Monthly Archives: December 2012

Decor – Christmas Stockings / Fireplace

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Every year decorating the mantel is one of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season.  I actually have three sets of stockings that I’ve used over the years.  When my son moved back in with us a few years ago, I bought new matching burgundy velvet stockings, trimmed with white fur and accented with silver and crystal initial pins.  Since my son has moved back to California, this year we will pull out of storage the three red and white knitted stockings from previous years.  They usually hang from beautiful bronze stocking holders and sit on the mantel over the fireplace.  This is the stocking that was used when my daughter was younger and it will be saved for her when she gets older.  I plan to give it back to her as a special present the first Christmas after she gets married.  My son will also get his childhood stocking when he gets married and it is packed away in his box of childhood things.  I got this idea from my mother.  She had saved our Christmas stockings and gave them to us when we were older. I thought that was a wonderful thing to do and I wanted to do the same for my children. There is a third set of stockings packed away and they are made of a lovely burgundy brocade fabric.  These were used the first year that my husband and I were married.   I’m sure years from now on our “first empty nesters Christmas” we will bring them out of storage and use them again!

As you might know from reading my previous posts, I like to use my holiday decorations in different ways every year.  It challenges my creative skills and saves on the cost of purchasing new decorations every holiday season.  This year I am going to try something new and instead of displaying my Department 56 North Pole Village in the family room bookshelf I am going to place the porcelain houses and their accessories on the fireplace mantel.

Usually all year-round I have a lovely painting of Sandringham, the Queen of England’s Norfolk estate hanging above the fireplace This year because I will be displaying the North Pole Village I felt the painting did not fit the theme of Christmas.  I looked around several retail stores hoping to find a Santa Claus or a winter scene picture but I couldn’t find anything I liked within my budget.  I know Thomas Kincaid has several paintings of lovely Christmas cottages but they are a little pricey.  So, I decided to create a custom sign to get the look I really wanted.

Last year I used a Christmas decal on the back of our car and I used this for inspiration; it reads “Santa Claus is coming to town”.  I thought it would be perfect to use for the sign but I needed to give it a much more substantial look.  My husband cut a piece of MDF board to my desired length and painted it white.  Then using painter’s tape for a straight line, I painted three boarders of three different colors.  The first was a Christmas Red color, then a Pine Tree Green color and finally I painted a thinner border of an Antique Gold color.  It still looked a little plain so I added some bronze jingle bells to give it some dimension and I think it turned out very nice.  Most of the materials we already had at the house so the cost was very minimal and I created a wonderful custom look to go with the Department 56 North Pole display and we love it!!

In years past I have decorated the fireplace mantel several different ways using a pine garland, red berry sprays and holly leaves  This always make a great base for creating different looks from one Christmas to the next.  One year I used special Christmas fames with photos of our children’s visits to Santa or family photos from past Christmas.  Then, another year I scattered porcelain snowflakes throughout the pine garland and it had a very festive winter theme.  When I displayed my Boyd’s Bear ornament collection I used two strands of ball lights, one in red and the other in green and I scattered the ornaments on the mantel amongst the garland.

As you can see no two displays looked the same!!  Let me know what you think.

    

STOCKING HANGING TIPS:

  • To secure stockings on the underside of a wooden mantel, use heavy-duty cup hooks or C-hooks.  (The hooks I use are so well hidden that I leave them there all year)
  • When purchasing decorative stocking hangers, I recommend the heavy metal kind with a lot of “weight” to them so they don’t tip over after the stockings have filled on Christmas Eve.
  • If you are leaving the stockings out before Christmas as decoration during the holiday season, be sure to stuff them with tissue paper for a fuller look.  You can remove the tissue paper on Christmas Eve before the stockings are filled by Santa!
  • It doesn’t matter the style or material used for Christmas stockings, just make sure they have ample room for Christmas goodies – your family will be glad you did!!  NOTE: When using knitted stockings make sure they are lined for easier filling!
  • Don’t forget stockings for the animals – our pets have their own stocking we fill with treats and toys!

So, have fun trying new ideas by using your holiday decorations in different ways … you might be pleasantly surprised!!

Decor – Christmas Trees

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During the Christmas season our home is decorated with several different Christmas trees in various rooms of the house.  The multiple trees started out of necessity because our large ornament collection would just not fit on just one Christmas tree!  It was also a good decorative decision to have more than one tree to display our different themed ornament collections on separate trees to fully see and appreciate each collection properly.

Our main Christmas tree is very traditional in design and we use a large seven foot pre-lite Christmas tree that we purchased several years ago at Costco.  My husband used to struggle for hours untangling and putting the lights on the tree and now the set-up time is so much quicker and easier.

After my husband brings the Christmas ornament storage boxes up from the basement, my daughter and I love to spend the time unwrapping and admiring the beautiful ornaments and thinking about the special memories that each ornament represents before finding the perfect spot to hang them on the tree.  We usually play some festive Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie while we are decorating the tree.

To start the decorating process and before any ornaments are hung, I use large red berry sprays inserted into each tree branch to give added fullness.  Next, I hang inexpensive solid red glass ball ornaments on the inside branches of the tree to fill more space.  The berry sprays and red ornaments help to unify the tree design and the red color looks amazing with the green of the tree.

Now we start hanging the Hallmark ornaments from our large collection, the ornaments collected on our family trips to Disneyland and Walt Disney World and the ornaments purchased as fun inexpensive souvenirs on our family vacations.  My children have even more special ornaments to hang on the tree that remind them of their different sport or school activities throughout the years, like Boy Scouts, gymnastics, swim lessons and ice skating or snow skiing.  We have even bought ornaments to remember an extra special Halloween costume.

To complete the tree, we use a beautiful porcelain angel dressed in a burgundy velvet fur trimmed dress and white feather wings.  We’ve had this special angel since my daughter was born and it is my husband’s honor to place it on the tree top every year.

When our ornament collection grew to such a large size and it included various themed ornament series, I decided that we needed multiple trees to see and appreciate each collection separately.  We now decorate several small Christmas trees throughout the house.  My husband has his Star Trek tree on the wooden file cabinet in his office.  My son has his Star Wars tree on a pedestal in his bedroom.  My daughter has her Barbie tree (some years it is her collection of Disney princess ornaments) on the desk in her bedroom.  In the kitchen, I have small tree decorated with gingerbread and candy ornaments.  In past years I have decorated and displayed Disney and Boyd’s Bears themed Christmas trees.

    

There are also other Christmas trees in various rooms of the house that are part of several different displays.  In the entry way on a wooden bench is a Santa in a beautiful white embroidered cloak with two elves.  There is one tree on the fireplace hearth with an old fashioned Santa dressed in lovely red velvet cloak with two reindeer.  In the dining room on the chest of drawers is a porcelain dark-haired doll dressed in a red wool coat, hat and black fur muff and displayed with a reindeer and a wooden sled.  Even in the bathroom there is woodland small Santa dressed in a corduroy coat and fishing box and this year I will be adding several small forest animals.