2014 Christmas Tour of My Home

As I rummaged through my five bins of Christmas decorations last week, I realized I wasn’t in the mood to over-deck the halls this year. I took out only my favorite things, and it was very freeing!

I used to have a traditional (fake) pine wreath, but last year I picked up my white wood wreath on clearance at Target. I’d had my eye on it for years. It’s simple and classy, and neutral enough that I can leave it up through January.

My dining table remains basically the same throughout the year – I just change the placemat or runner under my ruffled bowl, as well as what’s in it.

This is the Nativity creche I grew up with, which was passed to me after my parents got a hand-carved set from Bethlehem. When I was a kid, I used to add my Little People to the scene. I don’t know where the creche came from. Last night I checked it over to see if it’s a Fontanini like the one Alanna just got. It is not, so no need to feel bad about the years of abuse it took!

My tree is flocked, pre-lit, and even has tiny pinecones. I love it. Still haven’t figured out how to keep the star from drooping over, though.

Some of my favorite ornaments: a golden aspen leaf that I picked up in Colorado last year, and a lobster from Maine; an ornament I made from fabric scraps at a crafting event with Hillary a few years ago; a snowflake made of sheet music from Pottery Barn; my initial (from Kirkland’s, I think) and Charlie Brown.

To me, this will always be my cat Gandalf’s ornament. It was actually given to me by the same former boss who gave me Gandalf himself. The ornament makes music (or used to, before the battery died), and its song freaked him right out. He was simultaneously intrigued and terrified by it. I have a short video of him smelling the ornament, meowing and pawing at it, then rushing into my lap like “HELP!!” It’s now something I would save from a fire. (The video and the ornament.)

I kept the mantel simple: a Charlie Brown tree, a bowl of pinecones, a glass star, and some verses from Isaiah. The poster design came from a free printable I found on Pinterest, but rather than pay to have it printed up at size, I freehanded it myself on black posterboard with a metallic Sharpie and White-Out. Then I stuck it to a canvas I already had with double-sided tape. I am ridiculously pleased with my work. I didn’t realize until later that the laurel leaf pattern matches my stocking (and tree skirt!), and then it all felt like destiny.

And that’s it! I might put up a string of outside lights this weekend, but with or without them, this is a pretty pared-down Christmas and I’m happy about it.