Simple Christmas Tour - New House

I should thank the eager Christmas enthusiasts in our neighbourhood that started decking their exteriors in early November.  It got our little man all hyped up and on repeat...  "When are we putting up our Christmas decorations?  Mommy I'll help you!"  "Do we have (exterior) lights like those?"  And when he was told no, we don't, "Aw~~...  can we get them?"  Well, you know the drill...

Don't get me wrong.  Christmas is my favourite time of the year - who doesn't love all the sparkly festival decorations?  I love decorating for Christmas, with Christmas tunes playing in the background on the radio.  It's also a good opportunity to refresh decor around the house.  

With all the hussle and bustle leading up to the Holidays, I opted to keep our Christmas decor simple.

So with little man's help, while he also managed to flip through a Lego catalogue and announced his Christmas wishlist, we put up the Christmas tree.  That was several weekends ago!  After playing around with placements and such, I think I'm happy with our Christmas decor this year.  

Welcome to our new house (not so new anymore)!  This is our entryway console table, on which I placed two IKEA faux sheepskin to mimic fluffy snow for the grazing brass reindeers.  I like how the whiteness of the sheepskin tones down all the gold accents on the table.  

Coming in through the hallway, I kept the garland on the staircase simple this year.  I used to wrap these faux garlands around the banister, but I noticed how the metal parts would scratch the railings at our old house.  This time around, I just used floral wires to gather the garland at the swivels.

We've placed our Christmas tree at the entrance of the sitting area, so that we can enjoy its twinkling lights from most of the ground floor.  And those are real presents underneath the tree!  Wrapping up fake presents is not for me.

I've started to hoard a good supply of LED stringlights* this Christmas.  I've put them anywhere and everywhere I can!  Here in our sitting area, I placed a strand of the LED lights into the container of extra ornaments.  The lights add even more twinkling effect to the beaded cone tree and the mercury glass tabletop finials.

For everyday Christmas decor on the dining table, I added two pots of faux greeneries with some berries on either side of the candelebras.  I pulled apart 2 twigs of faux branch arrangements and fanned out the smaller branches into the mercury glass lanterns.  

The Mr. commented that setting the table makes it more festive, but I'll save that for when my family comes over for Christmas dinner =)

The console table is another spot for me to use those beloved LED stringlights, which I wrapped around tiny Christmas trees placed in the birdcages.  Those are the same birdcages we used in the Spring Tablescape decor back in old house.

Aside from string lights, I've also added some gold accessories to our Christmas collection.  This gold resin deer from Target...

... and this pair of gold antlers were part of my recent haul.

Don't forget to deck the bar cart!  Check out my post on styling the bar cart for the Holidays!

I always love how decorators load up their rooms with Christmas decor, but I can never achieve their same look without everything looking messy and myself being overwhelmed.  I'm never one to dump Christmas all over the house.  Now that we're in a smaller house, I definitely don't want Christmas overload to happen.  I see that's the way it'll be for Christmases hereafter.  (Not to mention, it'll be much easier to clean up!)

I'll save my oohs and aahs as I indulge in other Christmas enthusiasts' instagram feeds #xmasdecor #christmasdecorations.  But for our home, I'll leave it livable and manageable.

I'm also happy (and relieved) to announce that, as of this morning, I'm done with my Christmas shopping!!  Woo hoo!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

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