Holiday Home Tour 2013

Merry Christmas!  Come on inside where it's warm and take a quick tour of how we decorated for Christmas this year.

I told you I would show you, so here it is.  A few quick photos of our home decorated for Christmas.  This is our first year really getting into "decking our halls" since until now we've always lived in transition.

My sister in law has inspired me lately to be more crafty, so I made these wreaths for our front door.  I took advantage of Michael's 50% sale and spent only $20 on the items for each wreath.  Not bad considering all of the ones I looked at buying were at least double that amount!

I sprayed the "G" with gold glitter spray paint I found at The Home Depot.  Now let's go through this door and see the rest...

The first thing you see after walking through the door is our Christmas card tree we made.  My sister-in-law is also responsible for this amazing idea!  It was super easy to make, with the help of Ben, of course.  Ben measured and cut the wood.  I painted (the stems, feet and clips), then glued the clips to the boards with hot glue.  We just nailed the wood pieces together.  I'm considering posting a how-to, but didn't take photos along the way so not sure it will be too helpful!

Oh!  And the star on top is also from Michael's...super cheap.  I painted it with the gold glitter spray paint and bright yellow acrylic paint.  This whole project cost us less than $10 because we already had the wood pieces on hand, so I only needed to buy the star, paints and clothes pins, which are all very inexpensive.

We bought our tree from The Home Depot.  It's a real tree.  We've done this every year, except the last two years when we were moving around Christmas time.  This is definitely the tallest tree we've ever owned and I love it!  This year, I put a big burlap bow on top and wide ribbon around, costing me a total of $$20.  (Again, taking advantage of Michael's 50% off sale.)  I'll keep both for future years!

We have had these stockings from Pottery Barn for a couple of years now.  I had to order a new one for Simon this year, though.  The stocking holders are from Target and a little bit more than I wanted to spend.  But, I love them because they are heavy cast iron, so they will hold a filled stocking.  The garland is from Michael's at 60% off!

We might not have the Elf on the Shelf, but we have these little elves out every Christmas.  This is our wedding cake topper, custom made to look like us.  They are on the shelf all year long, but every Christmas I put these little Santa and Elf hats on them.  Where did I find the hats, you ask?  I just bought adult sized hats at the Dollar Tree and cut of the very tips so they fit the little figures perfectly! 🙂

It took me a while, but I finally found holiday pillows that I love love love!  All from Target.  The "Merry Christmas" one in the title photo is my favorite.  I believe it was around $12.  The pillows above were a little more expensive, but they were on sale and I signed up for the REDcard debit card to get my 5% off, and then I had a coupon for $10 off.  I plan on using the large pillows and the white pillows through out the winter months, then just store away the jeep/tree one after Christmas.

I've been enjoying using Judah's art to decorate our house.  Along with a few projects he did at school, I also hung up this Santa we made together at home.  It's a paper plate, cotton balls, red tissue paper, and pink paint with sticker eyes.

I'm super excited about this Advent calendar I made this year.  I just stapled a canvas drop cloth to a large insulation board that Ben had out in the garage.  The money spent here was just on the drop cloth ($7) and the numbered burlap bags ($20).  The bags came with the red twine and clips.  I plan to write scripture passages telling the Christmas story from the book of Luke, then sit with our children each night of December to read them together (for future years).  Haven't gotten that far yet, though!

It was hard to get a decent photo of this, but I love having the word "Merry" above the door here.  I found this wall decor for free and then spray painted it with the gold glitter spray paint that I used for the wreath and the card tree.

I've always wanted a mailbox and a big bow on it for Christmas!  Again taking advantage of Michael's sale, I bought the garland at 60% off.  The garland was recommended by the sales associate because it's soft pine, which made it easy to wrap around the mailbox.  I just used craft wire to hold it on.  The bow was 50% off (I have no idea how to make beautiful big bows like that, but plan to learn how soon so I can save even more money!)  This project cost me about $25.

We have a ways to go as far as filling up our bookshelves and walls (as you can see behind our Christmas tree) but I'm happy with how the Christmas decorations have really made our home comfy and cozy.

And that's it for this year.  Next year I hope to have a nativity set (wanting this one with this stable, but will have to purchase it slowly and collect a few each year to save my wallet!)

Am I the only one who wants to keep my Christmas decorations up all year?