I know I’m really really late in getting this posted in time for Christmas so I guess if you are interested in trying any of these ideas you will need to keep it in mind for next Christmas... sorry!
Part of the reason for the delay was I was simply waiting to post until I got all my Christmas decor up, but I finally gave up on that… I seriously don’t think I will ever find enough time to completely finish! So I will share what I have so far …
Here is the living room still in a fall mode…
Now with a few Christmas touches…
This year I bought a live tree. The process didn’t involve a happy – go - lucky family of four in boots and plaid scarves walking through a Christmas tree farm on a snowy afternoon with a sled in tow, looking for the perfect tree. It was just little old me at Wal-Mart, loading, by myself, without gloves or even a coat on a gray, 30 degree day an eight foot tall tree, all tightly bound in balers twine. Nothing attractive, mind you.. me or the tree. I grabbed the closest one and stuffed him across the seats in the mini van, leaving a mess of pine needles scattered throughout the van. (which hubby later very willingly cleaned up without one complaint) ha!
Needless to say, after unwinding the twine from the poor scrunched tree, the branches sprung out and we were in business! How I love the smell of fresh pine and of course the natural look of a live tree! I stuck the tree in a galvanized tub and covered the holder with burlap, giving it a countryish look.
I wanted to decorate it with something simple that I had on hand, not too glitzy and yet eye catching. So, with the boys’ help, we made a peppermint candy string…
We unwrapped the candy and hot glued them to hemp string…
We used about three and a half packs of candy from Dollar General. I paid a dollar for each pack. I was afraid the candy would fall off the string because of the weight, but thankfully only two fell off while wrapping it around the tree.
I wanted to wrap something else around the tree besides the lights and candy string. I remembered a roll of vintage looking lace that I had gotten on sale a few years ago at Zincks, a local fabric outlet store, so I used that. After adding some silver and red ornaments and pine cones, I felt it still needed a little something. Christmas tags maybe? I printed some tags off from online and added some inspirational words to them. I punched holes in the tags and strung them with hemp string.
Of course, one of the guys that live in this house had to ask (and voice my fears) “Why did you put price tags on the tree?” But, oh well, I liked them enough to leave them on.
I made the wreath by the window using boxwood sprigs.
It was really quite simple to make but a little time consuming. It took more greenery than I thought it would and as the Boxwood wilts a little, I see I should have used even more. My original intention had been to make one for every window, but I quickly changed my mind on that matter! I had a green Styrofoam ring in storage that I had gotten a few years ago and used that. I tied it to the curtain rod using a piece of burlap.
This year for the mantle I wanted a nativity scene so I went on Pinterest for inspiration. i found one I really liked, and unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the blog where it was shared, but I decided to use the idea. I printed the nativity scene animals, Mary & Joseph, and baby Jesus in a manger off on cardstock. I found the patterns on google images. After carefully cutting them out, I sprayed them with glitter spray. Plain white would have worked to, but it adds a little glitz to them with the glitter. I constructed a little “stable” with twigs that I tied together. I set some more branches and Cyprus shrubbery on the mantle shelf. The characters I was able to glue onto the branches. I used my menu chalk board that I use in my garden parties as a background. I also sprayed the twigs and greenery with snow spray from Wal-Mart.
The “O holy night” banner I also printed off online.
I added string lights amongst the greenery.
I made a burlap cushion cover and transferred the word “jingle” onto it using parchment paper. I exchanged the wooden box on the coffee table for the Coca Cola one. I was cleaning the other day and moved the box onto a nearby stool and when I went to get it, this is what I found inside!
Usually I have rules about where the cats can settle for a nap but I didn’t have the heart to wake him up, so I moved the cat, box and all back to the coffee table. He never even stirred. :)
Last year I fixed up a lot of snow globes and still had all the supplies, so I thought I’ll fix a few for the table behind the sofa. You can read about the details here.
Instead of turning them upside down like I did in the past, I just left them up right, which works too! Every time I see a snow globe, I want to be small and enter that magical snowy world. :) I added the quilt batting and lights to get an extra snowy look.
I hope to share a few more ideas here in the next week if I get to it, but for now, I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for visiting!
-Mary
) I went into the shop where I have a stash of 
)
