I almost didn’t publish this post. There are so many more beautiful, more inspiring Christmas tour blog posts out there. And part of the reason that I have this blog is to try to help inspire, especially for folks like me, who aren’t designers, DIY experts, or who don’t have unlimited resources but still want a beautiful home.
I guess I should say, if you want to see a Pinterest perfect Christmas decorated home, you may as well bounce.
But then I thought, eh, maybe you guys are ready for something besides perfectly decorated Christmas stories. And you know I always want to keep it real.
My Christmas tour shows our simple decorating style at Christmas. And by “simple”, I don’t mean “tastefully decorated”. Erm, no…
For us, decorating for Christmas is all about using stuff that has been in our family for years and years- some ornaments and decorations are older than Michael and I. We let the boys put however many ornaments they want on the tree and wherever they want. We let them pick out the tree. We never have a theme or a color story. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I get tons of inspiration from folks who have beautifully decorated Christmas homes, and I always enjoy reading those blog posts. It’s just not what we do though.
Oh Lord. The plastic blue thing is still on the branch. How embarrassing. Oh well, life goes on.
I have a small collection of Christmas trees that I love, and usually group together…
…with this little guy, who has been in Michael’s family for years.
We also have some vintage wax Christmas candles that came from both Michael’s and my family. I usually display them together, and a little more artfully, but Beau wanted them on our new library bookcases, so that’s what we did with them this year.
As you can see, they’re very old.
And one of my favorite parts of our Christmas decor.
Our mantel, which I didn’t have much at all to do with. Beau did most of this. Can you tell that child loves Christmas?
The striped stocking has been Michael’s since he was a little boy, and the crocheted stocking is W’s. Its been in Michael’s family for years. As you can see nothing matches, but, it’s all good.
I’ll admit, once a few years ago I did mention getting us matching stocking to the boys and they almost had heart attacks. O-kay (backs away slowly)….
That’s really it. Unless you count our fence, which I decorated a few weeks ago and still looks super cute.
So yeah, there’s something about Christmas that makes me throw all my regular design rules and mantras (ha! like I have those) to the wind. I doubt I’ll ever be part of a Christmas blog hop, unless the theme is something like “just a regular Christmas tour” 😉
I’m a take-the-decorations-down-the-day-after-Christmas girl. I LOVE Christmas, but by then, I need to breathe, and have the free space in our little home back. How about y’all?
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A new master bedroom closet design- Week One of the $100 Room Challenge!
Organized kitchen cabinets and the bloggers who nail it
It’s gonna be good! ORC Week 4
I absolutely loved this post and your Christmas tour! Your tree reminds me of mine – in fact, we have some of those very same preschool handmade ornaments and they are amazing. It wouldn’t be our tree without them. We’ve got all the kid crafts, they help decorate, it doesn’t have a theme, and my ribbons were atrocious on it this year. But it’s our tree. And yours is perfect too. You just made me chuckle and I love your point of view. I’d be happy to do a blog hop with you next year!! We can be the “regular” trees vs the “pinterest” trees! Merry Christmas!
Aww, thanks Melissa! I’m so glad to hear I’m not alone in being content with just keeping it real 🙂 The handmade and handed-down ornaments are some of the best parts of Christmas to us! Yes, a “regular” tree blog hop sounds perfect! Merry Christmas to you too!
I love Christmas traditions and that means using your children’s hand made ornaments and the things that mean something. I find the all new matchy, glitzy Christmas decor kind of sad. Not traditional or interesting at all. I clicked on this blog because it looked real. When my grandkids visit they love to see their ornaments and the ones their mother’s made. And they talk about the ones brought we brought back from trips and our tradition of giving everyone a special ornament reflecting their interests on Thanksgiviing to start the season.
Valeri, thank you so much for your honest comment! Our kids, and honestly mine and Michael’s (my husband) love for all of our “old fashioned”, handmade, passed-down ornaments and decorations are why I just don’t think I will ever be able to change the way we decorate for Christmas. While I can appreciate the beauty in the new “matchy, glitzy” Christmas decor, and to each her own, it’s just not for us 🙂 Thank you so much for visiting!