Holiday Home Tour: Is It Woodsy Enough In Here?

Operation Home For The Holidays is complete! Well, kinda. Josh is still trying to get our closet upstairs done so I can paint it, and maybe ... maybe ... we'll be able to install the actual closet units before Christmas. BUT, for the most part, it's time for us to just enjoy the house, and the holiday season by spending time watching really made made-for-TV movies and stuffing our faces with advent calendar treats while wearing stretchy pants.

This weekend, we started to decorate for Christmas. Going into the season, I was setting goals of making this house perfect, with every room decorated for Christmas, glowing with twinkly lights and draped in garland. But, then I realized how overwhelming that was, coming from a small apartment. We already had a lot on our list to buy to fill up our two living spaces and entryway, so we decided to focus on these spaces for this season. Every Christmas after this one, we'll pick a new room to buy decorations for, and just keep adding until we're done (so, like, never).

Over the years, I've gone in all different directions with Christmas decorations. I think the first year Josh and I lived together, we went traditional green and red. Then for a few years, we went off into urban/colorful mode. Then we landed somewhere in between. And now, we're back to traditional with a little bit of rustic cabin, and that's also where we're staying. It's taken us 10 years, but we've finally figured out our style, and what makes us feel like home.

For Christmas, I like to decorate for the winter season as much as I can because I hate to put everything away come January. I try to buy staples like pillows and throws that I can keep out all winter long so that when the Christmas decorations do go away, the house still feels wintery and cozy. Lately, I've been inspired by cabins and lodges for wintery decor and I tried to bring some of that into our holiday home, too.

So, everything's a work in progress, and will be for a few years, but, here's where we're at with holiday decor:

Let's start with trees. So, we have a tree farm, and all we had to do was walk down, cut down a couple of trees and lug it back to the house. Yay! We decided on two trees this year: one in each of our living rooms. Once our bedroom is done (hopefully by next year!) we plan to put a small tree in there since we, you know, have like a thousand of them.

Our first tree from our farm!

Yes, that's me.

For our trees, we decided we like them in their natural state, for the most part. We didn't really shape or trim them too much, and left their branches as they were. I love that it looks more natural. You'll see later in the photos. So anyhoo ...

... moving on to entryway, we decided to keep it simple this year, and just added a few touches. Someday, I really want to wrap garland all along the stairway railings, but as it was, we felt like we were leaving craft stores every weekend with carts full of garlands and wreaths so we held off on that this year. We just added a few small wreaths to our little windowpane wall decorations and dressed up our landing window a bit.

We also did one small little decoration in the kitchen on our window. I've had a pin on Pinterest saved for, oh ... only a year or so, and I just really wanted to make it happen this year. Next year, I need to add some extra garland so that it hangs down both sides and hides the tension rod a bit more (which I wrapped in green floral tape to conceal it a little), BUT, overall, I still kind of love it.

One side of our window trim isn't done ...no big deal.

Our front living room is where we decided to concentrate on, since we foresee this space being our relaxation room during the holidays, where we can start a fire, address our holiday cards, wrap gifts, and spend quality time together without the distraction of the TV. We put our bigger tree in here, along with our stockings, and also hung wreaths in the windows. For pillows, since we didn't have any for this room, I bought all new ones at Pottery Barn*. I love the red and green plaid, and the gray and white buffalo check mixed together in the same room. To tie them together, I added gray throws on the chair and sofa.

Over the years, Josh has collected wine toppers that people have given as gifts with bottles of wine and liquor,
and it's so fun dressing up our bar area every season.

While I'm kind of in charge of most of the Christmas decorations, Josh is all over our little winter village. We bought a 6-ft banquet table with a burlap floor-length tablecloth for it this year, and now we have plenty of space to buy more pieces! I think Josh's favorite, though, is our tiny Wegman's grocery store. 

Betty's stocking is the biggest, even though she's a 7-pound dog. But the likeness of her on the stocking was too perfect to pass up. 

For our other living room, I tried to keep it more woodsy-inspired, and I'm not really sure if I did that, but I'm goin' with it. I still keep asking myself, "Is this woodsy enough? More pine trees!? Okay. Josh! We need to go back to Michaels!" The pillows I used we've had for a couple of years, and the only new one is also from Pottery Barn* from this season.

One of my favorite parts of decorating for Christmas is our ornaments. I'm kind of obsessed with all of them. I love all our little woodland creatures mixed with traditional mercury and all the ornaments we've accumulated during our travels.

Owl tree topper: 8-ish bucks at Wal Mart this year! Not thrilled with his gold glitter tummy,
but I can live with it for 8-ish bucks.

The back of our sofa area is still a little fuzzy for me. I kind of just threw some faux pine trees, an owl decoration and a framed map of Block Island back there for now. We still haven't unpacked all our boxes, and I know I eventually want to do a frame wall collage on that back wall, but just for now, this is kind of what I have. I don't love it. I don't hate it.

And that's all we have this year for Christmas. Next year, I think my focus will be our dining room, since I'm hoping we'll have that painted, new trim put up and a new light fixture installed. Fingers crossed. I mean, we have a year, right? Famous last words.

Merry Christmas, friends!

*I work for the Williams-Sonoma brand and received an employee discount on these products.