ARCTIC CHRISTMAS HOME TOUR 2017

Well, friends, it’s that time of year! The season that so many of us look forward to all year long.
The time for bundling up in scarves and boots to stay cozy while out in the cold winter air. For strolling through the snow with some hot apple cider at a local Christmas market. The time for seasonal baking with your kiddies, and watching Christmas movies while snuggled up on the couch. For enjoying time spent with friends and family at Christmas parties and dinner gatherings. The time for watching from your windowsill as snow falls gently, illuminated by the twinkling lights on houses up and down the street, with your favourite Christmas songs playing in the background. For giving gifts, thoughtfully wrapped up in pretty packaging. And for sharing in meaningful family traditions that bring joy to your heart.
It’s time… for Christmas!

I am so happy to share with you my Christmas home tour for this year. I know it is still November, but with Christmas being my favourite time of year, I can’t help but set things up early so that I can enjoy the feeling of the season for more than a couple of weeks. And what’s even better, is that I have also teamed up with some blogger friends to bring you our second annual Joyful Holiday Home Tour. So, once you’re done here, be sure to head over to their tours for some beautiful Christmas inspiration. And if you have come here from Jordan’s home over at JorDecor, welcome to my home and the next stop on the tour!

This year I found myself inspired by crisp whites and soft gold touches. I found a new flocked tree for an amazing deal at Costco (actually, scratch that, my hubby found it! – Can you believe it?! He just knows how to make my heart sing). And when I came across some adorable polar bears at Home Sense, along with some large snowy bottle brush trees, my Arctic Christmas theme for this year was born.
I hope you are able to grab a cup of something warm, cozy up, and stay awhile.

I am so amazed at the quality of this flocked tree. I have always heard most of my friends say that flocked trees are an absolute nightmare in regards to how messy they are. So when we went to set up this tree, I was definitely prepared for the worst. Well, whatever Costco (in Canada only, unfortunately for my US friends) used for this flocking is the best! Even at the very end of our work in getting the tree all fluffed up, there was absolutely no white powder on us or the floor that we had to clean up.
Miracles are real, people!

Side note, aren’t my little mama and baby polar bears just so sweet? They captured my heart when I saw them.

After I had my tree set up, I used faux snow between the branches to fill it up a bit more. Then, I put on a few pom-pom garlands and a couple of wood bead garlands to give it a foundation. To finish, I placed a combination of white, gold, and wood ornaments around the tree to tie the look together. I think it’s my favourite tree I’ve put together so far!

This is a pillow from my friend Lucy at Craftberry Bush. I got it from her for Christmas last year and I absolutely love it! She has such beautiful designs for every season, and it’s fun to follow along with her on Instagram where she often shares her paintings of these watercolour art.

As you may have noticed from my photos, we do have a fireplace in our living room (and I do really love it!), however it is a more modern style, and we don’t have a mantle. I had been struggling with where to put up our stockings, as where the garland naturally goes on the mantle is a little low for them to hang beneath. I settled on hanging them on this industrial table I have nearby the living space.

I like that it still feels as though the stockings are incorporated in our living room, for when we grab them and open them up on Christmas morning.

These bottle brush trees are such a nice and simple (and cheap!) way to add some festivity to various places around the home, like this little side table of mine. I have kind of went around the house with them, and added a couple here are there, to areas that feel like they just need an extra Christmas touch, without something being too cluttered or in the way.

This room feels so cozy with the twinkle of the Christmas lights and my garland at night.

Now that I have shown you around our living room, we can head over to see how I spruced up the mudroom with some Christmas cheer for the holidays.

Things were pretty simple for this room. I changed out our coats to our winter wear, and I have to keep my big warm boots back here so my toes don’t freeze in our Canadian winter! I also put some extra scarves in one of the cubbies up above, and mittens in another, so we have lots of extra warm things to grab when heading out!

The other items here are, of course, just decorative touches to have the space feel more festive. A mini flocked tree, a basket of gifts, some silver bells, and voila, this Christmas mudroom is complete!

I couldn’t help but bring my cute Christmas pillow over here for a couple extra photos.

Alright, now we’ll go check out my stair garlands, and our upstairs tree!

Having a lovely white stair rail to hang garland is a Christmas decor dream come true for me.

Now these garlands… these were messy. My husband described them as behaving like Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown, but in white snowy stuff. As long as you don’t touch them though, you’re safe, haha. And they just look so pretty that I don’t mind one bit.

At the top of our stairs, we set up our old Christmas tree. It’s really fun to be able to continue the festive feel on our upstairs level. Plus, I couldn’t bear with the idea of leaving our tree, that has served us well for so many Christmases, in the box for this season. The more trees, the merrier!

I used these frosty branches I found last Christmas, as well as some faux snow I picked up this year, to make the tree more full, and to bring some of that frosty, Arctic feeling to it as well.

Here is our upstairs railing. Isn’t stair garland just so lovely? I’d be tempted to leave it up all year.

It was fun to attempt to make my trees cohesive with one another, but still slightly different in their presentation. This one is a bit more minimal in decorations, as I tried to spread my ornament collection across both trees without buying additional ornaments than what I had already. I also may have put a bit more of a focus on our downstairs tree since we, and others, will see it the most this season.

Well, friends, that is part of my Christmas home for this year! I hope that you enjoyed my Arctic, snowy white and gold theme, and that you were maybe able to find some inspiration for your own holiday decorating this season. Be sure to head over to the other ladies sharing their homes looking all festive today for our Joyful Holiday Home Tour series as well! I have all of them linked down below, however our next official stop on the tour is Natalie at Vintage Porch.

While I absolutely love, and receive great joy from, imagining up a Christmas decor theme, and then pulling things together to bring to life my ideas, in order to try and create a lovely Christmas home, it is important to remember that what is most valuable about your home is not the beautiful decor, but the memories that you are making within those walls.
May you be blessed this holiday season as you create those wonderful memories with your own family.

Thanks for stopping by.

**I am currently in the process of making some changes to my blog so that I can more conveniently link products I use for you. In the mean time, I try to link everything, or similar items, through my Instagram photos.