Christmas Home Tour

This was my first time decorating this house for Christmas since we moved this time last year. I was excited about getting all of the Christmas decorations out since they had been in hibernation for 2 years! :) Of course, since it was my first time to decorate this house, that also meant I had to figure out where I wanted to put everything. It was a lot of trial and error, and everything isn't perfect, but I'm happy with it. I just love Christmas and the way the house feels so warm and cheery with all the Christmas decorations out!

This year, we did two trees. We have one in our dining room and one on the living room. The plan for the past year had been to use the artificial one we already had in the dining room and get a real one to go in the living room. At the last minute, I started thinking about dealing with all of the lights and the watering and the pine needles (with a 2 year old!) and decided we just "aren't real tree people." Ha! I was a little sad, but artificial trees are just SO much easier for now. We might become real tree people down the road. So, we bought another artificial tree for the living room, and I'm happy with that decision.

This is an overall view of the dining room: Here is the tree in the dining room by day:
And here it is at night:My mom gave me this nativity scene because she doesn't use it anymore. I decided to put it on our sideboard in the dining room. I love that it's so big. Aubrey loves looking at Baby Jesus.I couldn't decide what to use on the dining room table as a centerpiece. I tried several different things and finally just used this wreath and hurricane. I like it, but I will probably try to find something else for next year.Now, here is an overall view of the living room:The living room tree by day:
And by night:I really like the way this tree turned out.

Our mantel is another thing I played around with for a while. I was trying to use stuff we already had.My sweet friend Ashley gave this stocking to me last year for Aubrey, and I was so hoping I would be able to find a matching one for Jude. After seeing them at several different stores but never being able to find a "J", I finally found one! I think they're so cute and fun! :)I pretty much left the stuff on our built-ins like it already was, I just added in some greenery and balls.I put a couple of nutcrackers on top of this cabinet with some pine cones and sparkly garland. I was planning on getting real garland for our stairs since I had chickened out on the real tree. However, at the last minute again, I started thinking about how much Aubrey would probably end up touching it and all the pine needles that would end up on our [carpeted] stairs, and I changed my mind. I went the artificial route again. I know real garland would have been so much prettier, but this is just more practical for us right now. I wound some ribbon into the garland to dress it up a little.I kept things pretty simple everywhere else in the house. I'm going to try to get some more stuff for next year after Christmas when everything is on major sale :)I'm linking this post to Kelly and The Nester's tours, but considering I'm about #5,012 on both of them, I think it's pretty pointless. Ha! :) Merry Christmas!