As much as I held tight to the last days of November savoring each and every last moment of Fall glory, December, swiftly marched herself in with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and the mad dash of decking the halls has been on ever since! Although it is now December 11 and we have been busy with one activity after another, I have felt surprisingly peaceful and full of awe with the season of Advent and God doing things to my heart I never expected. I will post more on my Advent journey very soon. Today I wanted to share our home decorated for Christmas in our third annual
Christmas Home Tour. I am joining up with
Jennifer Rizzo for her "Deck the Halls" tour. Make sure you link to her site to see some really beautiful homes this year. They are amazing!
This year I have really worked on simplifying my home décor getting rid of things that only took up space and had no real significance to me or to my family. In pulling out the things I would use to decorate for Christmas, I got rid of a lot of things that were just for décor and saved those items which were meaningful such as my Nativity collection, my German Nutcracker collection and a few Santa items. We also got a new, slimmer artificial tree that could hold less ornaments, so I purged the ornament box too. What is left is a home with decorated meaningful Christmas items with lots of room to breath! I always enjoy participating in the Christmas Tour of Homes each year. I hope that your days of Advent and Christmas are filled with much love and joy!
The outside of our home does not change much from year to year. When you find something that works well with your house style, it makes decorating very easy.
I did add a small bit of garland that I found at Trader Joe's and a beautiful glass star from my favorite local shop,
Sweet Pea. I'd like to add more garland on the posts for next year, but this simple display still adds a nice touch.
The first stop through our front door is the dining room. I call this room my "Nativity Room" as I have all of my Nativity collection displayed here. Grouping collections together by room has helped our home to feel more cohesive and I think adds to the feeling of peace I am experiencing this year.
We received a lovely gift from my Dad and Pam of everyday Christmas plates from William Sonoma a couple of Christmases ago. I love that they feature the traditional Christmas carols that we sing during the season. I also love having these plates displayed on our dining room table. It makes me want to sing a Christmas carol each time I pass through the dining room, which is often :-).
I added fresh greens and lemon cypress tress to the table and to the buffet to give a feeling of the outdoors coming in. Greens are from Trader Joe and the lemon cypress, pots, lantern, and nativity are all from
Sweet Pea Garden Shop here in Knoxville.
My keeping room displays our "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" tree that we purchased from the Fantasy of Trees to benefit Children's Hospital of East Tennessee. I also have my Santa collection of Laurie Mitchell figurines. This room looks so different in many ways from
last year. I really
decluttered the space ALOT, especially from
two years ago!
Next we will enter the "Nutcracker Room" or our family room. This will be our last stop of the tour this year. Aside from the girls rooms which are decorated with their Christmas trees, I did not decorate any other rooms of the house. This again has given me a more peaceful feeling as I go from room to room in our house.
These two Nutcrackers are the first ones I bought when I was 15 and my dad and Pam lived in Spain. These were purchased in Frankfurt, Germany.
I've since added 13 other German nutcrackers to our collection.
The family room as viewed from the kitchen. I added live garland and cypress tress to the mantle as well as little poinsettias to bring the outdoors inside. Our new slender Christmas tree (a gift from my sister-in-law) got a new spot in the corner of the room and is nestled with "brown paper packages tied up with string!"
Merry Christmas Y'all!
Thanks
Jennifer Rizzo for hosting these tours! I truly feel blessed by viewing so many beautiful homes during the Christmas season!
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1 comment:
Very, Very beautiful, Amy! I love the garland added to the front of your house and also on your mantel. Your new tree is so very nice and the "brown paper packages tied up with string" add to the simplicity that you were striving to achieve. Everything is so beautiful!!! Can't wait to spend Christmas with you!
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