I love Christmas so much!
I love baking for Christmas. I love Christmas music. I love Christmas shopping. I love Christmas wrapping. Perhaps most of all I love Christmas decorating. So much so that both times we have house-hunted, last year and eleven years ago, my first thought stepping in the door was: perfect spot for a Christmas tree! Like that is the most important consideration when house-hunting, lol. (Both times happened to be in the fall, incidentally, holidays on the brain and all, but still.)
Our new [127-year-old] house has a picture-perfect Christmas tree spot! See:
Not to say the picture is perfect, but that window! I love it so. I do think it looks a little austere here. I kept meaning to get some fat pink silk ribbon to make a kind of garland in the niche, to frame the top of the tree, but it didn't happen. Next year! Also, there weren't presents out yet. That helped a lot :-)
The snowmen which were vintage finds from Stars Antique Mall. (The one on the left is Dr. Snowman, quite a skilled snow physician!)
We didn't used to be into the 1950s stuff, and in general we don't really care for mid-century decor or architecture, but for Christmas, ahh. Shiny Brights were my gateway drug. Sigh.
Is anything prettier?
(oops! stockings not yet hung by the chimney with care!) (Also, note how Dr. Snowman and the basket of pink balls keep migrating :-) |
If you visit this blog much you'll know it's been a hectic year and we haven't been able to fully nest, and it being our first year in this house, we didn't have a plan already figured out, so we were pretty much winging it, taking mental notes for next year. The mantle ended up looking like this (though the stocking did get hung eventually):
An old Anthropologie garland, some thrifted picture frames painted white but not yet filled with pictures, a pair of pink IKEA vases with greenery, some red velvet reindeer and Shiny Brights, and a few silver platters ... and I couldn't FIND the rest of our small collection of thrifted silver platters! Probably in the basement, who knows, or maybe snitched by goblins for the conveyance of donuts and toadstools to their king. Lights of course. How I love the twinklies.
A dining room is something we didn't have in the old house, and was a huge selling point for this one.
I love having a big table!
That's my grandmother's old Christmas village. I think she won it in a contest?
On the kitchen ledge. And no, that's not snow. Just a dirty window :-( |
MORE HAPPIES!
Do you remember my accidental "happy" collection?
It's growing!
The Most Happy Fella! This is the score to a musical, thrifted and framed. *love* |
At last, presents appear!
Having a child in the house makes Christmas morning INFINITELY MORE AWESOME.
This was our first "Santa came!" year, our first late-night elfing, you know, nudge nudge, getting things all ready for Santa to come down the chimney? I do not know HOW he fit the horsey down, that's his trade secret ...
More vintage, incidentally! The new bouncy horses are atrocities of ugliness. Santa found this one, twenty years old, much loved but in GREAT condition, and awesome as he is, Santa PAINTED HIM. I LOVE the pink mane! Makes me think maybe he's meant for me, not Clementine.
Then again, maybe not ...
XO :-)