MERRY & BRIGHT CHRISTMAS HOME - PT. 1

It’s that time of year once again - the season that so many of us look forward to all year long. I know I say it every year, but Christmas truly is my absolute favourite time. Strolling through Christmas markets hand in hand with your love, sipping a hot chocolate, observing all the hustle and bustle while bundled up to keep warm. Enjoying plentiful time with family and friends at holiday gatherings and family dinners. Watching from your windowsill as snow falls gently down, illuminated by the twinkling lights on houses up and down the street. Seasonal baking in the kitchen with a glass of mulled wine, and your favourite Christmas songs playing in the background. Watching Christmas movies while snuggled up under a cozy blanket. Giving gifts, thoughtfully wrapped up in pretty packaging. Sharing in meaningful family traditions that bring a lightness to your heart. This season is filled with an abundance of joy, and time to create memories you’ll cherish for years to come.

I am so happy it is time for me to share some of our home for Christmas this year with you! I have a lot to share this year, and I’m excited about all the posts to come, but I thought I would divide my main Christmas home tour into two parts. Today I am sharing Part 1, which includes my living room complete with Christmas tree, my mudroom, and my DIY console table all decked out for the holidays. In Part 2, I will share my front entryway and my sitting/reading room.
I find that most years it’s fairly easy for me to pinpoint a theme that I wish to convey quite far ahead of time for my holiday decorating. However, that was not exactly the case this year. I am always very excited for Christmas decorating of course, but this year decision-making window for choosing a theme kind of snuck up on me, and before I knew it, it was time! When the weekend came that my husband and I pulled out all the Christmas things I have stored and set to work on it all, I decided to just do what felt natural to put together as I went along. I hope that the result is something you enjoy. Feel free to grab a cup of something warm, find a cozy spot, and scroll along with me. Welcome to Part 1 of my Merry & Bright Christmas Home.

A Christmas tree adds so much to a space, I love having it set up! I often love to go all out and am quite elaborate with my Christmas decorating, particularly with the tree, but this year I found myself craving simplicity - I wanted to have the pretty warmth and coziness that Christmas brings, without my rooms feeling too bulky with decorations. This year I decided to use our regular green tree in our living room, and when I saw how pretty it looked naturally, I instantly knew I wanted to go a in a more minimal direction to allow the tree itself to shine. Once the tree went up, I threw on some wood-beaded garlands, chose my neutral gold and silver ornaments, and when I stood back to look at it, I thought that it was complete. To me it felt more vintage in a sense to keep it this simple, and I really liked that idea.

The rest of the year, you’ll see that I frequently use vases with greenery, which stand much taller on the coffee table. For Christmas, with how prominent a Christmas tree is, I prefer to have my coffee table decor keep a lower profile. Because our living room isn’t very large, I find too much height on the coffee table can feel heavy in the space during this season, not to mention it can obstruct the view of the tree. I like the cleanliness that simple decor provides because of these reasons, and this year I chose a couple of accent books, some balsam scented candles (which my husband loves!), and this cute little ceramic tree.

I had to snap a photo of this little cutie (Willow) observing all of the Christmasy decor. Wherever I am, my kitties are, and I often have to corral them out of my shots! Do any other pet owners relate to this?

Though we don’t have a mantel over our fireplace, I still love to create a sort of makeshift mantel look with greenery during Christmas. I simply use command hooks to hang up the garlands and stockings. This year, I layered a pre-lit faux spruce garland with another faux cedar garland. It was proving difficult to find winter greenery that looked nice where I live, with whatever the weather had done throughout the year, and faux eliminates all of the mess and maintenance anyways. So, though you don’t get the scent of real cedar from the greens, I’m fine with it! I just rely on my candles for that.
Never underestimate how much lovely candle can induce enjoyment in us, and make it feel as though the season has arrived in our homes.

I find that you can really make your home feel festive in each and every room if you just add one or two simple touches to a space here and there. It really doesn’t have to be complicated! I love how these gold bells do this over on my blanket ladder.

For our stockings this year, I chose these two different cream knit ones I had in storage. Maybe one of these days I will add in some colour for Christmas, but that day has not arrived just yet!

As I have discussed in the past, it’s important to me for my home decor, including Christmas decor, to work cohesively throughout the house. I like everything to feel seamless from room to room, as this is something that creates an atmosphere of peace that I hope for my home to exude. So, I carried my simple theme along, with neutrals, greenery, and touches of gold and silver.

I don’t show this accent table all that much in our home, as the rustic wood and galvanized metal is kind of leftover from my style of year’s past, and doesn’t quite fit with the rest of my home decor anymore. I hope to update it one day, however I do always love to add holiday decor to it as well! This year I found this ceramic pedestal bowl, and filled it with all sorts of vintage-style ornaments. It’s one of my favourite items in my Christmas decorating this year!

During the holidays, I always love to add these twinkle light strands on various surfaces. The feeling you get in the evenings with the Christmas tree, the lights on the garlands, your candles lit, and other lights on throughout your home, is simply magical.

Over in this little corner, I decided on these white ceramic Christmas village houses. I got them a few years ago, but found similar ones if you’re interested that I have linked at the bottom of the post. A funny story for you; last year I had some Christmas sheet music in a vintage gold folding frame, and I was actually planning to use that here again because I loved it so much. However, it has proven to be one of those things that completely disappeared somehow. Ask my husband, Troy - he had to pull my bins out for me a few times to search through everything for it, but no luck! In the end, I thought these houses were the next best thing.

In my mudroom, I changed out items that are much cozier for our Canadian winters and holiday season. I am in love with sherpa right now, so I have a jacket I am wearing often stationed over here. And of course, I carried through some similar accents from the rest of our home to complete the look.

Here you can just see some of winter art prints I changed out. I find inexpensive prints are a great way to add some extra festiveness for any season, and I have a few frames through my home that I do this with.

I’m sure you can guess that this doesn’t remain here, but I thought this tree and some gifts on a little sled were just so cute for my photos.

This is the case for these vintage snow shoes as well. Though, you never know… when it snows here in Canada, it really snows! In fact, we just got a massive snowfall two days ago. Maybe when my husband is heading out to work in the morning he will find them useful.

And here concludes Part 1 of my Merry & Bright Christmas Home. I seem to have taken an over-abundance of photos this year, so hopefully this post wasn’t too long for you! My wish is that my theme of simplicity, neutrals, and gold & silver tones, was inspiring for you in whatever you chose for your home this holiday season. Something I love so much about home, is that each of us gets to make it what we desire as far as what brings us peacefulness, and what creates a sense of joy. This is what it looks like for myself and my household, and I would love to know what that looks like for you as well.
Stay tuned for next week, where I will share Part 2 of my main home tour this Christmas season. If you see something you liked in this post, I always link either the exact item, or if it isn’t available then something very similar, at the bottom of my posts.

While I absolutely love, and receive great joy from, creating a lovely Christmas home, it is important to remember that what is most valuable about our homes is not simply the beautiful decor, but the memories that we are making within these walls. My prayer is that as you enter this holiday season, you have time to reflect upon, and to create those wonderful memories with your own family.

Thanks for stopping by,

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