All is Bright – Holiday Home Tour

All is bright at our house and today I’m finally getting around to a little holiday home tour!

Decorating my home for the holidays is always a favorite!  I love the lights and the warmth of it all and find myself sitting up way too late every night enjoying the lights.  We have been doing a little updating to our home this year and I really tried to keep the decorating a little more on the simple side.  Where I normally add some touches throughout the house, this year I stayed focus on the two spaces we live in most, the kitchen and living areas.  I’m loving how it all came together.

The stockings are still a favorite for me.  They are all identical but I monogrammed the names all in a different font to give them a little something special.  I’m sure I will get tired of them eventually but for now (and maybe until there are grandchildren) we are rolling with them!  I found a new garland for the mantel on sale and was so surprised when I arrived home to find it actually has lights built in as I didn’t actually realize it. It is the perfect size and the colors really blended nicely.  Some day I’m either going to master the ribbon or give it up!  It needs a little work and a fellow blogger recently shot me a little tutorial but I haven’t had a chance to worry with it.  I found a new location for our nativity scene this year and I’m kind of loving it.  My Mamaw bought this for me from a little shop in my home town and I think it’s beautiful. 
The table is just such a great accent piece and I loved adding a couple of new little Christmas trees to go with the others I already had.  These sweet little caroling bears were painted by the mom of one of my college friends so they are sentimental but also precious.  I really, really kept the bookcase simple this year.  I typically take a lot of our regular decor down but decided to just leave everything this year and add a few holiday touches.  If you send me a Christmas card know I do keep every one!  The scrapbooks on the bottom shelf are full of cards dating back to 1998!  Woah, that’s almost 20 years of Christmas cards!
I picked up a few new balls to fill this large vase and think they worked out well to bring a little sparkle.  The red joy balls are also new and they gave a little pop to this bowl.    I collected snow globes at one time and these are the only three I have remaining.  Sadly I failed to learn storing these in the hot attic was a terrible idea before it was too late.  I still love these and may have to keep an eye out the day after Christmas for a new one or two.  Carly Jo thinks my angel is “freaky” without a face but I really love her too.  
I’m a huge fan of the flameless candles and may be late to the party but they have truly been so fun.  I love they are own a five hour timer and come on automatically to add a little ambiance.  These will more than likely stay long past the Christmas season.

My sweet mother-in-law picked up this little snow globe for me from the Hallmark store.  I added a little tree from the Target dollar spot along with some pine cones I had hanging around to create this little table centerpiece.  I did add new placemats and still trying to work on the perfect place setting for my table.  This is just not my area of expertise!   We had this built in constructed in our breakfast area this fall and it is already bringing me so much joy!  I love how adding this slim tree in our kitchen along with some fun pillows brought this area to life.  I’m kind of crazy for the whole tree in a basket phase too!  Bonus, the basket fit perfectly under the bench so I grabbed a second and these will be functional all year round.  I picked up the Believe banner from the Target Dollar spot with the intention of using it at my office but it is perfect here!

I also created a little hot chocolate bar with some festive mugs, chocolate stir sticks, candy canes and Christmas tree shaped marshmallows!  Carly Jo has been having cocoa every day!  She embraces the spirit of the season for sure!

I splurged a little on the new garland but it was 50% off and I feel like it will definitely make a statement for several years.  A few other little touches and I freshened things up without spending a fortune.  Hopefully by next year we will be done with the house updates and I will go back to my old ways but for now I’m loving this simpler look.

If you are interested in seeing the comparison over the years, you can visit the 2016 Holly Jolly Home Tour , 2015 Deck the Halls or the first year around here, 2014 Christmas Decor.

Do you love your home this time of year?  I hope to see you link up today with Sarah and Victoria to show off your decor as they host The Most Wonderful Time of the Year linkup.   Be sure to stop back by tomorrow as I’m co-hosting and sharing a holiday recipe!

Also linking up with my girls at The Blended Blog.

Shop my holiday home favorites!

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