Our Christmas Tree and Decorations, 2012

Hello, hello! Are you working on your Christmas decorations this week? I added ours in, bit by bit, over the last week or so. T picked up our live Christmas tree on Saturday night, and after some tense hours with lights and trips to 3 (!) Targets for extra lights on Sunday, the scene was complete. I'm loving the glow this year. I haven't really added anything new this year (using what I have!), but I couldn't resist showing you our Christmas Tree and a few of our holiday decorations!

Our main family tree lights up the living room, and it's filled with a mix of our childhood ornaments, homemade things the girls put together at school, souvenirs from vacations, family "heirloom" pieces, and fun Hallmark-type baubles. It's not "designer," but it's homey to us, and we love it! I try to tie it all in with red and gold ball ornaments to coordinate with our ribbon tree topper and tree skirt. Someday, I hope to have room for several large trees that I can decorate in themes and coordinating colors schemes, but for now, I'm content with this one. It tells our story!

I've been collecting Nutcrackers since I first danced in the ballet in elementary school. The large ones live on top of our family room TV armoire, along with Frank (short for Frankincense) who keeps them all in line. I keep the small ones on top of a dining room bookcase.

Our stairs are the first thing you see when you open our front door, so I line the railing with "greenery," ribbon, beads, and our stockings. This year, I decided to add the pretty berries that I found in my holiday stash.

Our dining table isn't finished yet. In fact, it currently displays the clothes I need to iron...but I did throw some stuff up on the sideboard. The dishes and platters are from Blessings Unlimited, an older pattern.

The girls love their pretty girlie tree in jewel tones and their play nativity set in the play room. I had bunches and bunches of glitter snowflakes left over from my Snowflake Wreath, so I added them to their little shabby tree as filler.

Not much in the kitchen this year. I'm just not feeling like pulling out tons of *stuff,* so I left it to our Advent Calendar, a couple of tchotchkes, and a shabby tree with antique chocolate molds and cookie cutters.

That's our home for the holidays! I need to get some presents wrapped and some cards sent out!

What's your favorite Christmas decoration in your home?

*Don't forget about my ongoing Christmas series, A Season of Serenity at Home. Click that link for a line-up of all the current posts...lots of holiday posts, projects, and inspiration!

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