Decking the Halls - Embracing Kid Craft Decorations… and the Mom Tree
It’s no surprise to most of you who know me that I’m “particular” about what goes up in the house - and that certainly gets turned up a notch at Christmas! Yes I know there‘s probably a program out there for me! But I love decorating for Christmas in all its twinkle light glory.
How I Embraced the Kid Craft Christmas Decorations
Before we had kids, as I began curating our Christmas decor, I had one color palette and went all in. My tree being the centerpiece and a jolly explosion of red and silver, keeping the "random" ornaments I owned tucked away in storage, or once in a while brought out for the basement tree the years we started putting that up.
But slowly as the daycare crafts started coming home, my Grinchy attitude against popsicle sticks and cotton ball ornaments began to grow soft. I even started bringing the random ornaments out of the basement to put on the main living room tree after we started buying a fresh-cut tree too. I knew I was a changed woman the day I let Abbey put this "ornament" on the tree a couple years ago - "Mom's gone soft" were literally the words out of Zach's mouth.
From there on out, I embraced the random ornaments and never looked back. And now, it's "our thing." I make an ornament every year that matches whatever it is we put on our Christmas card. And we're even buying them as souvenirs now. Heck, this year I even let Hank and Abbey hang nearly every ornament without help. (And I swear I only moved a few!)
To round out the living room and lean into my new theme of "Embracing Childhood" I've been curating a mix of kid-made crafts that I've framed for safe keeping, and even found a new home for that cotton ball "ornament." We also keep a bulk of our collection of Christmas books in here too for quick Christmas stories.
Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care next to mantle art that plays into the magic of Christmas with some of my favorite holiday photos of the kids that I printed on easel backs at Shutterfly.
From the mantle to the door frames to the stair railings, I've got every tree and garland inside the house on the same timer schedule as the outside of the house so that everything comes on for a couple hours in the morning and all evening.
Like I shared in the last post about hanging the outdoor lights and lining our windows with lights, I use the same Command light hooks for hanging garland and tucking extension cords away literally everywhere upstairs and down. They are by far the single best "tool" for the holidays.
Back to the kids, since the living room is definitely more kid inspired, our Little People nativity hangs out in here too. No matter how big they get, I think I'll always put it at floor level to encourage play. This is one of my favorite gifts of all time - great to get or give for holidays, baptisms, etc.
I love how everything in here is perfectly imperfect, which makes it just perfect.
But... even though I'm all-in with the kid decor, I bought myself a "Mom Tree."
While I embraced the Christmas spirit in our living room, I bought myself a "Mom Tree" for our piano room. This one is all mine to decorate as fancy as I'd like. Which means the tree itself was for sure going to be a beautiful flocked white tree donned with glitter. I bought this pre-lit tree two years ago at Earl May and it's stunning.
While my old "fancy tree look" was all red and silver, with this tree I wanted it to just glisten so everything on here is tones of white, gold, silver and some wood tones. I've been SLOWLY adding ornaments and decor to this tree each year, because for a second tree, I'd rather buy all the ornaments at 75%+ off at after Christmas sales! I'm all about a bargain! And it's easy because the tree itself is beautiful enough.
The living room decor really celebrates one jolly Christmas icon, but I wanted this room to focus on the real reason for the season. From the gold star on top to the words embedded in the branches, this tree celebrates the one who showed up that Holy night, and still brings light to this dark world... Jesus Christ of course! My favorite bible verse (the one I put on my license plate) is John 1:5 - The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can't extinguish it. There's a lot of darkness in this world but by having hope, we know that even a glimmer of light can drive out darkness. I think that's why I love Christmas the most. Every tree or lit up house is a reminder of that.
I swapped out our "regular" hymn prints above the piano for our Christmas hymns, which is an incredibly subtle way to change this room with the season, and does beckon me to play. Silent Night, Oh Holy Night and I Heard the Bells are the three on display now. I play piano more in the month of December than I do the rest of the year combined.
Last year we put Zach's Christmas village up in here too, but we've honestly been too busy or out of town on the weekends to get it all out this year. We had the perfect ledge for it at our old house but had to plan and zone vertical with the shelves. It was pretty magical, but I'm not sure if we're going to get it done this year...
So, did I inspire you to get your own version of my "mom tree?" Whatever your Christmas style, make it yours. Even it if means buying yourself your own tree. Find a corner and make it happen. You won't regret it!
Need a holiday fix-up? Here are some shop-able items to get you started:
Main Living Room
Tis the Season to be Jolly Plaque - Kirklands
Natural Fair Isle Stockings - Pottery Barn
Stocking Holders for Mantle (affiliate)
Command Light Clips (affiliate)
Indoor Programmable Outlet Timer Set of Two (affiliate)
Little People Nativity (affiliate)
Piano Room
Artificial Flocked Pre-lit Tree - check latest assortment at Earl May
Wooden Word Tree Decorations - Etsy
Silent Night Print - others online too (affiliate)
Black frames with white mat (affiliate)
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