Christmas at Home.....the Wrap Up

I marvel at the home decor bloggers.

By the weekend after Thanksgiving, their homes are completely decorated for the holidays and they have everything photographed and written about to post through early December.

They wrap their packages in unique and beautiful ways and often have 5 or 10 different kinds of cookies baked. Please don't hear this as whining, I truly do marvel at their level of organization and skill. We were pretty on top of things here at 9010 this year. With both of us working on it, we had all of the decorations up before the kids came on December 13. I don't know what happened after that except to say that we had a good many social commitments which we really enjoyed and there were Christmas movies, football and hockey games and concerts to watch on television or see live.

I guess what I am saying is this...we really had fun this year during the holidays!

Our Christmas decorations will not come down until after January 7th this year (which will actually be early for us!) We are having friends for lunch on the 7th and they have a little guy, so I wanted to have everything still intact when they come.

Last year, after Christmas, as I was packing things away, I pared down my decorations. I gave some of my Santas and Snowmen to friends in the interest of downsizing. I think I will do it again this year t keeping only those things that I can't bear to part with.

I usually decorate in the dining room with silver and white and I didn't even unpack that bin this year. I chose to stick to kind of a red and white scheme for all of the rooms....except the entryway.

On a small chest, I always display my lighted glitter house that I bought a bunch of years ago from Pottery barn after Christmas. The roof tarnishes more each year which adds to it's charm, I think.

The little boy and girl and Santa are new this year. Bethany Lowe figures I found at Marshalls.

Above the chest is a P. Buckley Moss poster that I've had for 30 years or longer.

A winter buggy ride in Amish country in Pennsylvania

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Also standing guard in the entryway is a vintage child's chair on which sits

Fern Woodsbeary, a Boyds Bear from my collection.See all of her woodland friends peeking out from pockets and sleeves?

On into the family room, you can see that the tree is decorated in a Swedish style...

Straw horses and stars, Santa and shiny apples, and of course the tomte. They are the Swedish elves who can be very mischievous. We don't have an elf on the shelf here but we do have one tomte who hides every day and you have to find him.

Charlie and Miles had a good time every morning hunting for the tomte! (You know I love Ikea!!)

The Santa collection was on the mantel and in the bookcases. No matter what I do, the lighting is never right for picture taking so bear with me here.

The Russian Santas

The Swedish display with Dalla horse and St. Lucia figure

The rest are either handmade or hand-painted or older ones in my collection

The checkerboard Santa is a gourd..

And of course, I am that crazy person who turns all of the books around to show only white pages (except for the Christmas books) during the holidays.

I wrote about why I do this in a post last year. you can see the before and after pictures HERE

There are really a lot fewer Santas and snowmen this year1

Of course, the most important part of our Christmas decor is the manger

with my dear, old Hummel figures...some glued together...all of them cherished.

The baby Jesus asleep in the hay of a barn made by my Father over 34 years ago.

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This year, I found this wonderful "chalkboard look" plaque at Marshalls and it worked perfectly, hung above the display.

A gift from my sweet friend, Mary Ellen...a Patience Brewster angel.

You have seen all of our decorated rooms. I hope you have enjoyed the tour!

All is calm....

xoxo

Joyce