Hello friends and happy Friday! Woot woot for the weekend coming our way and then only a few more days till Christmas! Eek! To celebrate this magnificent holiday, I’ve joined up with Emily from Table + Hearth and 17 other bloggers for the Home for the Holidays Blog Hop where we’ll all be showing off our Christmas Home Tours! Take a look at my Christmas Home Tour below and then click the links at the bottom of this post to check out everyone else’s!
I’m going to tell you right now that my home in no way, shape or form, looks like it came out of a catalog. In fact, all of my Christmas decor is very hodge podge because it’s a compilation of things from my childhood, my husband’s childhood, with a few new, handmade and/or hand-me-down pieces thrown in. It may not look like a magazine, but our Christmas decor really makes me nostalgic and brings me back to a time when Christmas was pure magic. Welcome to my humble abode and enjoy 🙂
When you first walk up to our home, Sooter Cottage, you are greeted by a smattering of popsicle stick snowflakes and my fall wreath turned Christmas wreath with a ribbon update! You’ll have to knock though, because our doorbell is broken 😉
Upon entering you’ll find my little entry way table all decked out for the holidays featuring a ‘Believe’ sign that came from my dad and my little snowflake garland! Walk a little further and you’ll be greeted by my favorite and undoubtedly most Christmasy room in the house 🙂
One of my pride and joys in this room is my recently completed JOY Marquee Sign and my Christmas mantel! I added some paper snowflakes that I had saved since college and taped them up around the mantel for a little extra whimsy 🙂
We got our tree just this past Saturday and I’m SO glad we finally have it up! Nothing like a good tree to bring Christmas cheer 🙂 Though this year we went for a Norway Spruce, and let me tell you, it is the POKIEST tree I’ve ever had. Putting on the ornaments actually kind of hurt! But I’m very pleased with the end results 🙂
Almost all of our ornaments were mine or my husband’s when we were children. Here are a few notables:
1. A nativity I made sometime in elementary school – It’s in a prominent place to remind us the true reason for the season!
2. This is the ornament from Nate’s and my first Christmas as a married couple 🙂 Awww!
3. I have a lot of cross-stitched ornaments that my mom made for me growing up. this one was from when I was 4 years old!
4. I. Love. Owls. There are a lot of various owl ornaments on our tree and I seem to get a new one each year!
5. This is the set of keys from our first house 🙂 We changed the locks when we moved so I was able to use the old ones for an ornament!
6. Hubby has to be represented with basketball and University of Washington ornaments, of course 🙂
7. I collect nutcrackers and this little guy holds a special place in my heart!
I set up my DIY Advent Calendar to count down the days to Christmas! It’s been a lot of fun putting up the ornaments each day, though my cats seem to think this is a playtoy 🙁
I’ve got nutcrackers sprinkled all throughout the house, so it looks like I’m less crazy. If you put them all in a row I’ve got a TON of them. Just call me crazy nutcracker lady. On second thought, don’t. I just can’t help it – I fell in love with the Nutcracker Ballet as a young girl and ever since then I’ve collected them in hopes that one night one will come to life and whisk me away to a dreamland 🙂
Here is my one more modern little section of my Christmas decor. I dressed up my chalkboard table with a Santa that belonged to my grandmother and a little glittery greenery that I picked up from Trader Joe’s! This is the one area that possibly looks like it could have come out of a magazine. Hah. Now moving on to the kitchen!
More snowflakes to greet you! Too bad my cat has now ripped down two of them down in a feat of olympic acrobatics. I’m a dummy for thinking that hangy papery things that blow in the slightest breeze would be ignored by hyper cats. Ooops.
I’ve dressed up my kitchen island using some old and new things! The bicycle plate was only 2.99 (!!) at Target. The glass nativity is from my childhood; at our holiday party last year, one of my friends (still don’t know which one!) took the baby Jesus and mailed him back to me on Christmas. (Still one of the greatest mysteries of all time!) The chef Santa belonged to my grandma and the cookie box was hand-painted by my mother-in-law – isn’t she ridiculously talented??? My husband works for the company that makes the little figurines called Pops, so I thought placing out our Frozen ones would be seasonally appropriate as well 🙂
More memories from childhood! I remember eagerly putting up these window stickers each and every Christmas and I still do it today! These things are from the 90s and have held up miraculously!
I got this fun gold glitter garland from PartyPail.com and thought it would be fun to put behind our kitchen table as a glitzy backdrop! Definitely leaving this up for New Year’s too 🙂
OMG MORE NUTCRACKERS! I’m serious people. I’m a hoarder. The ones on the mantel are some of my oldest – The one with the black top hat and red jacket was the very first nutcracker I received!
And of course, I couldn’t leave our bedroom out of the holiday fun, so I added (yet more) nutcrackers and my super easy Christmas shadow box to the mix!
Thank you SO much for joining me on a little Christmas home tour and indulging in my sense of nostalgia 😉 Now head on over to all my friend’s homes for a cup of cocoa and tours of all their fun Christmas decor. I promise you won’t be sorry!
I love your home all decked out for Christmas, it’s beautiful! WE got a spruce this year too and it is so pokey! Every time I put my arm through it to plug it in I get a rash. I think I’m allergic to our tree lol
Thank you, Leigh Anne! All my decorations are definitely special 🙂 And OMG I swear I’m allergic too – I got SO itchy while decorating the darn thing! Maybe next year we will splurge on a noble fir…
I love that your home is full of meaningful Christmas decor! There’s no better way to surround yourself at Christmastime than with memories of family. Beautiful!
Thanks, Katie! I agree – it’s so nice to have such meaningful things! If that means my house doesn’t look like a magazine then so be it. 😉
I love that you used your house keys as a keepsake ornament!! How clever?! And, all of your wooden snowflakes are the most darling thing ever. <3
Aw, thanks, Jen! I think I may add a little tag to the keys to make it more obvious they are our first house keys – what do you think?
Erica, your holiday decorations are so precious! I just see the love and memories in all of them 🙂 I totally feel you, my husband and I got married last year and only have a few decorations from childhood. But I agree that they really bring you back and help build more Holiday spirit in your newly formed family. I laughed out loud about your doorbell because ours is also non-functioning: it may ring once every ten time you press it. Oh well 😉 More important things at hand!!
Thanks so much, Naomi! Childhood memories and decorations are great 🙂 And sometimes it’s just to expensive to buy a bunch of new Christmas decor when it’s only up for a month or so! And that’s so funny! Our doorbell has never worked since we moved in – I had to put a little sign over it since people would just stand outside and we had no idea they were there! Oops. Someeeedayyyy it’ll get fixed… maybe. 😉
Dudes, ours was out forever too, just fixed it last month 🙂
Haha, that’s awesome. Was it expensive to get it fixed?
No, ours was just the doorbell itself, not the wiring, so just the cost of a new doorbell. I bought a new (lighted!) one from Rejuvenation and Matt wired it up.
Nice! I’m not sure what’s exactly wrong with ours… could just be the doorbell itself too! Another project for the new year, I suppose 😉
Oh Erica! It’s all just SO sweet! I love that you’ve collected SO many meaningful things to surround yourself with this time of year! It all looks so lovely and cozy! And I have such fond memories of those window stickers too (my Mom would be finding them for months in THE strangest places like mirrors, glass cabinet doors, even our dishwasher front!) – Carson and I just had to put some up this year too! Happy Holidays friend!
Aww, thanks so much, Kristi! I do love window stickers! My sisters and I would always try to sneak one or two to keep out all year. I’m glad that Carson gets to enjoy them now, too! 🙂
Erica, your home is just beautiful and so festive! I love, love, love the marquee sign and all of your (and your husband’s) childhood ornaments! Great job.:)
Aww, thank you SO much, Shannon! That marquee sign was a true labor of love – I think I might have to keep it up all year considering all the work it took! 😉
I love what you did! Thanks for sharing it. This has been such a fun week of inspiration!
Thanks so much, Grace! I agree – all of the tours have been SO beautiful and inspiring! 🙂
Aw, Erica, your home tour was so FUN!! I think your idea to turn the keys from your first home into an ornament is so special. I need to do that, too! I love all the window clings, the sparkly garland, and all of the sentimental pieces in general! So fabulous. Merry Christmas, friend!!
Aw, thanks Bre! I think I saw the key idea on Pinterest and thought it was such a neat thing to do! Merry merry Christmas, my friend! 🙂
Your nutcracker collection is awesome!! I mean, you could collect weirder things like big fat santas or something…nutcrackers are way cooler! And oh man did I love to put up window stickers at Christmas 🙂 It is so great that you still have all those childhood ornaments, I wish I still had alot of mine. So happy you could show us today! And P.S., I spy my stool twins at the bar 🙂
Haha, yes, I suppose there are weirder things to collect than nutcrackers! But I do look crazy when I open the big plastic bin and it’s full to the top of those guys haha. And yay stool twins!! I really, really love them. Now I just need to get the rest of my kitchen to look like my dreams and I’ll be all set 😉
Dit.to, friend, dit.to!
Your home is so fun and festive – so many personal touches that make the season more meaningful! I totally love your nutcracker collection, and those popsicle stick snowflakes are too cute! Happy holidays!
Thanks so much, Amy! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 🙂
Your home is SO sweet and cozy, Erica!! I love it!! That Joy sign is PERFECT, and I love all the hanging snowflakes!! My cats totally would have ripped them down too; I had to be extra careful this year thinking, “Ok, now if I were a cat or a toddler, what would I like to pull on or break…” It’s always a fun challenge. 🙂 I love all the personal touches and special pieces. Those are what make Christmas so meaningful! 🙂
Thank you so much, Amanda! I totally wasn’t thinking things through when I put up my snowflakes… most of them have survived but a few have kicked the bucket haha. I will have to be more conscious next year! Luckily they haven’t tried to destroy anything else. I’m pretty impressed that they haven’t tried to take down the tree or anything haha
Such meaningful decor! That is the best way to celebrate! BTW, I am in love with you fireplace!
Emily @ Elizabeth Joan Designs
Thank you so much, Emily! I’m totally loving the new look of my fireplace too 🙂 Now just can’t wait to get rid of the weird half paint on the wall behind it!