Christmas 2011 Decor

I usually go way over board with Christmas decor as it is, my favorite holiday. But this year to my dismay, when I brought up the decor boxes I had from our old apartment, I found out we clearly did not have enough to fill a whole house festively enough (at least to my standards).

Being on a limited budget, I had to pick and choose where to spread out what I could buy and what I could make. Let's start with the make projects.

I found this tall skinny artificial tree at Goodwill for $6.99 when I was shopping for Halloween not know what I would do with it. Normally, I never have a good place to stick holiday cards, but not this year! You are looking at the "Card Tree". Decorated only with a vintage tree topper my mom gave me years ago from her childhood and some Dollar Tree ribbon from a previous year, I have just been adding the cards as we get them.

For each of the "ornaments" I have just been taking a hole punch and then tying a string through. These are pre-made ornament hangers.

This whole post I was playing with the settings on my camera with low light and changing ISOs so bear with me if some of the images are a tad blurry. I have no tripod.

Here is a close-up of Max's sister, Molly's family in "ornament" action. Isn't his niece, Claire cute!

The next project I had was none of our stockings had any names attached with them. I had bought them at Menards last year but never got around to labeling them. This year I used scraps from my burlap and linen and some extra ribbon and made us matching tags. All just with the hot glue gun.

Here they are in action. Since we have no mantel of any sort, I hung them using 3M removable hanger hooks in white to blend in with our living room windowsill. I have used them before and they really are great. Come off any wall without a scratch and hold up to three pounds of weight. In order they go (l to r), Maureen (me), Max and Turk.

Turk even posed next to his.

Since I have already shown you the ornaments I made for the Christmas tree, lets me on to her. And she really does look like a fancy lady this year. I used some more of the longer pieces of burlap for garland and some other beaded garland to counter balance the rustic with the sparkly. 

The last few years I had not really had a proper tree topper and was using ribbons to complete our little 6' tree. This year, I upgraded to this rustic beauty that incorporates the red of the tree, the rusticness of the sticks and the white covered balls are mimicked in the round LED lights we have.

Here is a view of just the ornaments and garland so you get the whole picture.

This ornament has been on every tree since the year I was born. My grandfather gave it to me back in 1982, that same Christmas, he died of testicular cancer. I never got to know him but its a great way to honor his memory. The ornament says "Christmas... season of magical moments." and the bunny is there because apparently that was his nickname for me. His "little bunny".

Around the house, I filled random vases with ball ornaments from previous tree years. This one is silver and red.

Are ya sick of tree photos yet?

This one is my favorite. It's the perfect balance of light, ornaments and presents.

The reason I do all this. My boys.

Around the doorways of the living room I added evergreen garland from Menards, $2.99 a strand, on sale. This entry way took two strands.

I used one of Max's TKE fraternity pitchers from formal in college and filled it with silver and red balls as well. Their colors.

Here are my Christmas trees from here nestled in with my wood antelope from the estate sale. Its a nice little forest.

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The JOY letters are kicking next to a photo of my parents since they bring so much JOY to my life (cue the "aww").

My Dollar Tree Santa candy jar is ready by the front door for visitors.

Back in the kitchen, I have a "Merry Christmas" banner I got last year from Target for $3.00. Maybe next year I'll make more banners for the holidays.

The dining room table is decked out in my burlap table runner from Thanksgiving (the project that started all the burlap), my Target place mats from last year and large green and white balls in a vase.

Some of the outdoor lights I couldn't seem to find the proper place for this year made it inside the house on top of our cabinets giving off a little bit of ambient lighting.

My festive holiday kitchen hand towels take center stage.

So what do you think? Over done? Not enough? Great ideas? Eh, ideas?

AHHH! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!