I love decorating for Christmas. I don’t go all out, but I have two big boxes of decorations I’ve collected over the past few years (and some that I’ve had since I was little) that go a long way toward transforming our living room, dining room and kitchen into a cozy little wonderland for the month of December. It’s fun to pack away the things I’m used to looking at all year and replace them with topiaries, garland, nutcrackers, stockings and reindeer.
To the tune of the Nutcracker Suite, I unpacked my jolly boxes last week and set up my favorite arrangements from last year, and tried some new ones too. I’ve included three of my favorite color schemes that emerged from my decorating this year.
First, the classic red and green. This picture is a faux garland wound with holly berries that hangs over the doorway between our dining room and living room. I bought the two separately the first winter I spent in my apartment downtown before I got married. It’s been up every year since then, and the traditional berries and greenery never get old. I like it best in our house next to the woodwork of the door frame, so it goes up in the same spot every year.
I got these little wooden reindeer in Luverne, Minnesota, at Loopy’s dollar store. The gold & white teapot was a gift from my darling sister-in-law from our favorite store (Anthropologie). Metallic gold makes it glamorous, and I love how many tones of rich brown there are in the little wooden reindeer.
I can’t stop buying old scratched up glass bulb ornaments at flea markets, antique shops and garage sales. If you’re willing to put up with some scratches and a crack here or there, you can pick them up for a quarter or less, and they come in every color you could wish for. I hung these from our dining room chandelier with twine, just high enough so the cats can’t jump on the table and bat at them. (Bonus, can you find me in the picture? That’s right, I’m reflected in every ornament. There was no avoiding it, so I tried a few pictures where I was sticking out my tongue at the camera, but it didn’t work out. Sorry.)
Tomorrow we’re putting up a tree, and our transformation will be complete. What are your favorite colors to decorate with?
