Deck the Halls

After much debate on which route to go....red? red and celedon green? just green? add in some plaid? oooo! plaid!!!....I ended up going all white this year with my Christmas decorations. I haven't gone all white in probably five years, so it was a fun change.

In the dining room, I kept the white table cloth and the natural colored (Pottery Barn) runner I had out at Thanksgiving.

I had three white ceramic pine cones from Crate and Barrell (purchased last year) and added two more Smith and Hawken pine cones that were similar (found at Target this year). Added some faux greenery and pine cones. I purchased the mercury glass votives at Target (they also have them at Crate and Barrel and West Elm). The little silver tree behind the candlesticks is from Anthropologie a few years ago.

On the sideboard, or buffet, I added a little faux greenery and filled my apothecary jars with faux snow and small, clear glass ornaments. I found the green (not live) tree at Ikea and placed it in an off-white planter I used to use on the front porch.

The ornament is from Pottery Barn.

On my demi-lune chest I switched out my more colorful plates on the plate stand with off-white ones and added a beaded garland (from Pottery Barn a few years ago....I think I even found it at the outlet). The woven balls in the white ceramic basket usually spend the year on the buffet but I moved them to this table and added some cute silvery ornaments and faux greenery.

I didn't do too much in the way of decorating in the kitchen (it's too small to do much of anything, anyway), but I did hang a simple, natural looking wreath (from Michael's...I think it's really supposed to go around a candle) on the glass door. I also threw in another of those cute little trees from Ikea.

I continued the white in the living room, and kept the decorations fairly minimal. With a toddler, it's still hard to add things to low, side tables because you'll come back later to find your lovely beaded silver decoration riding in the back of a Tonka truck.

Unfortunately, I don't have room for a full tree in my living room (without removing serious amounts of furniture, for which I have no place to store...even temporarily) so for most of the time we have lived in this house I've had this faux tree that I place on the sofa table in front of the bay window.

This year I placed the tree in a white pot from Ikea, which gave it a little more height but most importantly, I think it will keep the little guy from being able to pull it off the table. I use the round glass bowl to collect Christmas cards (that's why it's empty except for a random photo ornament that I need to re-hang). I filled the bottom of the glass bowl with three strands of white pearl garland that I didn't want to put on the tree because I thought it was starting to make it look to fussy. The lovely pruned rosemary tree I received as a hostess gift at Thanksgiving needs to reside in this area to get the sun it needs, so I just placed it in a neutral basket until I can think of a more creative way to deal with it.

On top of the bookcase, I wrapped my multi-colored antique books in coordinating paper. I pulled over these two small vases (from Crate and Barrel) that were in the kitchen and added stems with gray berries from Michael's.

For my "mantel" (top of the TV cabinet), I added faux greenery and two neutral trees (I think they're both from Target). In my large mercury glass vase, I added tree branches that I had my husband clip for me. I also had him spray paint them white while he was out in the yard and then I placed three silver snowflake ornaments (from Wal-mart and left over from my Pottery Barn-inspired wreath project) in a cluster to one side.

I even put up a decoy, can't-be-destroyed, tree for Henry. I placed it in his very messy kitchen area.

Outside, I kept with the neutral theme.

I added a silver snowflake from the Smith and Hawken outdoor Christmas collection at Target. And hung my Pottery Barn-inspired snowflake wreath on the front door.

In the charcoal gray planter, I placed lighted willow branches (from Target a few years ago) and some pine boughs I snipped from a tree in the alley behind our house. I forsee that tree getting lots of "pruning" in the near future.

In keeping with my renewed interest in photography, and improving my skills, I played around with some shots of all the twinkling holiday lights. Like a zillion other people, I saw this post on Pinterest about taking photos of your tree and how to capture the glow of the lights so I thought I'd give it a whirl too.

See, I even captured some of the starbust lights! You don't have to buy that starburst filter for your camera lens after all.

I also attempted to capture a photo of my toddler gazing at the lights on the tree. This is what I ended up with:

I did get this though:

I also played around with the same technique outside. Unfortunately, we have a street light out front and that light, sadly, has a really gross orange tinted light.

So, there you have it! Decking the halls for 2011 has been accomplished. Now, I suppose it's time to move onto being jolly. Fa la la la la!

Be sure to check out a small update I made to my holiday decor after a recent trip to Terrain at Styer's Farm and after our Holiday Brunch!