This is how it goes at our house: I do something that earns a compliment from a member of my family, and I will take that one thing and blow it up to the nth degree.
“Oh, do you like it, honey? Just a little something I threw together.”
So here I am, celebrating the humble birth of a babe in a manger… by stringing lights and garland on anything that doesn’t move.
Which reminds me….has anyone seen the dogs?
Today is the holiday edition of “Where Bloggers Live;” a peek into the holiday celebrations of seven blogging women.
I’ve done holiday peeks before, here and here, so I tried mixing up a few things this year.
Let’s start outside with the one thing that is the heart of our holiday, the Nativity.
Mr sets up a version of this every year, using zip-tied pallets. Here’s one from a couple of years ago:
He covers the front with birch logs from the yard and USUALLY we cover and trim out the roof with salvaged greenery from the big box stores. But the stores were either stingy with their leftovers this year or were freshly cleaned out each time we visited.
There were also fewer birch logs this year, but greenery or no greenery, it’s still one of my favorite things:
Circling to the front of the house:
We found these deer at this year’s Mackenzie-Childs Barn Sale.
Even at 80% off, I had passed on them (you’re proud of me, right?). We got back to the car and Mr. looked at me in astonishment. “Please tell me we’re not going home without those deer!” So back we went, and I think it’s pretty cool how much HE liked them.
And yes, I wired them to our summer umbrella stands in case they feel like going for a walk.
So…were you around when I first lit the ceiling of our back hallway two years ago? That became a family favorite, which brings us to our third year of this “new” tradition.
Mr. asked me to take it all the way to the back door last year, which I obliged, AND I added a new feature….a Lutron dimmer switch.
It allows us to enjoy the ceiling with more of a “nightlight effect.” Not that it isn’t pretty at full brightness, but subtle works too! You plug the lights into the dimmer plug, then plug the dimmer into the outlet. A slider switch allows you to adjust how dim or bright you’d like it.
(If you have dimmable LEDs there’s a model for those as well.)
In fact, I liked the effect so much, I added one to our kitchen tree.
If you haven’t been here before, I started wiring our nutcrackers into the tree, rather than pick them up to dust around them. Mama is always happy to have one less thing to dust.
It’s especially nice to take pictures after the resident teacher brings home her holiday gifts. Lovely planters we all enjoy!
Speaking of teachers, you may know that the tree in our Family Room is decorated with all of the school projects our kiddos made when they were little. I’ve featured it on the blog before with a letter to thank the teachers who brought this joy into our home. I don’t know why, but it looks filled in person and sort of empty in the picture. I may have to go back and re read that post myself!
I used to double light our 10′ tree with white and color lights, but Mr. bought me a new LED tree. I’m still not on Team LED but I DO like being able to have both kinds of light without having to string them.
The tree in the STILL curtainless Living Room features partridges and pears,
as well as my favorite natural addition: REAL lunaria (“Silver Dollar”) stems.
I scour the fall farmers markets for them and LOVE how they reflect the light in the tree like mini shaded lights. I was also able to repurpose the foyer flowers from the “Falloween” tour and placed them in the tree.
Lunaria stems are also featured in the “silver” tree across the hall in the dining room.
This year I tried something different on top of the dining room cabinet…
And of course, to offset the secular overload everywhere, each room has at least one nativity scene, the favorite of course is in the foyer under the red tree.
I still think it’s cool that the best part of the tree’s decorations are the giant snowflakes from the Dollar Tree! Love how they reflect the light.
I feel compelled to keep it real: Even though I did edit out a couple of unsightly electrical cords in the Family Room pics, I I hope you’ll forgive me for not showing the HUGE pile of “to be wrapped” bags and packages literally just thrown in the unseen corner of the Dining Room. I thought I’d try to keep the basement tidy this year… (By all means, let’s not hide our messes when we can have them front and center! )
Thanks for coming to visit…I hope you’ll check out the other bloggers’ holiday tours. I know I can’t wait to see what they’re sharing!
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Em at Dust and Doghair
Julia at When the Girls Rule
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Lisa at Midlife in Bloom (Lisa is actually vacationing for this edition….smart cookie!)
Wishing you all the joy your heart can hold this holiday season….and, if you celebrate it, have a VERY Merry Christmas!
I love your front entryway. The color scheme is classic, and the black front door is timeless. You can easily decorate for any season with that color scheme.
My darling friend, I remember ‘meeting’ you right before the holidays a couple of years ago as you were working your magic on the ceiling of the entrance way, with those lovely branches, stars/snowflakes and little twinkling lights. I was in awe. How wonderful it must be to have a PC who is as excited and hands-on in the holiday decorating as you are. That nativity in the yard is PERFECT…greenery or not. (I noticed all of our Christmas tree stalls had been freshly swept of branches, too.) I need to up our nativity scene count to balance our secular decorations. We only had a couple of Santas but were way heavy on the snowmen!! How priceless to have a tree with your children’s holiday art from Christmases past. I was very sad this year, that Lauren’s third grade pretzel ornament (circa 1993) crumbled to bits this year as I unpacked it. And my high school art class pottery soldier (circa 1975) bit the dust, too, when I dropped him to answer a telemarketer’s phone call. But the memories can’t be crumbled or dropped.
I just love the warmth of your beautiful home, the care you put into every detail, even the hiding of the extension cords…ours are part of the decor, in plain view!! You are like a Christmas angel.
Hello, good Leslie! Thank you for your lovely comment!
While it’s true that my PC is all in for holidays…and I know Christmas is not a favorite of your PC’s…there are plenty of things he’s not entirely enthused about (my blogging, for instance). He deals, but is pretty much not a fan of the sharing…or the time it takes to put a post together. I get it, but I have greatly enjoyed the exchange of ideas, and friendships like yours, that have come as a result.
I enjoyed your holiday tour as well! The snowmen are a wonderful option to last throughout January and post-Christmas. We are again going to be the last on the block to pack it up. I figure if the world can start Christmas six weeks before, we can at least celebrate until our church celebrates the Baptism of Jesus. So…we have until this Sunday.
I’ve also had some Christmas casualties through the years. Darned if I can remember what they were…but I DO recall one time when our tree fell over many years ago. We had mucho breakage!
Just read that your Cami is on route! How exciting! Prayers to all!
Oh my word! I love love love! Your house is like a winter wonderland! I think I’m gonna try the ceiling lights next year. That is just crazy cool. And the deer? They are fabulous!!
Hello, Daenel! THANK YOU! The lights have been very popular with the home team. I tried stretching and adapting them last year to Valentine’s Day, then St. Pattys… Took down the ornaments and added hearts and shamrocks….but it still felt stale. I think it all has to end so we can look forward to the return.
And the deer? The other day, Mr. said “I think if they have them again this year, we should get a couple more..” He may be the death of me, haha!
Beautifully decorated home!! Every room is so festive. And I am happy you went back for the deer – i especially like them outside (where i think they belong!!) . How do you light you window sprays? Very clever. Have a wonderful Christmas!!
Hello, Patti (the hospitality queen),
My family is really enjoying the deer. They’re definitely fun and I love how Mr. outdid me with his Barn Sale excitement!
For the window sprays I run the light cords inside the house through the windows. The cords are thin so the windows still close over them…you just have to hit it between bulbs. Eventually, I will have curtains back up that will mostly hide the cords. (Go back to the LR pear tree photo and you’ll see the light cord coming from the side of the window.)
Merry Christmas!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all your decorations – especially appreciate all the Nativity scenes. Both exterior and interior look wonderful. I want to live at your house at Christmas time.
Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year
Grace & Peace,Iris
http://www.IrisOriginalsRamblings.com
Come on up!
My family is always so busy and stressed this time of year…whether from work or school.
So they all look forward to hunkering down and the arrival of the dec seems to symbolize that special time is at hand.
It ends up being a month of nearly daily compliments…which are just a way for them to say that it makes them all so happy. What more could I want of my time?
The opposite, though, occurs mid January when the last of it comes down. They call it the worst week of the year….
We’re your ears ringing tonight? Mr and I were talking about your dec. I told him about your FROG tree, and the lovely memories from your travels and in the wooden tree your husband made for you.
Treasures!
BTW, forgot to mention the coffee with Jesus sign in your Keurig area!!! LOVE it!
Merry Christmas, new friend!
WOW!
WOW!
WOW!
This is all AMAZING! And BEAUTIFUL! And AMAZING! Do you have helper elves? How do you do all this?
The twinkle light branch ceiling thing – OMG!!! I want that EVERYWHERE! Have you ever done a DIY on that? How do you affix the branch/twigs to the ceiling??
And…YOU HAVE A MACKENZIE CHILDS STORE?!?! I’ve only ever seen their stuff in person at the NY Gift Show…but a WHOLE STORE? With SALES? Those deer are incredible. Your husband was right, you DID need to have them! Now *I* want them!
I’m going to have to go through the post again cuz there was so much to see! Just beautiful, Em – I’m amazed with your creativity and talent and EFFORT 🙂
Happy Holidays to you and your family.
xoxo Bettye
https://fashionschlub.com
Helper elves, 🤣
It happens a little at a time and begins obscenely early…this year I started around Veteran’s Day.
Last year I tried milking extra time out of the ceiling and repurposed it for Valentine’s Day and St. Patty’s. Kind of took the special out of it, though.
I did write about how I did it year one, but now it’s simpler…I just go with nails. They do the job well. Just don’t look up after the holidays, haha.
So the Mac-Chi home base is in Aurora, NY. Factory, farm, store, and fully decorated tourable farmhouse! It’s about an hour and a half from our house… a little east of Syracuse. Every year they have a crazy huge 4-day barn sale and ppl come from far and wide to scoop up deals in the sweltering July heat. We hit it late in the day when the crowds are less ridiculous…so much merch! Half-off and more. We’ll have to talk more about this 😉!
Aside from making spaghetti and meatballs…there’s probably nothing else I do that my family appreciates more than my all-out holiday extravaganza.
It’s all accompanied by Christmas week binge viewing, and as I type this, we’re already on the second LOTR movie.
Not forgetting the “reason for the season” but the time together is pretty precious while it lasts!
Merry Christmas, Bettye! Thanks for this great opportunity.
So i lost count….how many trees is that?? Double wrapping the trees with lights?? Is that how it’s done. The things I learn from you.
The reindeer are magnificent Em. Why should they only be Christmas?? You have deer around the area all the time, don’t you??
Your house is so fabulous!! It’s like a winter wonderland, Em!
Xoxo
Jodie
DIY double lighting is the work of a crazy person. But I did it for two or three years and it was amazing. String two sets of lights at a time and set them on two different remotes. (It’s on a post somewhere here, haha.)
I will definitely do that again when I someday add a real tree back in the mix.
I forgot to mention your ceramic tree when I “visited” you…they’re in high demand these days! They’re even being reintroduced. I bought a big pack of replacement bulbs last year so I’ll send you some!
Have a wonderful Christmas and happy cruising!
Love your heart and soul Christmas decorations! The nativity scenes are FABULOUS! After all, that IS the reason for the season. Thanks for sharing your beautiful home with us. (I’m dropping by from Jodie’s Touch of Style) Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Thank you, Judy…and welcome!
I didn’t feature my kiddos’ Nativities this year, but they’re out as well. They each made them in Third Grade from little clay pots. Loooove how special and sweet they are. The simplest of all our decorations, and the four “things” I would try to rescue (after my hallway pics) if my dec ever set the house on fire. (Wow, there’s a happy thought!!!)
Thank you for visiting and for your kind comment!
Have a blessed Christmas!