holiday home tour (part i)

Decorating our home for Christmas is always one of my favorite things!  I love creating festive areas in our rooms, and I’ve learned over the years that simple really is better.  I used to haul out every box and container with every Christmas-themed knickknack ever given to us, and then I’d try to find a space to display it all.  It was exhausting and I’m not even sure my house looked that great…just cluttered!

I’m just about finished decorating for Christmas 2016!  Beginning today (and every day this week), I will be sharing part of our home.  Let’s call it a “holiday home tour!”

Today, I’m starting with our outside and foyer decorations.  Last year, I went with more of a “glam” look with large, oversized sparkly ornaments, ribbon, and garland bedecking the outside area around our front door and leading into our foyer.  It was beautiful, but after the same holiday decor for the past three years…I decided to change it up a bit and go with a more traditional look.

I used traditional garland, greenery, sprigs of berries, red ribbon, branches, white lights, and those HUGE pinecones in our urns and around the front door.  I’m still fascinated by the size of those pinecones.  Love them!  Because our house sits up on a hill, sometimes our decorations can “get lost” if they are too small.  Those pinecones are perfect…did I mention how much I love them?!?

As you enter the house, the first thing you notice is our foyer light decorated with fresh live garland, more sprigs of berries, and jingle bell roping.

By the way, Costco has the best garland…$15 for 25 feet of mixed fresh cedar and pine garland!

 

 

There is more garland, red ribbon bows, and more of that jingle bell cording hanging above the entrances into our living room and dining room.  I just love the way it smells!

Next to the coat closet, I have a display of reindeer plates that my two oldest daughters created many years ago.  Claire realized she missed out on this since she wasn’t even born until 2006, so she made one this year to go with her sisters’ plates.

The staircase and banister is decorated with garland…not fresh, but artificial.  The one and only year that I hung fresh garland on our stairs, it dried out so quickly and the girls bumped it every time they walked up and down the stairs…you can imagine the mess of needles on the floor!  Besides, it is easier to bend the wired garland so it looks how I want it to look around the banister!

I added candy cane striped ribbon, more red berries, small pinecones, white lights, and paper scrolls saying ‘Happy Holidays’ to the garland on the stairs.

On the landing, I hung four small wreaths with the candy cane striped ribbon in the windows that look out to our back yard.  Simple, but festive!  Our advent calendar (click here for the details on that) is displayed below the windows.  As you can see, my girls are already more than a week into their countdown surprises!

Thanks for going on the “tour” of our decorated foyer.  I’m enjoying the festive touches every time I walk through it!  Check back tomorrow, as I’ll be sharing another part of our home.  I’m still deciding what room that will be…