Holiday Decorating Ideas

Welcome December!

Last month, ahead of the holiday decorating season, I shared some holiday decorating tips over on the Urban Barn Blog. I recognize that holiday decorating can feel overwhelming to most and stressful to some. I shared my three top tips for managing the process:

You can read the details and more about my tips by clicking here. The other thing I shared in the post was the specific areas of our home that I like to style and decorate for the holidays. Today I'm going to take you on a little tour of the areas of my home I have styled for the holidays

Front Entryway

Last year I kept our entryway simple. The showstopper was the real garland I purchased at a local gardening store and drapped over our porch. I did the same thing this year but we also added some simple white lights, both to the garland and along the roofline.

I attended a workshop and made this beautiful swag for my my front door using beautiful greens, magnolia, bells and ribbon-I'm obsessed!

In the entryway of our home, I have a festive candle, some garland on the banister and some fun pillows on our bench.

Living Room

Right off the entryway are our formal living/dining rooms. We have a tree in here and I love to keep it really minimal with some glittery gold pine cones and music cards .

The coffee table is also decorated with natural elements in mind. I have a bowl of pine cones and a vase of faux greens and berry stems. I also have a tree scented canlde from Anthropologie that makes the whole room smell so good!

As in previous years, my apporach to styling our built-ins for Christma is to mix a few holiday themed items in with our regular decor. I have some white house sculptures and stocking holders that I display, as well as my bottle brush tree collection. I have a set of wooden reindeer that my parents made for me during that terrible covid Christmas a few years ago.

I always love to style my mantle for the holidays. I was smitten with the magnolia stem I used in the swag I made for my front door, so when I saw this magnolia garland I had to have it! I created a reel for instagram showing my mantle styling process, and you can check it out by clicking here. I think the styling is simple but the result is pretty and elegant.

I did a little peek back at how I decorated this same mantle in the previous two years that we lived here. It's a nostalgic time of year and fun to look back! Here is my mantle last year:

And then there was 2021, which was our first Christmas in this house...what a special time!

One of the tips I shared over on the Urban Barn blog for holiday decorating is to pick a color scheme. This is particularly helpful when styling your sofa. I love to swap out my pillows and throw blankets for the holidays. I tried to stick to green and blue for the formal living room. As you can see, the pillows on our sofa aren't just for looks...Ginger loves the tree pillow (a Studio McGee for Target score from last year)

Family Room

Moving towards the back of our home, you will enter our Kitchen and Family Room area. This space is where we have our family tree and display the decorations that we have had for a long time. Red is very prominent in my styling of this area of our home. Here are some photos of our Family room.

No mantle? No problem! I hang our family stockings from command strips stuck to our bookcases.

Kitchen

Just like our built-ins in the formal living room, I style our open shelves in our kitchen by mixing in a few seasonal items with our existing decor. I love the pops of red in our very white and neutral kitchen space!

Our kitchen Island becomes home to our traditional hot chocolate stand ...I remember I thought about not doing the hot chocolate stand last year, I figured the teens were over it. I was wrong! It actually made my mama heart really happy to learn that they love the hot chocolate vignette. So now I think it will just be a staple for always and forever. I display our favorite holiday mugs, and then I buy some hot chocolate packets, marhsmallows, chocolates etc. Sometimes there are even fresh baked shortbread cookies!

Bathroom

I love to add some festive touches to our powder room over the holidays. We like to host family and friends over and I think it's fun to make the bathroom a festive place for guests!