Christmas Home Tour 2013

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here and I'm thrilled to be sharing my Christmas decorations with you along with many other fabulous bloggers.

I'm all about budget friendly Christmas decorations and this year I found a way to do both glam winter wonderland decorations and some traditional red and green fun decorations.

Whether you are new here or back for more, I hope you enjoy the tour, and a first real peek at my home. Let's start with the first rooms you see when you step inside… my formal living room and dining room.

I've been working hard to get these two rooms completely finished, and still have a ways to go, but that made adding Christmas decorations to the pretty much blank walls really easy. In this part of my house I wanted to do a more grown up version of Christmas with lots of white, blue, and silver….sort of a winter wonderland feel.

I started by hanging these 3 large silver glitter stars that I got at the end of the season for a steal a few years back and added my new reindeer that I picked up at Michael's last week. Then to cozy up the space, I borrowed a large basket from my little mister's nursery and filled it with a cozy blanket and some pillows.

And finally to add some height, I made this easy and inexpensive tinsel garland tree by wrapping garland around a tomato cage.

A simple (and inexpensive) way to add pops of color and sparkle, is to add colorful ornaments to vases that you already own. I went through my house and borrowed items from other rooms or from my kitchen cabinets.

My mom let me borrow this beautiful reindeer that my grandmother gave her. It is beautiful and the perfect amount of sparkle.

My home has a modern vibe and so flanking the windows with wreaths gives it symmetry. I bought the wreaths a few years ago and I love that each year I can easily make them different than the year before by switching out the ornaments and ribbon.

My entry table completes this area with some sparkly lit garland and these nut crackers that I found recently at Home Goods.

I added some sparkle and pattern by cutting some pretty wrapping paper and using it as a table runner, a definite money saving trick.

Ok. So I told you this room was one gigantic space that also includes my dining room, which is also in a transition.

On my dining table I switched up my Fall Table Centerpiece to easily make it work for my winter theme.

And on the buffet I added some more wrapping paper, sparkly ornaments and raided the kitchen for some blue martini glasses. It all sparkles from the light of my light up trees that I found at Ikea last year.

All the blue, white, and silver definitely make this a grown up space. It feels light and glam and fulfilled my need to decorate for me!

But… I have kids too! And one of the duties I take quite seriously as a mom is to make Christmas time fun and magical. So for the room that we spend the most time in, I wanted it to be fun and full of Christmas colors. Red and Green are a must right?

We always have a real tree. I grew up with the tradition of a family day going out and getting our tree and then decorating it together. My husband loves traditions like this so we make a big deal out of the whole thing. My daughter loves it and the little mister will too, I'm sure. We put on Christmas music, make cider, and put the ornaments on together.

To add some Christmas to the windows I strung a string of fake garland from the dollar store and hung mini ornaments on it. Then I added some fun red and white sparkly bows to the top. This is the first year I have done this and I love it. It helps bring the greenery up and around the room with just this little touch of garland.

On the opposite wall, we have a large wall of built ins that are perfect for displaying family photos and Christmas decorations. The key is to put away a lot of the things that you usually have out so that when you add your Christmas decorations, it doesn't look too crowded. (And my mom wanted to make sure that you all knew she taught me this… Hi Mom!) I chose a few shelves to make christmassey and left the others alone.

I decked out the top shelf with my paint chip garland, some wrapping paper inside of frames, and Christmas items.

And then chose one shelf on each side and hung our handmade stockings which added a ton of color. And added lot of pattern and color by simply wrapping pictures in Christmas wrapping.

Then added ribbon to some large photos of my kiddos to bring the red and green all the way around the room.

I hope you enjoyed yourself and got some inspiration along the way.

Christmas Party Tour Of Homes

There is plenty more, so be sure to visit the other blogs below.

Krista from The Happy Housie
Laura from The Turquoise Home
Amy from Commona My House
Abby from Just a Girl and Her Blog
April from House by Hoff
Shayna from The Wood Grain Cottage
Jenna from Rain on a Tin Roof
Jen from Migonis Home
Rachel from Maison de Pax
Jamie from So Much Better With Age
Molly from The Poor Sophisticate
Tanya from Twelve O Eight
Amy from The Blissful Bee
Heather from The Southern State of Mind
Lauren from The Thinking Closet
Amber from Averie Lane
Sarah from Life on Virginia Street
Chelsea from Making Home Base
Aniko from Place of My Taste
Christy from Confessions of a Serial Do-It-Yourselfer
Corey from Hey There, Home (you are here)
Patricia from Little Cottage on the Pond
Emily from Two Purple Couches