It’s here! It’s here! The day that forces me to actually get my Christmas decorating done in a timely manner so that it’s not hanging over my head until the middle of December! It’s Christmas house tour day!

Specifically, I’m taking part in the Very Merry Christmas Home Tour with a bunch of other fabulous bloggers, hosted by Carrie over at Lovely Etc. Be sure to stick around to the end, because I’m going to tell you how you can enter to win $500, and you’ll want to do that because that’s a lot of money. And I’m also going to give you links so you can check out all the other amazing tours. But first up…ME!

So I know that lots of bloggers have carefully chosen and thoughtfully executed themes each year for their holiday decor. My theme is sort of….all the stuff in the Christmas boxes that I still love after not seeing it for a whole year. Plus dinosaurs. In this way, my Christmas decorating resembles my all the time decorating.

But I did end up with several new additions this year, including this triple wreath extravaganza for our front door:

And through that door is the foyer:

(Sorry about my elbow).

If the house were on fire and I could only save ONE element of my Christmas decor, I think I’d have to go with these elves. I picked them up at an antique mall a couple of years ago, and I love pulling them out for Christmas:

I picked up this little collection of green glassware at the thrift store recently, and added some branches from my yard and a few jingle bells:

And this little mouse collection. A friend gave me one of the little round mice awhile back, and I just found his twin plus a skinny mouse friend for them at the thrift store the other day.

My primary objective every Christmas season is to thrift as many vintage ornaments as I possibly can. My go to when styling stuff most of the year is “stack of books!” but for Christmas it morphs into “bowl of ornaments!” You’ll see:

The pom pom garland has been up for awhile, but I added this little book page Christmas tree garland:

Our library is to the left of the foyer. I think this is my favorite Christmas view in the whole house:

I just found this tree (at the thrift store! for $35! pre-lit!) last weekend. I used to have a tiny little silver tinsel tree in here to hold my blue and silver ornament collection. But I’ve always wanted a big white one like this. I saw one at the thrift store three years ago, but I was very pregnant and very weary and didn’t feel like dealing with it, so I let it get away, and I’ve regretted it ever since. Until now!

I’m happy to let the tree steal most of the thunder in here, but I did add some little touches to the top of the piano:

And the coffee table:

And then there’s the dining room. This wooden box is our centerpiece year round, but it usually holds a collection of brass candlesticks. For Christmas it has….MORE ornaments!

On the buffet is our Lemax Christmas Zoo. This year I broke down and added the fake snow, and it’s shimmery and sparkly and magical and not nearly as messy as I feared. Those people on the big piece in the middle move around while an announcer says, “Welcome, everyone, to the finest city zoo….IN THE WORLD!”:

We started collecting this a few years ago when the kids got some Sears gift cards for Christmas, and we try to add a piece every year. Which is a little tricky because they’re discontinued the series, but so far I’ve always managed to find something not too ridiculously expensive. Last year we got the penguin house:

And this year the Reptile house plus the souvenir stand:

And, finally, there’s our sunroom where our other Christmas tree is:

We used to put it in our den, but then I realized we could get a bigger tree if we put it in here since this is the only room with taller than eight foot ceilings. Bigger tree? Sign me up! I said. The white tree is all theme-y and matchy, but this one’s a free for all. Although I’d like to get more ornaments as souvenirs of our trips. We have some right now, like from our honeymoon on Nantucket:

….our trip to Colonial Williamsburg:

….Disneyworld:

…and of course from that time we helped the gang from Scooby Doo pick up their Christmas tree:

I kept the mantel fairly simple. Someday I’ll get it together and have lots of lush, seasonal greenery going on. But this is not that year:

We’ve had those needlepoint stockings since my 14 year old was a baby. I’m not sure how we had the foresight to buy exactly 4, but we did. Those chalkboard stocking holders were Target clearance last year (and one of those things I forgot all about until I pulled them out this year). Now, err….SANTA won’t get mixed up and forget which kid picked which stocking this year.

Last year I saw a couple of random pieces from a little vintage Nativity at the thrift store, and was so disappointed that there wasn’t a whole set that I rushed home and found myself one on ebay:

I made the simplest garland in the whole world out of some ornaments:

The vintage picnic basket holds our book-a-day Advent calendar:

And this squirrel is getting into the spirit with his fancy jingle bell collar:

My newfound obsession with green glassware inspired this centerpiece on the table:

And this room also holds our OTHER Christmas village. This one is being invaded by dinosaurs. (See? I told you there’d be dinosaurs):

So there you have it! Thanks so much for stopping by; hope you enjoyed the tour! Now go see all the other ones and win $500!

 

 

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Don’t forget to visit the rest of the homes on the tour – there are some amazing homes here! Catch a sneak peak from the photos below and follow the links to see everyone’s homes.

Monday

Lovely Etc.

Thrifty and Chic

Bigger than the Three of Us

Tuesday

One Krieger Chick

All Things With Purpose

The Happy Housie

Blue I Style

Little Red Brick House

Wednesday

Southern State of Mind

Seeking Lavender Lane

Designing Vibes

The Tale of an Ugly House

Domicile 37

Thursday

Like a Saturday

It All Started With Paint

The Tale of an Ugly House

Boxy Colonial

The Turquoise Home

Friday

A House Full of Sunshine

Making it in the Mountains

View from the Fridge

Casa Watkins

Shabby Grace Blog