Gettin’ in the spirit with a Christmas House Tour

It’s DECEMBER!!!!!

One of my favourite times of year! 

While it seems like everyone’s been hyped up on Christmas Spirit way early this year,  I still sort of consider the 1st of December as the OFFICIAL beginning of the Holiday Season.

That being said, my decorations went up last weekend, as well as my Christmas lights outside.  I just couldn’t wait for December.

I love decorating for Christmas.  It’s one of my favourite things to do.  So when I realized I had some spare time last Saturday evening, I dug out all of my boxes of decorations, and proceeded to Christmasify my house.

Now I feel like I’m ready for all of the Holiday specials and movies, for the egg nog and cookies (if I can find some sort of low-fat variety…), for the Christmas music and parties.

I thought it would be appropriate to kick off December by sharing some photos of my favourite decorations, and ones that have special meaning.

The tour starts here, at my front door…

 

This is the wreath that hangs on my front door.  My Aunt Brenda makes beautiful wreaths, and last year, she surprised me by letting me choose one as a gift from her.  This is the one I picked.   I love it!  It was damaged a bit in a wind storm last winter, but I think it still looks amazing.

Anyone remember my reindeer decoration debacle?  You would think I’d avoid all outdoor decorations after that…  BUT I don’t have many options for lights at my place (and I lack the manpower to put them up), so I bravely purchased this little snowman for my front stoop and assembled him all by myself.  I think he’s cute.  I just hope he doesn’t lose his head and end up convulsing on my front lawn like the deer did…

Moving in to the front hall, there’s a Walt Disney Wall Hanging, which the Hamilton Family brought back for me from their last trip to Disney World.  (You might not be able to tell, but the snowman is wearing Mickey Mouse Ears).  I have no idea how to properly hang this, so I used push pins.  This wall looks awfully bare after Christmas is over and it comes down!

This Santa sings “Get Ready For This” and shakes his booty.  I gave him to my grandma a few years ago for Christmas.  It had become increasingly difficult to buy a 90-something-year-old woman Christmas gifts, so I usually ended up getting her something silly to make her laugh.  When she passed away last Spring, I re-inherited Santa.  After my niece and nephew dragged him around my place on Sunday, making him sing and dance REPEATEDLY, I realized how loud and annoying he is.  I’m sure Grandma just loved him… ;)

 

This is my key rack in the front hall.    A few little decorations on top, and then hanging from the pegs (aside from keys) is the Christmas ball my friend Sharon taught us to make at our craft day this past weekend, and the Star ornament my friend Lindsay gave me a few years ago.

This is the little stand in my living room.  It holds my Snowman Advent Calendar (which I had yet to put the right number of days to countdown on it apparently…) – and for the first time, this is my only Advent calendar.  No chocolate for me this year. :(  The trio of Snowmen is one of my favourite decorations.  I bought it last year.  The two little candles are my two of my most loved scents – Vanilla and Cinnamon.  And that little ornament to the left of the picture is Elvis, holding a guitar in front of a Christmas tree.  With a push of a button, he sings “Blue Christmas”.  LOVE!!!

In another corner of the living room, I tried something new this year.  I filled that giant vase with leftover Christmas balls, and instead of putting away all of the pictures, I left them out and added just a few other little knick-knacks – snowmen tealight holders, and the little ceramic Nativity Scene that I bought in Cuba.  In the Holiday basket is a Christmas blanket, the TV remotes, and a few Christmas movies (as well as Friends and a Yoga DVD…) and that big snowman was one that I bought at Canadian Tire last year on sale.  (I do have a thing for snowmen, in case you haven’t noticed yet…)

This was intended to be my “O Holy Night” table – the reminder of the real reason for the season.  I bought the “O Holy Night” tile from Lindsay at the Onslow School craft show a few weeks ago, and the little Christmas Tree Nativity Scene lights up.  It’s one of my favourite decorations.  I have no idea how those reindeer ended up prancing through the “O Holy Night” table, though…I’m assuming they were flying through the sky the night Baby Jesus was born???  Right???

 

My tree!  It’s my mom’s tree, she used to put it up in her basement, but passed it on to me when I moved out and couldn’t afford to get one of my own.  I go with a red, gold, silver, Ottawa Senators theme.  Multi-coloured lights.  And the glass block “gift” that lights up beneath the tree?  My momma made that for me, too. :)

 

This pic was taken without the flash to show the twinkly lights, as well as the super-cute snowman in front of my TV that I got at our Friends’ Pot Luck Decoration Exchange last year.  (Many of my decorations are from past Pot Lucks with friends!)  That TV will be showing lots of Elf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Home Alone, The Family Stone, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Frosty the Snowman in the next few weeks!!!

This is the little hall between my living room and dining room.  The three-foot-tall Santa was the gift I won at the Mountainview Christmas Party last Friday night!  I LOVE him!!  (PLUS, he makes me think of Justin Timberlake singing “D*ck in a Box”. HA!)  On the ledge of the mirror is a little decoration that belonged to my grandma that my mom was going to sell this past summer in a yard sale.  I snagged it.  It was something that I clearly recognized as Grandma’s, and couldn’t bear to see it go.  Also, that reflection in the mirror is another Santa decoration that belonged to Grandma.  I think my mom might have actually made him years ago…?  Not sure, I’ll have to ask her.

Into the dining room we go – This is my Grandma’s dining room set, her green table cloth, and her Christmas runner (which I believe was made by my mom’s cousin, Lorraine).  The tealight tree centrepiece was a gift from my friend Sara, and I added a few snowmen of course!

Grandma is present in many places in my house, but none more so than this corner.  In fact, I call it “Grandma’s Corner”.  Her ironing board, which my Aunt Nora painted, is hanging on the wall there, along with a collection of pictures of Grandma.  That little stand is from her place as well.  I put her ceramic Christmas tree – the only Christmas tree I ever remember Grandma having – on that stand.  I just look at this corner and I think of her.  I hope to have my mom and her siblings over for Christmas tea someday this month so that they can sit at Grandma’s table and look around at all of the decorations from her house.

I don’t have a whole lot of decorations in my kitchen – a few red bows on the cupboard handles, a Snowman cookie jar, a few Christmas magnets on the fridge – but this year, I added this sign that I bought from my friend Josee at the Onslow School Craft Fair a few weeks ago.  Josee’s signs are so nice!  Love them!  I had to take down my 2010 calendar to put it there, but I guess it was time to say goodbye to 2010 once and for all. ;)

Last but not least, we have the dogs.  They’ve found a home hanging in this credenza that Sue gave to me on the wall in the dining room.  I wanted to decorate for the dogs – I thought they needed a little Christmas spirit too – but after trying different decorations up there, the only thing I left was the little glass Christmas tree.  Anyone have any suggestions on how I could make their living quarters a little more Christmassy??  Maybe just tie a few ribbons and bows around them??

So that’s it!  I hope you enjoyed my Christmas House Tour!  What are some of your favourite decorations?  Do you go with a theme for your tree?  Share your Christmas decorating tips & treasures in the comment section.

It’s DECEMBER, baby! :)

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