Find your Christmas 'ness

I would HIGHLY recommend starting your Christmas season with 10 boxes of fresh lights. New lights always go on my tree so we don't get to December 21st and the bottom half of the tree is dark (just ask both of my mom's about very problem). I re-use lights from year-to-year on garland and smaller trees because those are easier to 'fix' if the lights burn out. 

Last week I posted an Instagram about a blog I'd be posting soon. Something about how I mix everything we love together and vomit it into our house to create Christmas magic.

Here it is...finally. ;)

I already shared with you my best secrets for keeping decorating easy and fun...I did the same thing last year too (without realizing some of my tips are the same...that must mean they're just THAT good ;). Every year I take on decorating our house for Christmas, I enjoy it more and more. It takes weeks to perfect, but I swear to you, it's not stressful at all! My style has certainly changed and we've added quite a bit to our collection of Christmas decor over the past six years...but this year I had fun reinventing each room and using some of my stuff in a fresh new way. I tried to keep everything as neat and clean-looking as possible...but still went all-out, decorating every inch in every room.

We have a one-year-old...eight trees just weren't going to happen in 1,200 SF this year. Shockingly, I'm fine with it. And Maverick has yet to break one of my glass antique ornaments! Pretty trees ARE possible with babies, I just have to really stay on top of the instruction/discipline/re-direction all day every day. #worthit

This year our house is more uniquely 'us' than ever before...and I like to think I'm encouraging everyone who reads from my little corner of the Internet to decorate as creatively as possible while keeping everything special, unique, and affordable. Maybe it starts with a trip to Target for $6 berries. Maybe it starts with a trip to your G'mas garage for a metal bin that needs new life on a front porch filled with logs. Maybe it starts with a trip to your garage for an old wooden ladder that can be propped against a wall in your living room with stockings hanging from the rungs.

I love that I've never in my life, seen a Christmas tree decorated quite like ours. For so long I copied what I saw in stores, or magazines, or what I'd seen in someone else's house and kind of liked. It took five years to figure out exactly what Mollie Boersma loved about Christmas...then translate that onto our one-of-a-kind-crazy tree.

Decorating with pink at Christmas is pretty non-traditional, but there's still something so traditional about using ornaments that were made in the 40's and 50's and used on trees during WWII that makes me weak in the knees when I think about their past-life and their new life in our home. I can't see myself ever going back to decorating our home the way I used to (anyone want to buy an insane amount of silver and red plastic ornaments from me???).

Mason jars from our farm filled with Christmas lights from our Humboldt Hill friend, Merlin. When you see a 5-gallon bucket of burned out Christmas lights, it never hurts to ask the owner what he's planning to do with them. ;)

I know it's not everyone's style. Some people probably come to our house and think, "that is the ugliest table cloth I've ever seen," and that's ok! It is kind of ugly...but sometimes vintage is ugly and that's why I like it. ;) Just find stuff that speaks to you or holds a special memory in your heart and find a way to incorporate it into your decorating. Items that have a reason or story behind them are the best! I'm not usually one to get emotionally attached to 'stuff' but darnit if the stuff I pull out of my Christmas totes doesn't get to me every. year. Find your 'ness and RUN WITH IT. I promise it's not hard. And I promise you will love it.

 MmB

I'm living proof that a special, breakable, glass nativity CAN SURVIVE A CHILDHOOD. My G'ma Phyllis bought this for me when I was one, and it is one of my most treasured Christmas things. Jamie has one too, and it's in near-perfect condition...so she's living proof of this phenomenon too!

Stockings don't have to go on a fireplace! I sat in my living room and thought about where and how I could showcase these beauties...everything from the entertainment center shelves to the buffet, to the foot of our bed were options. I settled on using a heavy-duty magnet to attach them to the antique ceiling tin on our living room wall.  

I'm a big fan of doing whatever it takes to make sure every garland is LIT. They sparkle so much more! Josh and I love turning all the lights off in the house and only using Christmas lights while we wrap presents and watch movies every night. I'd highly recommend giving it a try.