This year I made some changes and additions to our holiday decorations. As always, we have a tree in the living room with my ornaments and white and pink lights, braided pearl strands and pink bunting. We have a tree in the family room with the kids’ ornaments. I also have a tree in my office with book ornaments.
This year, partly because I now do a lot of my work in the kitchen, I added a kitchen tree, with kitchen themed ornaments. It has blue and white lights. I found all sorts of cute ornaments – knife, fork, spoon, blender, pots and pants, strainer, PBJ sandwich, milk carton, pitcher, tray of gingerbread men, toaster, crate of blueberries, a ravioli, chocolate covered strawberry, and even a Hostess cupcakes – all on eBay! I must admit though I am jonesing for another ornament on eBay. It’s a little oven with cookies baking in it. It lights up AND it smells like cookies baking. It’s going for around $110 though, so I won’t be buying it any time soon. I had the most fun prowling eBay for the ornaments I did buy though!
I haven’t figured out what to put on the top of this tree yet. Some people have suggested a chef’s hat, but I’m not a chef, so I don’t like that. I was thinking maybe a little doll’s apron tied around the top, but am not sure what that would look like. Any ideas?
Teen Martha and I went to a Christmas tour of homes and I loved how some 
people had ornaments hung in their windows. If you look in the background of the kitchen tree photo, you can see I have my 12 days of Christmas ornaments in the windows, but I wanted to do something else. I realized I had 3 blue star ornaments that would be perfect in the big window over my sink, so Mr. MarthaAndMe hung those for me. Next year, I am going to do something on the shelf above it as well – maybe a grouping of reindeer with some that cottony stuff that looks like snow drifts.
At the tour of homes, I also loved decorations people put on the backs of their kitchen chairs. Next year I’ll be doing that too. I haven’t been able to find what I want to do it this year.
And just a note here that my kitchen walls really are not the color they look like in these photos! They are a very, very pale subtle green but somehow they look horrible and neon in these photos!
Moving on to the dining room, I’ve added to my tree collection this year with several new ones, and I also bought a white sparkly runner to put them on so they pop more.
In case you didn’t know, I don’t do red for Christmas. Pink is my Christmas color. I do cranberry in the family room. The kitchen is blue themed so I am going with decorations in blue in there.
I have had the same Christmas dining room centerpiece my entire married life. 
It was time for a new one. Not an easy task with my color scheme. I bought this 60% off at Michaels and had to do some work on it. It had some awful brown roses in it I pulled out. I added more pink poinsettias, some gold accents, and put it in a shiny mercury glass vase I got at TJ Maxx for $19. I am THRILLED with the results!
In the living room I have my display of tree toppers on the mantel. This 
collection has grown as well, so I thought I would share it with you. I also found some fabulous vintage pink curly-que garland at an antique shop, so I’ve replaced the pink bunting on the mantel with that. I also bought pre-lit garland this year because I got tired of seeing all the wires from the lights I wrapped around the garland.
Again, the colors of my walls just look horrible in these photos for some reason!
Decorating for Christmas is so much work, but I just love it so much! The hardest part for me is I spent so much time and put so much thought into and we never have a single person come over to see it (neither set of parents is interested in coming here for Christmas), so at least I get to share it with you!
This year I made some changes and additions to our holiday decorations. As always, we have a tree in the living room with my ornaments and white and pink lights, braided pearl strands and pink bunting. We have a tree in the family room with the kids’ ornaments. I also have a tree in my … Read more →
My daughter and I have started the tradition of taking one of those holiday tours of homes each year. Last year I came home with many decorating ideas and I waited a whole year to implement them! One thing I saw in several homes were themed collections on shelves in kitchens, made into little vignettes. I always tend to lean towards decorations that emphasize whatever aspect of nature is connected to the holiday (Easter: eggs, St. Patrick’s Day: shamrocks, Thanksgiving: turkeys, Halloween: pumpkins). It was time to expand my Christmas decorations. I hit on polar bears and became obsessed. So far, I’ve only bought two, but am hoping Santa might add to my collection. I love the ones that are mostly faceless – I’ve never been a fan of anthropomorphic faces on animals. These polar bears found their way into my cart at TJ Maxx and HomeGoods for under $10 each. I put them on the shelf above the window over the sink, added some silvery and ivory beaded garland, some cheap plastic stars from Walmart, and some berries from Michael’s to match my kitchen blue theme. I’m happy to have the polar bears keeping me company in the kitchen. What Christmas collections do you have?
