Christmastime is here!

Did the holidays sneak up on anyone else besides me this year? I had the best intentions of making the abode into a winter wonderland for the holidays, but then I turned around and Christmas was a week away. D’oh! I have to admit, with coordinating travel and immense amounts of gift buying, I haven’t had much time to get my creative juices flowing this season. I desperately want to do a post on some garland and wreath ideas that are sneaking into my noggin, but those will have to wait for another year. Note to self: begin holiday decorations next July.

Regardless of our sparse Christmas decor, we still managed to bring a bit of holiday cheer into our house, starting with a fresh Fraser fir and matching wreath, handmade by the lovely people at our local Christmas tree outpost. I’ve always considered investing in a faux tree, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. The dropping needles and constant watering are all worth the wonderful smell a real tree brings into a home. A fake tree is like having eggnog without the splash of rum – it’s just not right!

I couldn’t decide which ridiculous picture to post of my husband decorating the tree, so I decided to include both. :) Below is the aforementioned handmade wreath made from leftover tree limbs. I can’t help but buy one of these every year since it’s such a great use of (essentially) trash and the yummy smell greets me every time I walk in the door.

Another note: yes, next year I will spruce up this standard wreath with something amazing that will blow your socks off. Just let that be a little something to keep you coming around until next year. :)

We’re definitely rocking the silver and red theme this year – it’s hard to avoid the classics. I do like to mix up my gift wrapping, though. I love all things paper and ribbon, so I can’t stick to one kind of wrapping paper for my gifts. This year I brought in some standard shipping paper in a natural brown tone, and accented it with green and red raffia for a rustic look…

… or used a simple brown box tied with some classic brick-a-brack ribbon for a simple, fresh look.

I continued the criss-crossing of the raffia on some more graphic wrapping papers that I was gifted from a wallcovering rep (love free stuff!). I love a good, graphic pattern on anything, especially a Christmas gift.

I even brought in a punchy, lime green ribbon to keep up with the bold pattern of this fun wrapping paper. Sure all of my gifts don’t match, but they’re keeping in the same color scheme, with varying scales of pattern, so it makes an interesting display under the tree.

Yes, I’m not the first person ever to decorate with glass ornaments (gasp!) but I just can’t help myself. The way the Christmas lights play off of their reflective surfaces is just perfect for holiday decor. Plus, we have an abundance of glass vases that we received as wedding gifts, so they’re the perfect vessel to hold these little balls of colored light.

We even took a bit of leftover wrapping paper and popped it in a frame to bring the whole red and silver theme to fruition. Genius, right? Yeah, I know it’s nothing new, but I wanted to share my holiday decor with all of you nice people so you can get a taste of how holidays are in the H household. Any holiday decor ideas you’d love to share? Do it do it!

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