Holiday Home Décor Tour

It’s CHRISTMAS TIME, y’all! Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I am always so excited to get this season going. From the music to the decorations to the worship aspects of the season, I love it ALL.

Today’s blog is really just to show you all how I’ve decorated my home for this special time of year. 2020 has been wild, but it can’t steal my holiday-loving heart. So, without further ado, welcome to my home and enjoy!

We’re going to focus on the main living space in this blog, so my open concept dining and living room in my rental home.

Between my kitchen and my dining space, there is a long countertop with storage on each side (closed storage facing the kitchen and open shelving facing the dining nook and living room).

If you’ll recall from my Fall Décor post, I did purchase this tiered tray from Amazon. For Christmas, I used a lot of what I already had as décor in previous years to make it festive – the twig snowman my mom had purchased for me years ago at Kirklands, two little wrapped presents that are roughly 1×1 inches, a red house that was actually an ornament from Old Time Pottery purchased last year (I just ripped the hanger off), and a wooden heart ornament from Cracker Barrel last year. I purchased the standing fabric tree and the bird from Walmart (their Holiday Time collection has grown a lot in terms of quality and cuteness in the last few years, in my opinion).  Once I had those items placed where I liked, I back filled with pinecones I already had from many years previous. I added a festive cookie tin from Dollar General and a holiday countdown sign gifted to me from my mom to round out this little décor spot.

For my dining table, I took a fairly simple approach. I left my usual gingham tablecloth and the jute placemat I purchased this summer or fall at Walmart, then layered on a red plastic poinsettia tablecloth on top for a pop of Christmas color. I used a white pitcher I already had from Old Time Pottery, filled it with gold-glittered pinecones and red leaves, and then placed it in front of two wooden and gold angel stands that hold votives. Last holiday season, my boyfriend Jake purchased these for me at a craft fair.

My corner chair has a “Merry & Bright” pillow on it from Target last holiday season. For window décor, I simply draped a strand of red wooden beads at the top and added wooden heart ornaments from Cracker Barrel a few years ago at either side.

As you continue to look around the open concept living space, you turn to the big picture window. I love this window – and the view is incredible: just acres of rolling farmland (with cows!), a church, and mountains in the distance. I live in a beautiful part of East Tennessee.

Because the window is placed to see the gorgeous landscape but also the two-lane highway from a distance, I place my tree in the center. This lets me see the lit tree as I come over the crest of the hill on my way home each evening. (I also have two light-up holly leaves in each of the top corners of the window for effect as well, but you can only see them from the outside.)

I used to have a larger, wider 6-foot tree, but it was prelit and last year it really got me riled up when my lights didn’t work. I made due by stringing up separate lights over the nonworking lights, but this year I didn’t want to fool with that nonsense, so I used a 6 foot alpine tree I had ordered for front porch décor last year.

This skinnier tree actually looks great in my space and ties in nicely with my Christmas motif, which is sort of self-described as “country charm.” The fact that the branches start higher up actually allows for taller giftbags and wrapped boxes, too.

I used a brown burlap bow with red lacing (bought at Walmart last year), red wooden beads, and lots of wooden and metal ornaments.  The star on the top of my tree has a stained-glass look without the weight or expense of actual stained glass, and I found it at a local thrift shop a few seasons ago.

Flash the dog (who is, I’ve found out, both basset hound and beagle) seems to like it fairly well – and he hasn’t even eaten an ornament or bow yet!

You may remember in my fall post that I got new shelves for my living room. These made decorating the living room even easier this year! (Please ignore that my toddler was watching Planes: Fire & Rescue while I photographed everything…!)

I found a festive red bead looped garland at Walmart and had a brown poinsettia pin from years past that I hung on my mirror. On the repainted sofa table that I use for my television (see my fall blog for details), I added a golden and brown woodland Santa that had been passed down from my gram before she passed with an amber vase (only $4 at my local TJ Maxx) holding a few red berry springs I had on hand.

On the left shelf, I staged a mini tree on the top shelf. The tree features a rustic bow, mini pinecone ornaments, and mini wooden forest animals – all of these items were from Walmart last year, and the tree itself was from Old Time Pottery several seasons ago. The second shelf features a 2019 holiday photo of my little man in a Rae Dunn frame from my friend Kayla, a “noel” wooden star from Walmart last year, a ceramic angel from some youth students a few years’ back, and a hand-carved wooden nativity from a church family member gifted to me two seasons ago. I have a love of nativity scenes, and this was the most thoughtful gift, so I am so honored to display it in my home each year. On the final two shelves, I have my Christmas village (last year I completely started over on collecting it after my divorce, when I didn’t get the pieces I had found for several years) and then another nativity scene and a picture of my son, myself, and Santa from 2018.

On the right shelf, I have the wisemen on top. I attended a Christian college for my BA degree, and my New Testament professor, Chad, shared with us that the wisemen actually didn’t visit Jesus until long after he was born – he was likely crawling or even walking before they arrived. Chad shared that he often moved his mother’s wisemen away from the manager scene during Christmas visits, and the funny image has always stayed with me. To honor the reality that Jesus was visited (and worshipped and acknowledged) beyond Christmas morning, I put my wisemen on a different shelf than the manager scene. The next shelf down, though, is the nativity set. This set is precious to me – it was my paternal grandparents’ holy family display for all of the years of their marriage. It’s a Fontanini nativity set, and my papa built the actual stable himself. This year it was especially meaningful to put it on display, as my papa passed in early November. The final shelf features an angel mother holding a baby (a gift from my sister the year I was expecting my son), and two family photos of my toddler, myself, and Jake.

On the far left of the shelving display, I hung up a stocking holder. I found this shelf and hanging display a year or two ago at Old Time Pottery, along with the “let it snow” sign. The stockings are from Walmart, as are the stocking initial tags. My mom gifted me the woodland garland and the gold reindeer, so I added them into my existing basket, along with Flash’s red mini-stocking and the red bow to add pops of festive color.

As you can see, my Christmas décor theme is traditional with a little bit of rustic or country charm. Have you already decorated for the holiday? How would you describe your style? Comment below – I’d love to hear from you!

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