It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Y’all, I love Christmas! I truly believe that it is the most wonderful time of the year!

From family gatherings to decorating, Christmas music, yummy treats, finding the perfect gifts & so much more! And, we cannot forget the true reason for the season.

We have a general rule in our house…we cannot decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving late this year, it was super hard for me to hold off, but somehow I made it.

While I love Black Friday, this year I traded shopping for decorating. Hubby & I pulled everything out of the attic & got to work.

Our first step: the tree. We start by assembling our 6.5 foot pre-lit tree, along with a galvanized tree collar. (Our tree collar is from Sam’s Club. I tried finding it to link, but it appears that they no longer sell it.)

The next thing we do is string beads on the tree. The strands of beads I use look a lot like pearls, any southern gal’s favorite!

Up next: the ornaments! Hubby & I have a wide variety of ornaments. Each one has a very special meaning. One tradition for me: Barbie ornaments. Since I was a little girl, Momma would gift me the yearly Barbie ornament. As both Kentucky natives, Hubby & I also have many Kentucky themed ornaments. While they may not all seem to go together, I love all of our ornaments, because of their meaning.

A new element for our tree this year: pom pom stems from Two Chicks & Company Lexington. Momma & I visited there for Small Business Saturday, and I just knew that these fun stems needed to come home with me.

Finally: the bow! Y’all know I love big bows & I cannot lie, and there is no difference for my Christmas tree! I bought this holly burlap ribbon from Hobby Lobby a few years ago. In true southern fashion, I love some burlap, and this is how I represent it on our tree.

After my tree, I go to work decorating the stand below our TV. I enjoy changing the decor on the TV stand for each season of the year.

I find it relaxing to put together arrangements around our home. For this first arrangement, I started with a circular tray. It’s a tray I bought from Sam’s Club several years ago. Then, I used a small vase to put stems of holly berries in for a little flare.

For my ceramic colorful trees, the key is differentiating heights. If the heights aren’t just how I like, I often use coasters to give something a little extra “umph.“

The next elements I chose for my arrangement originally belonged to my NanNan, my grandmother who passed away when I was in college. She decorated on her table using a small gold arrangement with red sparkly ornaments each year. The other element that belonged to NanNan, “Santa stuck in the chimney.” While Santa may look angry, it always puts a smile on my face knowing that it came from NanNan.

I finished the arrangement with a sign from Target & a few candles.

The only tips I have for putting something like this together: try varying heights & don’t be afraid to try something new.

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On the other side of our TV stand, I put together a much more simple arrangement.

I always like to have some sort of base. For this one, I used a wooden bark charger. These are easy to find at stores like: Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls or Home Goods.

Next, I added this fun “Believe” sign with trees. We found this at Bed, Bath & Beyond last year during an after Christmas Sale. Finally, I added this acrylic clear tree.

I like to balance out the sides of our TV stand with complex and simple, that that’s what I’ve done here.

My next step for decorations was for our floating shelves on each side of our TV.

To tie in the burlap bow on our tree, we have burlap stockings. Each are a few years old, but from Kirklands. This year, I paired a tiny tree on each shelf, along with a battery-operated candle & our stockings.

This next arrangement is next to our TV stand.

I started with a large and small lantern. The large is part lantern, part space heater from Sam’s Club. I found the small decorative lantern at Bed, Bath & Beyond during an after-Christmas sale last year.

This light-up pom-pom tree is a fun addition as well. I found it at Queen Bee Boutique in Lexington several years ago.

Probably my favorite part of this arrangement is the burlap bags. The large bags are from House by JSD. I filled each with grocery bags to make them look full.

To bring this arrangement together, I put together a small bucket of pine cones. The pine cones are the wonderful smelling ones you can find at your local grocery store. I made sure that they can be seen in the bucket by stuffing it with craft paper and burlap.

Y’all, I could talk about Christmas decor for days! Just sitting and looking at the twinkling lights puts a smile on my face.

At the end of the day, it’s not what the decor looks like or how I arranged it, but how it makes our little family feel.