps out at a whopping 12 ornaments so it may be a few years (or decades) before that dream becomes a reality.  But I love this charming, simple way of showcasing those vintage beauties.

Cutting down a small pine tree in the yard for a Charlie Brown Christmas tree

Let’s talk Christmas tree for a minute.  If anything set the tone for our simple Christmas decor theme for 2016 it was how we shopped for our Christmas tree.  Here’s the play-by-play.  Colby and I got in the truck and made the 20-minute drive a couple of towns over to where there’s this great little family-owned and operated Christmas tree lot.  We got out, went over to the trees, and we were warmly greeted by the son the “salesman”.  He asks what kind of tree we’re looking for.  We shrug and say not sure.  He asks what height we’re looking for so we tell him our ceiling height.  He pulls out a tree and says this should fit.  Sold.  Five minutes later we’ve paid for and loaded the tree and we’re on our way back home to set it up.  Sadly we also buy cars like this.

Christmas tree decorated with natural wood beads and gold and pink ornaments

She’s not the most perfect tree and could probably use a little bit of a trim, but she’s perfect for us and took up as little shopping time as humanly possible, always a plus.

We decorated the tree with a simple wood bead garland that we made last year and ornaments we already had, going with a blue/gold/pink theme.  Oh and glitter!  Glitter is a color, right?!  Only the most important Christmas decor color!

Which reminds me of a glittering story.  I truly believe in the power of glitter, especially at Christmas time.  Most of the packages I wrap have at least a few pieces of that glittery flair.  Each year, I pack up the gifts into my cloth grocery bags to make the trek to my parent’s house, and let’s just say that afterward, nary a bag that does not sport glitter residue for the remainder of the year.  Naturally, I use those bags for grocery shopping.  One day shortly after Christmas several years ago, Colby and I are checking out our grocery haul at the store, and the poor, poor 15-year-old bag boy says “Boy there’s a lot of glitter in this bag!”.  Colby, without missing a beat says, “My wife’s a stripper”.  The poor boy turns about 15 shades of red and hands us our bags without making eye contact, never to be seen in said grocery store again.  Some people’s husbands!

Simple Christmas decor for a farmhouse Christmas tree featuring natural wood beads and gold and pink ornaments

So I believe the word you are searching for is…anyway.  The rest of the living room is barely fluffed for Christmas. Mainly because this is Merle’s zone of terror.  Technically, those throw pillows don’t normally live on the couch since they’re still too new and nice to be exposed to a chew-everything-in-sight puppy.  We were really worried about Merle this Christmas because 4-month-old pups are notorious for chewing and wreaking havoc, but he’s been pretty good and has left the tree alone.

Simple Christmas decor in a living room

Lastly on our simple Christmas decor home tour, the wrapping!  I hoard wrapping paper all year round like this glittery gold paper, the plaid behind it, and the mud cloth navy paper.  Then at Christmas time, I wrapped with reckless abandonment.  Anything goes.  Except I try to stick with five or six different papers mixed with three or four different styles of ribbon and tags.  It typically all works well together but I don’t really care because I’m wrapping.  Singing wrapping is my favorite and I just want to wrap all the things!

Christmas presents wrapped in a mix of pink, gold, and navy blue wrapping paper

This concludes our simple Christmas decor home tour on January 1st (doh!).  It’s been a special Christmas for us all in all as we’re anxiously expecting a little one in just seven weeks.  I spent most of this weekend packing away our decor and cleaning up the house thinking, “Next year when I take out our stockings and ornaments, we’ll have a baby girl to celebrate the season with”.  It’s crazy to think about but makes me so excited to go all out next year.  Just consider this year’s simple Christmas decor to be the calm before the storm.

Comments

  1. Awww!! I love it!! Thanks for sharing, albeit a little late. Your tree is a lovely shape, he picked a good one for you. Happy New Year!

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Angie's Roost Campbell Family in front of home in 2021

Hi there! We're the Campbells. We traded in Maine city living for the country life in Vermont. You'll find us here fixing up a circa 1781 historic home, growing our own food, and filling this home with the memories and things that matter. Read more about us...

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