Merry and Bright: Christmas Decorations 2018

If you have watched any of my Instagram Stories the past 6+ weeks, you've likely seen story after story of my Christmas trees. I don't know why I love Christmas decorations so much. It may have to do with my love of glitter, or maybe just a fascination with twinkle lights. What I do remember is being 14 and loving Christmas so much that I enthusiastically decided to decorate the outside of our house after I heard there was a neighborhood competition. My outdoor displays never reached the level of others in the neighborhood (some of whom would hire outside help), but ever since then, the love of Christmas decor has grown. I don't decorate for any other season or holiday, so Christmas is the time of year I bring out all the stops.

One of the first things I said to Steve when we looked at house we now live in: “I can fit so many Christmas trees in here!” For those who feel sorry for Steve, know that he fully understood my Christmas decor love before we got married!

This year, the decor consisted of window wreaths and window candles, outdoor topiaries, 4 Christmas trees (up 2 from last year), mantle garland, 2 sets of stair garland, a few wreaths in the kitchen, and a little bit of decor in our dining room.

Christmas Tree 1: The Gold Magnolia

This was my big project for the year, and was something I started on last year. My mom loved magnolias. Our wedding cake had them, and I love the leaves and flowers in general as decor. Last year, I grabbed this 12 foot LED pre-lit tree from Home Depot's after Christmas sale. I don't think I fully understood how large 12 feet of tree is. It's not a slim cut tree, so in addition to the height, the diameter was something to wrestle with. I also don't do ladders, so it was a little challenging to get the top decorated. Steve was helpful in lending a hand, and I had a little bit of foresight to secure the top bow before adding that final section to the top of the tree.

The decorations for this tree feature some older ones from trees past from House by JSD and Pier One, but is largely new decorations this year. I love Z Gallerie, so I hit up their after-Christmas sale last year and scored these massive gold glittered magnolia stems that were the start of all decor on this tree. Also from Z Gallerie are velvet magnolia clips, some very shiny gold beaded ornaments, and sequin covered stems. From House by JSD, in addition to some of the picks I've collected over the years from them, I also grabbed a lot of magnolia leaves in green and gold, feathers, and the ribbon for the tree topper. I became obsessed with this ribbon, so you'll noticed it in several of my decorations. Next year, I'm going to make the topper much larger and have tails coming down a little more.

Christmas Tree 2: The Royal Entrance

I'm calling this one the royal tree, only because it has ornaments in a deep purple color. Last year, I entered an online giveaway for some glass ornaments from Balsam Hill. Low and behold, I won the set of Royal Celebration Ornaments. They are heavy and delicate and really beautiful. They were the base of this 9 foot tree, which I got on after Christmas clearance at At Home last year. I also added a variety of older gold tree picks and stems that I had, filled it in with some inexpensive shatterproof ornaments arranged in groups of 3, and a bow with that faux dupioni ribbon I'm obsessed with.

Since this is a new tree, I didn't have a tree skirt. I used one of my sequin table overlays from my wedding as a tree skirt, and I like it!

Balsam Hill ornaments. Photo by Five by Five Photography

If you've read any of my Christmas recaps for the past few years, you know I love Fancies. This is totally my made up nickname for glittered magestic reindeer. My original Fancies were from Target, and sported fur stoles – they're in my living room. These 2, much larger Fancies, are from Z Gallerie. They had no fur stoles, so I went #teamextra and made them some this year.

Christmas Tree 3: The Office Delight

This tree is back again this year after debuting in my home office last year. It's a slim tinsel tree from Target, and has a variety of reindeer (Fancy) ornaments and a lit star at the top. It isn't complicated, but it adds some festive sparkle to my office.

Christmas Tree 4: Sentimental Setup

I wasn't going to put this tree up this year since I already had the other 3 up, but decided a couple of weekends ago that I wanted it up. Steve says it's his favorite tree, and I understand why. The tree itself is from around 1997, I believe, and my mom bought it. So this tree has been in my house at Christmas for the better part of 20 years. Insane that it still looks so good, especially considering the number of needles it drops every year I take it out of the bag. The branches are all individual, which means it's a long ordeal to individually fluff and stuff each branch. But, of all the trees, I do think it looks most realistic. We have it in our upstairs loft, where we watch TV. Since my other trees have decor themes, this is my sentimental tree because it contains ornaments collected over the years. I did a run-down of some of my favorite ornaments that are on this tree here (from 2016). Since I used a lot of the tree picks for my magnolia tree and entry tree, I added some ribbon and gold shatterproof ornaments from At Home for some extra volume.

Mantle and staircase garland

For the mantle and staircases, I used this long needle pine garland from House by JSD. I've owned about 5 pieces of this garland for 5+ years, and it looks as good as the day I got it. This year, I splurged and got enough additional pieces to cover both staircases. The long needle pine has pinecones on it already. I then added a simple gold garland from Hobby Lobby, and LED string lights that have a battery pack and remote control. I wanted to tie in the tree a little more and add some extra texture, so I added the ribbon that tops the magnolia tree and the foyer tree. I happened upon the berry stems while browsing At Home. They come in packs of 3, so I added them to the mantle, and to the staircase garland that is in this room.

The stockings are from Pottery Barn, secured with Command hooks.

Dining Room

We rarely use this room, but planned on having people over so I wanted to do something in this room to jazz it up some. I repurposed my mantle swag from my old house (it's probably 8 years old) onto our dining room table. We didn't have anything above the wine cabinet, so a late night idea happened that resulted in this mirror with wreath.

I made this mirror using one of the welcome sign frames from our wedding and a piece of mirrored plexiglass! I didn't want to spent a lot of money on a mirror for this space because we think we might renovate it in the next year. So a $60 piece of plexiglass turned one of our wedding frames this into something we can re-use for the time being! The wreath is an extra one I bought last year from Michael's – same ones on the outside of my windows (see below), with a bow I made from the ribbon I used in the living room and entryway. It's held on with a suction cup hook. It's simple, but effective!

Outdoor Wreaths and Candles on Windows

Growing up, I can't remember a time when we didn't have wreaths on our windows. I was excited to do that with this home. I bought the wreaths and pre-made plaid bows from Michael's last year, and my mother in law helped me put them together. The candles were bought from Hobby Lobby last year. I was going to hang them from the tops of the windows on ribbon, but it turns out that the tops of our windows don't come down! So, I secured them using the tilt feature of the lower windows – a knotted ribbon is threaded through the wreath and then closed where the knot is inside the window.

The two small trees are probably 7 years old at this point, and were in white boxes. Last year, I spray painted the boxes black to match our front door. I added the bows that match the window wreaths, and there are some simple shatterproof ornaments on them. I won the wreath this year at a silent auction.