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Christmas Around the House

December 12, 2016

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We’re excited to share with you a little peek into Christmas around our house. It’s not a part of any official tour, nor was I asked to decorate my house–it’s just what we like to do to make this time of year especially magical for our girls. We have 2.5 trees (in the playroom we put a little white metal led tree–does that count as a half?) and splashes of the season sprinkled throughout the rest of the house. You can find the everyday sources for everything in our home right here.

The Reading Room

We kept the tree in here minimal. It’s pre-lit, tall and skinny and from Lowe’s. It’s the kind where you can plug in the three sections together and it also plugs in the lights–pure magic for me and Chris. There is a little log reindeer next to it, you can barely see, but the girls love (also from Lowe’s), a bushel of indoor snowballs, and I added a few houses and trees to the shelves to Christmas them up.

Chris Loves Julia Reading Room Chris Loves Julia Reading Room

The Girls’ Room

We strung 3 lengths of faux, pre-lit garland (from Lowe’s) over the girls bunks. Greta sleeps with the twinkle lights on all night and we’re trying to get Faye ready for a Christmas Eve sleep down here–because what would be better? You can see how it looks at night right here.

The sweetest bunks surrounded by garland for Christmas

The Living Room

Our flocked tree in the living room, we really let the girls go nuts on. We decorate it as a family, which means there are places where there’s a lot of ornaments and some bare spots. We layer on all the construction paper ice cream cones and mittens brought home from school. There’s an ornament from every year we’ve been married and every vacation we’ve taken. It’s the happiest tree, and a real joy to stare at in the evenings.

See more flocked trees here

Flocked Family Tree in Chris Loves Julia's living roomFlocked tree in Chris Loves Julia's Living Room

The Stockings Were Hung On the Staircase with Care…

It’s always tricky to figure out where to hang the stockings in our home. We do have a fireplace in the family room downstairs, but, if you remember, the mantle is very slim and wouldn’t accommodate stocking holders. Plus, we wouldn’t open presents down there on Christmas. So, while they seem to shift around each year, this year, they are on the stairs–which many of you mentioned is the place for them in your house too! The stockings are from here. The garland is from Lowe’s.

Stockings on a stair railing!

The Front Door landing is pretty small, decked it out with 2 strands of garland, leaning branches, bells on the door, and a little check basket (from Target dollar spot!) with a faux tree in it. I even put some holly berry in our house number box! For those that have asked, our layered rugs are still going strong–it helps that our porch is covered.

Christmas Front Door Goals

The Master Bedroom

We got a new corner chair in our room a few months ago and she’s a beaut. To be honest, I’ll probably never curl up and read a book in it–that’s what our big bed right next to it is for! But it actually is surprisingly comfortable and handy when we’re putting on shoes. And easy on the eyes and now a tiny bit festive with the same buffalo check basket as we used on the front porch and reading room, except this time with a flocked tree (I got at TJMaxx) inside. When you look into our room from the hall, you see this little corner first, and it is just the right amount of cheery. (Sources: Chair, light, pillow, frame is Rosemont from Framebridge)

Coziest CornerTurn a piano into a mantel!

The playroom we shared extensively right here. And details of our decked out kitchen can be found here.

Making Christmas Cookies!

We have a few Christmas touches we’re adding to the guest room we’ve been working on that we can’t wait to share this week. How does your house do the holidays?

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What do you think?

  1. GATE 2021 says:

    Your home looks so beautiful. The clarity in the pictures are amazing. And i can watch the dog all day <3

  2. Ashton Hobson says:

    I came across the article “37 Gorgeous Farmhouse Front Door Ideas to Give Your Home a Makeover” on the Home BNC website, and I noticed the image for number 33. I saw that you were listed as the source of the image. I am building a home and I LOVE this front door! I would love to find out where I could find it.

  3. liz says:

    I have double front doors. Is that too many rugs if I layer 2 check rugs and 2 doormats?

  4. Jennifer says:

    Everything about this is gorgeous!! Can I ask where your front door is from? I’m having the hardest time finding something similar :/

  5. Pretty looking tree and i love your dog. So cute.. Also the images look so high quality. Can you suggest me a good camera?

  6. Kristen says:

    Love the Christmas vibe at your house! Festive and fun! :)

  7. Truly spectacular! I am in awe of your home.
    It is truly lovely. Can I ask where you purchased the buffalo plaid
    container that has the faux snowballs in it?
    Thanks so much!

  8. karen sunday says:

    Hi, your home is perfect! I love everything I see , I may need indoor snowballs! I love the pictures of your children making cookies with their dad. I really hope I don’t get my grammar corrected, I don’t often comment because I am not a great at writing but I do know a gorgeous home when I see one. Merry Christmas,K Sunday

  9. Tommy says:

    And this is how real home looks like. This girls’s room looks just perfect. I will have to make something similar for my daughter. Thanks for sharing this.

  10. Carmi says:

    I am LOVING all your holiday posts! I got the cookie jar because it was so darn adorable in your kitchen! And the gift ideas! I have a question though! I know you listed one of the dutch ovens in your shop links.. but I see you have a couple others also. Do you have a brand preference? I’m looking at the Le Creuset. Is it worth it?? And I can’t decide if I want blue or white. I normally go for white because it’s timeless but also love the blue. I would love your thoughts! :)

  11. Megan says:

    Everything is so, so beautiful and festive! Awesome job!! :)

    Megan
    http://www.lifeonshadylane.com

  12. madison Rademacher says:

    great picture of your chritmas tree at night! Would love to see what tools you guys use to get such great interior pictures at night.

  13. Lisa says:

    I cannot recommend Grammarly enough… it’s a free web add-on that will check for spelling and more importantly, grammar errors.

    “For those that have asked, our layered rugs are still going strong”

    Here, it should be who, not that. People = who, things = that.

    Is this nitpicky? Probably. But you’re publishing daily written work. It’s important to many of your readers.

    • Janae says:

      Boo. Just be grateful people share their lives with us. Merry Christmas!

    • MK says:

      My same thought, Lisa! Who vs. that is such a common error but shouldn’t be for people who write as a profession.

    • Michelle says:

      LISA, if you are so concerned about grammar and well written phrases why dont you check “EL QUIJOTE” that´s a pretty long book to read. This blog is about decoration etc. Yes, you are nitpicky. Relax and enjoy the essence of this post.

  14. Megan says:

    We just started doing multiple trees in the past couple of years. Something I swore I would never do but I love hoe much more festive the house feels. There’s just something about a Christmas tree.

    http://www.lettinginthelightblog.com/

  15. Corine says:

    Everything looks so cozy and magical. I love the girls’ room! Simple and sweet.

  16. Stacy G. says:

    We just have one tree, and it is definitely a family tree. We have a mixed religion family so we keep it all pretty low-key. However, our house is much bigger now than the house we used to live in, and I would like more decorations, especially upstairs. We have a beautiful staircase now, and I really want to put garland on it this year. Many places I looked were sold out already, or the prices were out of our budget. I am going to keep my eyes open for discounted decorations after Christmas.

    Our town is full of old houses and it looks like a snowglobe village. Many people go all out at Christmastime. :D It is very festive.

    • Kathy says:

      I bought a bunch of our decorations at Target pretty inexpensively! They have like 20-packs of maybe 1.5″ dia. ornaments for $5 a box, and 9 ft. length garland for $4. The garland is a little stringy, but for our table runner I just got two and wove them together haphazardly since, you know. $4. And then there’s always a couple of Cartwheel coupons, and mobile coupons, and my redcard…I think we ended up spending less than $100 for all of our decorations, including the tree!

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