Christmas Tour 2019

I honestly can't even believe it's time to start talking about Christmas decor...

much less already have it up, photographed and ready to share. 

I can't believe tomorrow marks the beginning of December. 

But I have been soaking up the glorious feeling of having the house decorated and being able to enjoy the lights, the colors and the fun Christmas memories already happening. 

We finished shopping this past week and, for once, I don't have a huge 'to do' list in the upcoming weeks leading to Christmas. 

And I am so ok with that. 

If you are new here, one of my big ventures this past year has been really digging into product photography and I have had the crazy pleasure of meeting and working with so many amazing shop owners. When taking pictures of Christmas this year, I realized how many amazing pieces are from some of these gorgeous shops. I'll share the love below in case you'd like to snag a few pieces yourself as well as finding out some easy DIY options for decor. 

Hope you enjoy my Christmas tour this year- it's definitely topping as my favorite yet! 

Anytime I decorate, I always start with our mantle. Not sure why, but it's the main area I focus on and change up each year. 

This year I really challenged myself to use things we already had rather than make a new huge centerpiece- my party room and attic are getting a smidge full and I wanted to see what I could create with things I've used before. 

I cheated a tinnnyyy bit with the white sign in the middle, as in, it WAS something I already had but I redid it to make it something I love. 

Mission accomplished. 

I'll show the incredibly easy, and random, how-to soon for it. 

Let's just say it may involve random drawer tracks...

The wooden 'barn door' is a double sided sign I use all the time. The opposite side has the blue sign I use during the spring and when you flip it, it's this pretty barn door. I love the texture and warmth it brought the whole setup. 

You can see it being used on it's opposite side here. 

Getting the layered garland look took a bit of tweaking to get it how I pictured in my head but it finally turned out just how I wanted it to! 

I went for an asymmetrical look this year on a whim and I'm a bit obsessed. 

Here's the details on where to snag these pretty things: 

Wood Tree Garland: Dear Baby Kay

Felt Garland: Shop Cherry Sprinkles

Wood Bead Garland: AH Floral 

I'm trying to recall the details for the other items you see, I'll do my best to add them below: 

Red Trees- an easy DIY made by me several years ago. Tutorial is here and I believe it's now a paid one but it's worth it. I've had them forever. 

Wood slices & books are items I Just keep on hand throughout the seasons. Books are random ones I get for cheap and then rip the spines off (sorry, worth it though). They are perfect for stacking and adding texture/height. 

White Tree: a battery lit tree from Tuesday Morning. Bought in 2018

Reindeer: Hobby Lobby (new this year) 

Felt stockings:  Shop Cherry Sprinkles

Real Stockings: Burlap stockings from Hobby Lobby that I embellished with ribbon and embroidered. 

Gold Glitter Churches: Hobby Lobby ornaments

Bells & Lettering on sign: Hobby Lobby 

Gold Rocking Chair: Thrifted and painted by me 

Pillow in chair: Placemat that I turned into a pillow :) 

You can see below the shot I took before adding the felt garland but I just felt like it needed a little more color. 

The felt garland was the perfect finishing touch! 

Our tree this year was a huge deal because prior to this year, we have ALWAYS done a live tree. 

We love the experience, the smell and the look... but this year we just wanted to see if we could find an artificial option that we loved. 

I'm somewhat allergic to real ones and break out like crazy when decorating it, and we are terrible at watering it so the 1000s of pine needles that litter our floor within a week are not such a joy. 

We ended up finding this beauty on Wayfair and are in love. 

It was easy to set up, took a bit of time to fluff, but was pre lit and gorgeous. 

The lighter color added to the authenticity of it all and it was so much easier to decorate than a real one. 

I'm sure we will switch year to year but this has been such a fun option this year for us. 

Not pictured is the gorgeous crate Hubby made for wrapping the tree stand. 

I"ll share that soon :) 

We added a few personalized ornaments from one of our favorite shops, ByCuddles, and I love having pictures of my kids on the tree this year! 

I am NOT a pro at decorating trees, they are probably one of my least favorite things to decorate... but, again, our artificial tree made it SO easy. 

The gold bead garlands and both types of ribbon were Hobby Lobby purchases last year, 

I strung the bead garlands around, tucked in strips of ribbon throughout the tree and then let the kids decorate with our family ornaments. 

It's probably my favorite tree to date. 

I wrapped packages (literally... Amazon packages) with brown paper and added twine and other fun toppers for product shots this year and they ended up being fun to decorate with too! 

My copper cookie cutter was a thrift store find. 

And that darling sign is from a gorgeous shop called Oak Knoll Creations. 

She makes beautiful personalized items as well, so be sure to check her out for amazing gifts! 

Another shot of that beautiful handmade sign.. .and my new obsession of bottle brush trees.
These were all found at the Dollar Tree & Target this year :) 

These darling loose felt pieces from Shop Cherry Sprinkles were perfect additions to decor that were easy and fun. 

Little Miss added peppermints and snowmen to her pink dress and our oldest chose the snowman garland for her colorful bedroom. 

The dining room may be my most favorite room of the house this season. 

I'm loving all the light & bright tones, the clean whites and wood touches so much. 

Along with my ever present light aquas that I love so much. 

The plate wall got a tiny bit of tweaking to tone it down to snowier colors. 

I added a couple Christmas plates and a few wood snowflakes I've collected from a craft market we go to every year. 

The trees are a random collection from over the years. 

The champagne ribbon, burlap and white felt ones are, again, DIY ones I talked about earlier. 

The white middle one, as well as the two smaller beaded ones, are from Tuesday Morning. 

I can't quite remember where the gold twiggy one is from. 

I mixed them in varying heights and threw a few loose gold ornament balls around the base of them. 

The white felt garland from Shop Cherry Sprinkles draped perfectly to finish it off. 

For the table, I kept to the same theme, a wooden tree wrapped with white twine (not sure where it's from??) and DIY wooden block presents I created last year. 

These were SO easy to do. 

Let me know if I need to do a quick tutorial on these- they are so fun and pretty to decorate with! 

The bead garland is a Hobby Lobby find this year. Again, just draped among the other pieces. 

Another one of my focal areas I love to decorate is the front foyer. 

We have a second mantle hanging here and my favorite little mint table. 

The O Holy Night sign was a DIY from a few years ago. The tutorial can be found here. 

The snowflake, Merry and Bright signs and the wrapped presents are all DIY as well. 

Hubby made the jumbo snowflake for me on our first Christmas together and it's one of my favorite things ever. 

The deer were thrifted finds and, honestly, have seen better days but I LOVE them. So they stay. 

The angels were special gifts passed on to me from a dear friend that passed away. They are forever special. 

My mint table has a hodge podge of finds on it. 

I can't even remember all the places these things were collected from. 

I keep a host of candles, candlesticks, books and items in brass/gold/copper to use throughout the year and they came in handy this year. 

I swap a couple pillow covers out with red sequin ones to bring in some color and these little linen candy canes make me happy every year!!! 

It may not match all my decor but one of my most favorite things is this Harry Potter tree we created last year. 

It hid in my son's room last year but this year I wanted it where I could enjoy it. Front and center :) 

Whew. 

That is the end of my tour and I'm so thankful to have led you through it. 

Let me know what you love, tutorials you need and some of your favorite holiday pieces to decorate with!!