Christmas In July Week 3, 17th-23rd

[Lana]

Week Three (July 17-23) - DECKING THE HALLS - trees, lighting, indoor/outdoor ideas, nativities, personal style, ornaments (homemade, purchased, hand-me-downs, vintage finds, collectibles), Winter Wonderland, Snowmen, Christmas cottages/villages/trains, penguins.

 

[Lana]

This thread I love but not sure how much input I will get to.

We normally do outside up pretty big but the last couple of years not as much. We need more electric and our electric guy seems to be slow. Really hoping to get it this year so Teigan can see it!

The inside we take all everything down and Christmas goes up. If I leave any pictures up on the wall they get wrapped, a holiday saying or picture takes it place.

My tree is 98 1/2% homemade ornaments. My grandma always made ornaments and I guess that is where my love of them comes from.

 

[AuntJamelle]

I guess I'll start with sharing some of my decor style/plans for inside the house

:fireplace:

I keep track of all my decorating each year in a Word document with a section for each room. I resave the file under a new name each year and just tweak as needed. Where possible I take and import pictures of the finished look if it turned out really good and I want to recapture it!

It's fun sometimes to look back at previous years decor notes!

In any case, with the lower level of the house still unfinished and the upstairs (craft/office) area very low traffic, I concentrate on the main level rooms for now. My style tries to be classic, reds/greens/silver/gold.

Our large living room/kitchen/dining room area is the focal point. We have very high ceilings in this space so we do have a 12' tree that sits in the middle of the back wall.

TIP: Out of necessity I tried stringing lights from bottom to top and working my way around the tree that way last year. It worked GREAT! I had to use a very tall ladder for this and only having to move it every so often was so much better than trying to go round and round with the lights like normal. I think I'll do that with all the trees from now on, except maybe the "skinny" style trees.

The main tree has multicolor and white lights, then ornament balls of red and green and metallics. Lots of our ornaments are purchased, but I've quit buying them and new ornaments are either gifted to us - which makes them special - or I'm making them or DS makes them. I do have quite a few I've made over the years already which is nice.

Besides the main tree we also have a standard 6' tree in our hallway near the front door - or at least we did last year - now there is a dresser in that space and I'll have to decide what to do.

I have a tall "skinny" style tree that I put in our bedroom and I purchased another shorter version of the same type of tree at a garage sale for $5 this year that I'll use in DS's room.

I have two more large standard trees (7') in boxes upstairs and I'll use at least one in the downstairs family room once we are able to finish it. For now I use some of the branches to fill in as extra greenery around the house.

I use a lot of garland/greenery on shelves, bookshelves, above the kitchen cabinets, etc. I'm also planning to make up some swags this summer that will be used above bathroom lights, mirrors and at the corners of master bedroom main window. Didn't do it last year because I waited until I was doing all the other decorating and just didn't have the mojo. If I have them done and all I need to do is hang them I should be good! lol

I also use a lot of wreaths. Two super large ones just covered in multi color lights go in the large arched windows on opposite sides of the house. Wreath on the side door in the large open room and then wreaths on the front door/front windows.

I'll post more later about some of the other details and projects I'm planning for this year!

 

[luludou]

AJ loved reading your post. would love to see pics of your decorations.

 

[tanya]

I think you gals in the USA tend to decorate more than we do here. I am the only person I know that has more than one tree.

We have the family tree that goes in the lounge area. It has no particular style just ornaments that I have collected over many years and that my Mum collected before me. We try to collect an ornament everywhere we travel to. We have lots of Disney ornaments (both from the parks and Disney in general), some that DS made when he was in pre-school and some that I made when I was at school! The pups have personal ornaments that I had made. Other pets that have gone to the Rainbow Bridge also have ornaments that go on every year. This has been an ongoing collection for nearly 50 years- remember that we live in the house that I grew up in! Mental note to self: This tree needs new lights! They were playing up last year so I threw them away rather than pack them up!

I also have what I call my Fancy Tree- several years ago I saw at a friends home and very a small display tree with fine china, fine crystal and very delicate ornaments. I decided that I wanted one! I found a silver, metal circular tree that really highlights the ornaments and I began to collect. I have Tiffany, Royal Albert, Royal Dalton, Waterford Crystal, Orefores, Wedgewood, hand blown glass (custom done by a talented glass blower), Swarovski etc I add one ornament every year as they are very expensive here but I love them! Under this tree which is only about 3 feet (sits on a side table) I have my Nativity set.

We also have a Christmas Village that gets set up on a separate table- not sure how many items are in that as DS has taken over the setting up of that the last 2 years but its a full village.

We also have a Santa Train that goes around under the tree.
I have bathroom sets- hand towels, bath mat but no shower curtain- we have glass doors- shower curtains are not very popular here. Tissue boxes etc...

The kitchen gets a few small items for decoration- just some small tree ornaments, tea towels (think you call them dish towels), wreaths on every door- bedrooms and all!

The Elf is bringing DS a miniature tree with miniature ornaments for his room is only about 40 cm tall (16 inches) got from ebay for about $2.

Outside we just have fairy lights along the balcony and doors, with some signs "Santa Please Stop Here" and some other small outdoor bits- not a lot.

 

[DahliaDoll]

Greetings!

AJ ~ Impressive organization of your decorating! I often take pictures of my Christmas décor to refresh my memory from year to year, especially how I set up my Christmas village.

This year's décor will probably be a little simplified since DDs won't be coming home for Christmas. We will most likely not put up the tree. I have garland and faux poinsettias that pretty much set the stage for me. We don't have a real focal spot to put the tree anyway, so it's not necessary unless we have a bunch of presents to put under it.

I think our plan is to change from lights on the house (to avoid the danger factor) to putting net type lighting over some bushes. Does anyone have experience with them?

 

[luludou]

The 2009 tour of our home, a few things have changed .. I now have Christmas curtains. I'll try to find more pics
http://luludou.blogspot.ca/2009/01/christmas-tour-of-home.html

 

[Minta]

This season will be our 2 Christmas in the new house. We moved in late Oct so never got to decorate for Halloween/Fall and due to my mom getting sick didn't decorate as much as we wanted for Christmas so I am really looking forward to this year.

This Spring we adopted a puppy so Now I have to take that into account and will need to revise some of my decorating plans for this year. After this past Christmas we also bought 3 new inflatables and icicle lights for outside and a new garland and bows for inside along with new trees for the kids bedroom. So this year we will 7 tress to decorate ranging from 2 ft to 7 ft.

The living room will have the 7 ft multicolored tree which is decorated with various ornaments from my childhood to ornaments hubby and I got together to ones the kids made and received as gifts.

The 4 foot pencil tree goes in the dining room and is covered with primitive and rustic ornaments. The precious moments nativity set is displayed on the dinning room hutch.

The kids have 4 ft trees for their bedrooms which they decorate. We also string lights around the inside of their bedroom windows and closet door.

A 4 ft tree goes in the hubbys man cave and decorated in sports themed ornaments and a 3 ft tree will go in our room (this tree was in the one of the kids room last year) and I need to decide on a theme for it.

The final tree is a 2 ft pencil tree and I am thinking of placing that in the kitchen and decorating it with gingerbread ornaments. This tree used to be in one of the kids room.

I love lights, garland and red bows. I am still coming up with a plan to decorate the inside to make sure the puppy doesn't chew/damage them.

The roof lines are covered in icicle lights. We have the Led C9 light bulbs which goes around the garage door and gets wrapped about the porch posts. Light up candy canes outline the front walk way, light up reindeer and a light up snowman go in the flower beds. We have 3 new inflatables so we will need to figure out where to display them. We are also taking about taking a sting of lights to go around the back door and the back glass door and maybe a couple windows. I know it will take a full day to decorate the outside and another full day to decorate the inside

 

[AuntJamelle]

minta - Pencil trees!!!! That is what I was trying to say by "skinny" lol

Your plans sound beautiful! And you've made me realize I'll need to keep our new dog in mind when it comes to decor this year. Not sure if she would chew up anything or not. She's only really chewed on her toys, but she's gone after the occasional stray sock, I just intervene quickly and show her where her toys are again.

tanya - Your fancy tree sounds heavenly! What a lovely theme!

luludou - Love the pics!!!

DJ - I have several places I use faux poinsettias too - I found a large grouping of glittered poinsettias, greenery, pinecones, etc. at a garage sale - like brand new - HUGE - and I think it was maybe $4? I put it in a large red glass/iron frame vase I've had for years and it really pops! I also have some in the front entryway and so on. They are such a cheerful flower!

 

[AuntJamelle]

So I wanted to share my plans for decorating DS's room this year! I am planning to do it all on a day when he'll be in school so that is a big surprise when he comes home!

:santa:

As I mentioned, I have a 5' pencil tree that I'll be using in his room this year. And courtesy of a GREAT find at the after Christmas sale at Target this past year, I have a whole set of glittery space themed ornaments to hang on it.

You've probably heard me mention the space theme we have going on in DS's room before and it occurred to me to just carry that through, at least in part, at Christmastime.

I made these felt ornaments to go on the tree as well:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/endless_hollydaze/24603819194/in/dateposted/

And I plan to cut out some additional stars, moons, etc. from cardboard and cover them in glitter. I think that plus lights should be plenty to cover the tree.

I still need to decide on a tree topper. I'll use a plain red tablecloth I have for the tree skirt and group some of his stuffed animals under the tree.

Elsewhere in his room I'd like to:

- Use 3M hooks high up in the corners of the wall the head of his bed sits on - then swag a long string of lights in between, dangling down on each side. I'll make little bows or something to hide the hooks if necessary; Or maybe I'll just tap in one little nail on each side the more I think of it. I can just see one of the 3M hooks "letting go" of the wall in the middle of the night and waking him up!

- Clear off the top of his big bookcase (the whole thing is used for toys) and do a garland with lights on the back, then maybe set some of his classic toys out on top in front of it

- Buy a set of plain red sheets, pillow cases, etc. to make up his bed with

- Put one of his stuffed animals on the made bed with a Santa hat on top

 

[Ahorsesoul]

I still need to decide on a tree topper.

A flying saucer. lol

 

[AuntJamelle]

A flying sauce would be perfect! We'll see if I can find one or squeeze in the time to make one! I thought I might be able to find a futuristic looking star for a topper...

I also wanted to share some ramblings on how I glam up my standard style Christmas trees!

:tree2:

If I've shared this in the past - my apologies!!!

Artificial trees, at least, always seem to have a great deal of dead space or "holes" when they are first put up. Fluffing only goes so far, and even lights, ornaments and garland will sometimes not disguise all of it to my satisfaction.

SO, my process for putting the tree up is like this:

- Fluff all the branches as much as possible or until I run out of patience - then I take a break and do something else and come back to it!

- Into the "holes" I start to insert large sprays of faux greenery I got at Hobby Lobby years ago. I have several of them and they are a really nice quality, with mossy pinecones attached. They are large and help fill up space. I just stick them in as needed and the branches of the tree help support them. Where necessary I can always twist one strand of greenery on the tree into a strand on the spray and that holds it tight.

I've picked up more large greenery sprays like this at a garage sale this year and I'm looking forward to using them on the 12' tree as well.

Lacking a good supply of the sprays, the other thing I've done is to use the branches from one of our extra Christmas trees that I'm not putting up. The trick with anything you are sticking in is to hide the ugly stick end in towards the trunk of the tree where it won't be seen once everything else goes on.

- Now that the "greenery" is all in place, I put the lights on. I'm now sold on the method of starting at the bottom and going up to the top and back down again, working my way around the tree in sections that way.

My personal preference is to do a layer of white lights first, deeper in towards the trunk, with a boat load of multi color lights around the whole outside of the tree where the lights will reflect off the ornaments.

- Then I connect the tree topper...carefully! I find it doesn't look right if I sit it on top of the tree using the little inverted cone that is always on toppers. So I wire it to the top most branch instead - usually using the extra long twist ties that wrap up lights when you get a new box. Then I arrange the greenery in such a way to hide the twist ties. But if I use a white twist tie on silver metal, you don't notice it really! You could also use metallic pipe cleaners, etc. so it blends in.

- Next, I start to stick in long glittery branches/sprays, some red, some gold, etc. somewhat evenly around the tree. They stick out a little but I stick them in so the end of the stick is going upwards and in towards the trunk so they lie nicely for the most part. I have a ton of these purchased at after season sales over the years and they help fill in gaps nicely.

The nice thing about these sprays is that even just one of them, discovered at a garage sale, will look amazing as part of a finished tree. Once you get all the ornaments, etc. on it doesn't seem out of place at all.

- Now it's time for the crazy amount of ornaments! I put on all the large over-sized ones first, mostly towards the bottom of the tree. These help to fill in any remaining gaps or uneven looking spots.

Then I put on all the rest of the ornaments, struggling to find room for them all by the end!

- Finally, I put on the garland! I've been tending to just do beaded garland for years now. My favorites are the 3-4 lengths of garland that are actually sprays of beads on fishing line, it just looks frothy and so beautiful when laid over the ornaments on the tree. Like icing on a cake!

I don't have too many of these so I just stagger them here and there on the front of the tree, as evenly distributed as possible.

Then I go round and round with silver and gold standard beaded garland, looping and looping.

If I were doing a ribbon or tulle garland I would do it at the end as well, I find it works better for me to work around the ornaments so that I can see where the garland needs to fall to not hide too much.

But I think others may put garland on before ornaments? I've always just done it last for a finishing touch.

DH really loves the shiny tinsel garland - reminds him of childhood trees I think - and I've used that in addition to the beaded garland in years past.

 

[DahliaDoll]

Lucie ~ Enjoyed your pictures. Nice job!

AJ ~ Would love to see pictures of your tree(s).