A Simple Christmas

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you probably know that I subscribe to a “less is more” approach to decorating – both in terms of dollars spent and clutter avoided. This year we have a new home to decorate, but I purposely kept the holiday decor simple yet again. And you may recognize a few elements from my Christmas Decor post from two years ago – I didn’t spend a penny on anything new this year (except for $12.50 to dress up the lion statues out front)!

Let’s start in the family room. In keeping with the birch tree color palate for this room, we traded out the earthy orange accents for festive red! By having such a neutral base, the accent color can change seasonally, just like leaves on a birch tree!

The lighted wreath on the mantel takes center stage, and although I’m not typically a symmetrical gal, I like the simplicity of this arrangement. Recognize those red lanterns? Yup – they came from my side porch.

We hung a few colorful bulbs on the faux ficus in the corner, which look great during the day, and reflect nicely off the lights in the tree at night.

We hung a couple wreaths over the windows.

Now follow me to the dining room. My initial idea was to display three oversized holiday bulbs on a cake plate.

But I ended up favoring a flameless candle with silver and gold pine cone ornaments.

Bonus – I had enough ornaments to hang on the chandelier as well!

Now on to the living room! A simple vignette on an end table was all we needed in here since the Christmas tree is in this room.

I’m hoping this is the last year for our old artificial tree. It has served us well, but I’m hoping to go back to real next year.

My daughters did a thoughtful job decorating the tree this year. We used ribbons of gold, copper, purple and pink and handmade jeweled garland. And what the ornaments are lacking in theme is made up for in personal relevance. Each ornament holds family memories.

So we didn’t go overboard, but the house feels like a home, and we’ll be able to take everything down in about 45 minutes come January. {Woot woot!}

What is your favorite holiday display in your home?