It’s hard to believe that this holiday season has come to a close. We are still savoring these last few days with the trees up, enjoying the peaceful glow it casts on our rooms. There really is nothing that compares to a Christmas tree glow! This season I leaned into nostalgia- unboxing some decorations from my own childhood that my parents haven’t pulled out in 20+ years.
Harper’s Tree
This year was Harper’s first year with a tree in her room. Her request? Stars! I had purchased these star lights from Amazon last season, which were a great addition to the tree. She picked out a few ornaments while we were out and about- her favorite being the glittery ice cream bar. It has been anywhere, but on the tree this season- it’s been her stuffed animals’ favorite treat. I cut ribbon and tied it on a few branches to fill in some of the gaps. I love the bows! So girly. Lastly, we added a few of the ball ornaments we painted in November- that was a fun DIY! I was searching the house for something to use as a tree skirt and found this scarf in the depths of my closet. It hasn’t seen the light of day in nearly a decade, so hooray for re-purposing!!
Brooks’s Tree
Brooks was gracious enough to give Harper his old tree and he upgraded to a larger tree we had sitting in storage. The boy is a collector! He has loads of ornaments, so he needed a bigger tree to display them all. I had some extra popcorn garland that he asked to use, too! I love how much he enjoy the spirit of the holidays. He was asking to put his tree up right after Halloween! This year, we mixed color and white lights on his tree. My husband’s grandparents always mixed the Christmas lights on their tree and I loved how it looked, as did Brooks. I used to be team white lights for everything, but colored lights add an element of nostalgia that you can’t get from colored ornaments alone.
Entryway
The entryway is a little bit of me and my mom. She has had this “O Holy Night” picture for a few years now and asked me to incorporate it into the holiday decorating. I layered it with this pretty canvas I purchased from Lindsay Letters Co. (literally love all of her work!!) a couple seasons ago. I repurposed another scarf as a tree skirt for this flocked tree. Our kids’ nativity set felt like the perfect addition to this little spot. They love playing with it, but it has definitely seen better days. Poor Mary lost a hand at some point…
Living Room
Our Christmas tree is so special to me. It has years of collected ornaments and doesn’t follow a specific trend. Last season, I added two strings of globe lights to the tree and loved the contrast against the smaller lights! This year, I swapped the clear globes for these colored bulbs. We love how nostalgic it feels, especially with the tinsel. My son is annoyed that our tree topper doesn’t light up, but it’s so pretty how it twinkles around all of the lights! The last few seasons, I have strung popcorn garlands for the tree. It took me about a week to get it all strung. It probably wouldn’t take that long, but I would string them after my kids went to bed. Stringing popcorn for a 9.5 ft. Christmas tree is a lot of work!
I may be an oddball, but I like grouping my special ornaments together on the tree. Each grouping is like a page in the story of our life. I am such a sap…. Anyways, there are enough ornaments on the tree that at first glance it doesn’t look obvious. If you take a closer look, you’ll notice the groupings.
The santa hand print ornaments below are a couple of my personal favorites! I made those with the kids in 2022. Salt dough ornaments will always be one of my favorite holiday crafts! They make for great gifts/ gift tags.
This year we tried our hand at putting acrylic paint in iridescent ornaments. Some turned out great, others didn’t. I’ll definitely give it another try next season!
Mantel
On Thanksgiving, I organized a craft for us all to work on after dinner. I had each person create a little house out of cardboard. It was so much fun!! Once everyone was finished, I had them write their names on the back of their houses and I strung them together to make a garland. This inspiration came from Kelle Hampton (@etst) on Instagram. I’m so happy I stumbled upon her post because this garland we made is no doubt something i’ll cherish forever!!
We take our crafting VERY serious around here!
Right before Christmas, I took down our adorable “holiday house” garland and put our stockings up. My mom made these for us a few years ago, right after my son was born. Growing up, we had stockings that looked similar to these that my grandmother made for my mom. They were something sentimental that we have cherished over the years, so it was so sweet that my mom wanted to share a similar sentiment.
Kitchen
This year, I pulled my parents’ old Christmas village out of storage. I haven’t seen this thing set up in 20+ years! I set up a few of the buildings in the upper cabinets in the kitchen. At night, it is so cozy seeing the glow of the village.
I have this Lindsay Letters Co picture framed in the kitchen that I keep out through Valentine’s Day. The bows are so cute!
These snowflakes were so fun to make! Can you believe these were made with brown paper lunch sacks!? I was looking at purchasing paper stars/ snowflakes on Amazon, but this DIY was around $5 vs the $45+ I considered spending on the pre-made ones online.
It feels so bittersweet wrapping up this holiday season. So many memories were made and I will forever cherish them! I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to the lights, and the warm and fuzzy feelings that the holidays bring into our home. Even so, it’s time to gradually transition into this winter season and tuck the holidays away for a few months.
– Cayla
*Just a little note: I don’t earn anything from the links I share in this post — they’re simply things I genuinely love and wanted to pass along in case you’re looking for something similar.*