Holiday Home Tour

I would love to welcome you all to my home all decked out for the holidays! Let's start out with the front door and work our way in shall we? I hope you enjoy the tour!!!
The glare of the sun is making it a little difficult to see, but this is a large pot in front of my door that I've filled with holly, pine, and spruce clippings. I've added some broken birch branches that came from my back yard. 

My front door is decorated with a trio of wreaths that I created. I tied three small wreaths together with ribbon and added a large bow...some pine cones that I sprayed with a metallic silver, and some dollar store ornaments. These are all elements that carried out in the rest of the house. I like the front door to give a hint as to what is waiting for guests inside (and so that everything matches of course.)

I really love how this turned out. I wanted something a little different than what I normally do. I would've liked to use really wreaths however, my home faces the south and I have full sun all day long. Other years I have put a live wreath on my door and within a few days it is completely dried out! So, for the past few years I have used a faux wreath.

 As you enter into my home I have a small foyer. I have a tiny wall that I have a mirror on and a small half moon table. I love to use this area for fresh arrangements all year long as a nice welcoming for guests.  
                                          
 

I love this silver bowl. It was wedding gift. Other years used it for fresh greens simply by adding oasis soaked in water to keep the arrangement lasting long. This year I've just filled it with some dollar store ornaments.

                               My staircase doesn't really change a whole lot from year to year. I always do a green garland. Each year I change out the accessories. This year I've used some metallic pine cones and more dollar store ornaments. I think that there's a trend going on here??? As you can see I like to keep things cohesive. Other years I've had the kids stockings hanging from here. 

Entering into the kitchen, I've used this wreath. Looks familiar? This is the same wreath that I used for my fall decor. It started out as birch branches from my backyard that I manipulated into a circle and glued down onto a round flat form. To get this
Christmas look, I simply used a little white spray paint and then accessorized it with more ornaments, pine cones, some shiny crystals, and my ribbon. 

This is a fun arrangement on the kitchen island. I sprayed some birch branches white and added them to the glass hurricane that I filled with more dollar store ornaments. I hung some crystal (which are a little hard to see) and some ornaments from the branches. I like this idea because you can really do this so many different ways. Another idea could be to poke a hole in the Christmas cards you receive and tie a ribbon to them and hang them from a tree like this.

This is the centerpiece on my kitchen table.

 And.....the Christmas tree!
Oh how I love my tree every year. We have started a tradition of cutting down the tree each year and the kids really enjoy it. I have started with a base of white, gold, and silver. Each year I add a different color to the tree. This year I've added the chartreuse green. I really like how it turned out. Here are some close up shots.

 What do you think? I know that everyone has such different ways of decorating their tree, and that's what is so nice about going to different homes during the holidays. When you think about it, we all start out with the same thing and we all end up with something completely different. No two trees are every really identical. I love that.

The following photos are various areas throughout the home.

This is our elf "Jolly"..the kids love to run down each morning to try and find out where he is!

So that's most of the home tour! I have more to show you though so come on back and stop in for another visit! I am in the process of getting some great tablescapes together to show you. Looking forward to sharing them along with some stress free entertaining tips for the holidays! Have a great day!


Gina