Category Archives: Decor

Decor – Christmas Wreaths

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At Christmas time, I decorate with several different wreaths throughout the house; some are traditional in design while others are more whimsical.  There is always a wreath on the front door to greet our holiday guests in a festive way along with the other front porch decorations.   Every year it is a different one and I have a couple of wreaths that I rotate from year to year.  One it is a large pine wreath decorated with pinecones and red berry sprays, another one is a wreath covered completely with velvet holly leaves and then another is a pinecone wreath with holly leaves and red berries.

Christmas wreaths are not just for the front door – try using them in other rooms of the house.  We have a fairly large size kitchen that is open to the family room and there are several areas that I decorate for Christmas.  One area had a long counter work space with two chairs (this is where my daughter does her homework while I am cooking dinner).  I have a Department 56 gingerbread train that is displayed in the space above the cabinets with two large pine boughs and red “sugared” berries.  To complete this area, I hang two holly leaves and berry wreaths from the doors of the cabinets.  The decorations are out of the way so they don’t take up any counter space and the wreaths are hung from long hooks so the cabinet doors can still be opened.

    

Other ideas for wreaths:

  • Use several baby themed ornaments on a wreath to hang from the door to the baby’s room.
  • Use several Barbie ornaments on a wreath to hang from the door to a little girl’s room.
  • Use several Matchbox cars attached to a wreath to hang from the door to a little boy’s room.
  • Use seashells and starfish for a beach themed wreath in the bathroom.
  • Use screwdrivers and wrenches (check before using!) for a tool themed wreath in the garage.

Last month I posted a Craft project for a special Memory Wreath decorated with small photo frame ornaments.  For Thanksgiving I used family photos but for the Christmas season you can use photos from your children’s visits to Santa or maybe use your children’s school photos taken over the years.  It is a wonderful way to remember special times and to see how much your children have grown and changed!

For more wreath projects, please look for this week’s Craft post.  I will show you how to create three unique wreaths using a collection of themed ornaments – two different Department 56 wreaths using small ornament houses from the Dickens and North Pole collections and also a Disney character wreath.

So, please let me know what you think of these wreath ideas or send me a photo of ones that you have made – I would love to see them!

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.

    

    

Decor – Fall to Christmas Change Over

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The week after Thanksgiving is a very busy time for me!  That’s when the Fall decorations are put away and the Christmas decoration boxes are brought up from the basement.   I really enjoy taking my time to unpack each box and deciding how I want to do this year’s displays.  Even when I’m using the same pieces year after year I try to set my displays in different ways or in different rooms of the house.  Sometimes the Fontanini Nativity set will be in the dining room and the next year it will be in the our library or the Department 56 North Pole Village will be in the family room bookshelf and the next year is will on the mantel over the fireplace.  This keeps everything interesting and it is fun to use different ideas or techniques to set up the displays.

In upcoming December posts, I will take you through all my preparations of the different Christmas displays I create in our home, such as: Fontanini Nativity Display and Department 56 North Pole Village.  Some other December posts detail my other Christmas decorations, such as: Themed Christmas trees and Christmas wreaths.  All of these Christmas decorations are created to make the holiday season a special one for my family.

Now, I wanted to discuss how to use some of the same materials for both Fall and Christmas.  When this is done in a creative way it can save time and expense when changing over the decorations from one holiday to next.  (Who doesn’t want to have extra time and save money at this time of year!!)

Pine garlands are a very versatile material for this purpose and I will show how with some simple changes it can be used for both Fall and Christmas decorations.  One of the most traditional ways to use pine garlands are on a mantel over the fireplace.  Below are two photos showing the same garland decorated for both holidays.  Keeping the same pine garland on the mantel, I switched out the fall decorations and replaced them with the Christmas decorations.  For Fall, the pine garland is decorated with colorful ceramic fall leaves and red berry sprays scattered throughout.    For Christmas, I used several ceramic snowflakes, large green glass pinecones ornaments and red berry sprays.

    

Small tabletop Christmas trees can be used in the same versatile way.  In my dining room I create a “Memory Tree” and placed it on a tea table.  This special tree is decorated with family photos in small bronze photo frame ornaments.  (Please see this week’s Craft post for more information on the Memory Tree or Wreath)  Below are two photos showing the “Memory Tree” decorated in two different ways for Fall and Christmas.  For Thanksgiving, the tree is decorated with golden feathers and oak leaves with acorns.  For Christmas, I replace the golden feathers with burgundy feathers and small glass pinecone ornaments.

    

As you can see, all it takes is a little creativity and by simply using different decorations to accent a pine garland or a tabletop Christmas tree the look can reflect the different holidays.

I would love to hear from you so, please write me to share your own ideas or comments.

 

Decor – Thanksgiving Table Decorations

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On Thanksgiving morning Jeff is up early in the kitchen to prepare the turkey for the oven.  The smell of onions and celery cooking on the stove always brings back wonderful childhood memories – I loved waking up to the smell of my Mother fixing Thanksgiving dinner back home in California.  Another heavenly smell coming from the kitchen is the pumpkin pies baking in the oven and Jeff makes wonderfully delicious pumpkin pies but my favorite is his pumpkin cheesecake!  (Gosh, I’m suddenly hungry!)

In our house, we have an ongoing family joke – Jeff is in charge of all the cooking and I am in charge of the presentation and setting a beautiful table.  Jeff actually enjoys preparing Thanksgiving dinner so I’m lucky that I don’t have to cook! The decorations in our dining room usually start with a floral arrangement of golden roses in a lovely Tiffany crystal vase that stays on the dining room table all year. (The photo shown above was taken last year) I always add peasant feathers to the arrangement with several small pumpkins and gourds placed around to give it a fall festive look.  This Fall season I am making a Victorian inspired centerpiece with fruits and feathers, the rose floral arrangement will be moved to the family room.  I think the new Fall centerpiece looks lovely on our dining room table and adds the perfect elegant touch. (Please see last week’s Craft post for full instructions for the Fall Victorian Centerpiece shown in the photo below.) When I change the holiday decorations it allows me the chance to be creative and make something new to keep the process fresh every year!

Since Thanksgiving is a time to gather for a wonderful dinner and give thanks, I wanted to have a special decoration to honor and remember our families.  Living so far from everyone on the west coast, we rarely have the huge celebrations like we had back in California.  Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations were always the highlight of our holiday entertaining and we enjoyed having family and friends over to celebrate!  In the years since we moved to the Midwest, we have been very fortunate to spend Thanksgiving dinner with my Mother, Jeff’s Mother, Grandparents and also his Aunt and Uncle.  Many of those family members have passed away over the last few years and we miss them very much.  So, to complete the dining room decorations, there is a “Memory Tree” on the tea table.  This small tabletop pine tree is decorated with small family photo frames and golden feathers.  (Please see next week’s Craft post for directions on creating your own Memory Tree or Wreath as shown in the photo above.)

     

When the decorations are finished, I cover the table with an ivory tablecloth.  This year I will be using a lovely family crocheted tablecloth that I recently found in my Mother’s house.  I will set the table with our best china, vintage silverware and lovely crystal glasses.  Since my Mother recently passed away this year I will remember her when I set the table with the Noritake “Rothschild” china that she bought for our wedding.  I love the classic pattern and the colors are a lovely silver and muted blue.  For serving I will use pieces from my silver bowl and platter collection that I have loved finding in antique stores over the years.  When you take the time to set a beautiful table it honors your guests and lets them know the meal you celebrate together is special.

How do you set the table for your Thanksgiving meal?