As a creative-type designer-ish blogger, I’ve been known to move junk out of the background before I take a picture. I do this so you won’t be distracted by my cat litter instead of what I’m trying to convey. It’s really not that I’m trying to be deceitful or make you think that we keep a perfectly clean house (I wrote a whole post on this topic here).
BUT, there are certain things I just won’t do as a blogger. One such thing is DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS JUST FOR THE INTERNET.
Nope!
No Christmas ‘Home Tour’ here.
Just memories. Simple. Real. Nostalgic.
We don’t have matchy ornaments with a trendy color scheme. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Just lots of homemade or childhood ornaments and sparkly colorful lights.
I think if we did it any other way, it wouldn’t feel natural and magical. Just staged.
There you have it… our Christmas ‘Home Tour’. We don’t even have a mantel. Ha! I do have a little nativity set up on the credenza, but that’s about it. It’s how we like it.
This Christmas is extra special for us, because the girls are old enough to understand the magic and meaning of Christmas. They know which ornaments are theirs, and love to lay on the floor facing the tree and play the ‘I Spy’ game. Adorable!
Also? It’s crazy to think that we’ll have a (not so) new baby crawling around next year at this time!
Do you go all out at Christmas? Or keep it simple? No judgments here… everyone has their own way of making Christmas special for their family!!
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I really liked your Christmas “Home Tour”. I have been missing Christmas in a real bad way. We have had such a tight budget the last 3 years we couldn’t afford electricity for lights so we decided not to decorate at all. Then this year I was going to pull out all the stops ( I have a shed filled to the gills with outdoor decs., 10 of those super long totes of decs. for the horse stables and 19 of those totes for the house and 3 yards and for the 1/4 mile long driveway, and a pear tree j.k.) but we just sold the stables and house and moved and the Christmas stuff is buried so no Christmas again this year. But because we haven’t focused on decorating we noticed we have really focused on God. But your blog let me ‘visit’ my ornaments in my head. All my ornaments are either hand made ( I’m 42 and still have my kindergarten ornament) or special ones that my husband I got on trips. We have this tradition ( well its more like I get the ornament, show it to hubby and tell him about “oh remember when we got this one?…) and he says yes and I hang it on the tree. Thanks for making it feel like Christmas.
This year is super simple due to just moving into the new house… who am I kidding, we haven’t finished moving yet… But I love to decorate for Christmas so there is a good possibility I will be hitting up the clearance stuff for next year 😉 but I don’t do it to post on my blog (I usually do though) or anything like that but I do it because my kiddos love it and I do too. We haven’t decorated the tree yet and it feels so weird we will tomorrow, hopefully. At least it is up already and presents are under it. So glad you shared with us and how real you are on here!
I love this! We have colored lights on our tree and a hodgepodge of ornaments — some from vacations we’ve taken, some we’ve made, and a bunch that my husband’s grandmother made for him when he was growing up. It might not be magazine-worthy, but we wouldn’t have it any other way!
I love that you are focusing of family and the real meaning of Christmas. We have always done that. My kids are in college now – and one of the best parts of Christmas is decorating the tree with all the ornaments we have accumulated over the years & talking about them as we pull them out of the boxes. THAT is much more important to me than having the “perfect” tree with matching everything. 🙂 Enjoy these years – they scoot by so fast.
I admit to have a more “themed” Christmas at my house, but it hasn’t always been that way. When the kids were still living at home, we had a tree filled with colorful lights, ornaments with memories, and occasionally a live cat or two, but times have changed. Now my 3 kids are all well into their 30’s, married, have homes and children of their own. All those special ornaments have been passed on to my kids so that they can share those special memories with their kids.
OMG your baby bumb <3 <3 <3
I ALMOST fell into the “I need a themed tree” trap and when I started pulling out all of my ornaments, I kept making comments about how each one had a meaning. Some were just bought for the amount of glitter they had, but hey, that means something!! I’m so glad we stayed away from doing theme and left it just us.
I love your guys’ style of Christmas. I tend to agree. I mean, I do enjoy a really pretty christmas tree, but I love our sentimental ornaments way more! We keep our Christmas decor pretty simple around here. I put a poinsettia on the table, but that was about it outside of normal Christmas decorations. Just real life! I love seeing your girls’ reaction to the magic of everything. And your belly is SO CUTE! AHHHH!
Amen sista! xoxo
I don’t even have the tree up yet if that tells you anything. I blame it on being a working single mom, but that could be an excuse. Once I do get the darn thing up, it’ll be adorned with ornaments that we’ve been using for years. I’ll be sick of it by New Years and it’ll get taken down. What I’m most excited about is putting the tree in the backyard and filling it with goodies for the birds. Merry Christmas!
My tree is filled with ornaments that I acquired over the last 30 years
since my first baby came. The kids are now 30, 27 and 24 and they still
enjoy going to the tree to look at the ornaments they made as children. I
now have 4 sweet grand babies to add to the mix. I think I need a
bigger tree, it is really full and sparkly!
I admit that I generally go all out (if I have the energy). I have five large totes of Christmas decor. This year, my tree sat for a week before I finally decorated it. I have yet to decorate my mantel or the two 1ft. trees we have. I haven’t finished decorating the kids bathroom (I have a Christmas shower curtain), and may not. The kids generally get to decorate one tree themselves with homemade ornaments, then have their own special ornaments to hang on the big tree. They also have their own decorations for their rooms (that have yet to be put out). My mom is the one who buys most of the decor and brings it over. Some years I don’t put much out at all, but then the kids complain to Grandma. This year I have a two-year-old to try to keep out of everything, which isn’t motivation to decorate. I can’t wait until next year when he understands more.
We do have a tradition of opening new pajamas on Christmas Eve and reading ‘T’was the Night Before Christmas’, then having cocoa and watching a Christmas movie of some sort.
Love it! Pretty trees are only that- pretty. They aren’t full of love and memories. I almost bought matchy stocking a few years ago, but my kids insisted they preferred the mismatched ones I bought them each as babies. I’m glad we kept them!
Absolutely THE best way to enjoy Christmas. I did not even decorate much this year–mainly because the hubby forbade me to climb the ladder in the garage to get decorations down while he is not here. He has visions of a frozen Beth Ann on the garage floor the next time he comes home…..You are making memories and those are the best things ever. Love your tree and of course, your little ones. 🙂
Love your Christmas tour. I have always wondered how people change decorations every year. (how much $$$ does that cost) I too have decorations from years past, same ones go up every year. Have a Very Merry Christmas!