Some Favorite Christmas Decorations & Tree for 2012

So, I've shared our silver, white and burlap mantel, our decorated sideboard (with thrifted deer), a glimpse of our tree and some ornaments I've made, but guess what? There's more! Ha - nothing like over-sharing, right?

But I've wanted to share some of my favorite decorations this season with you all - starting with a view of our tree both day and night:

Christmas Tree Decorations

Silver, gold, and a few purple balls, book page rosettes, some special individual ornaments, and a few vintage shiny brites thrown in there, come together with a burlap ribbon and silver bead garland.

It's all about the lights for me and I stuffed about 700 in and out of the branches (in sections, not wrapping the tree - much easier!), though in all honesty it's my least favorite part. I grit my teeth and get it done because I love looking at the tree all aglow.

LED Lights Review

Speaking of lights, have you tried any of the LED light strands?

The have what they call a "warm white" this year instead of the blue-white bulbs, so I brought home a strand to try on our mantel.

Oh my gosh, they were so hard to look at - not kidding, they actually hurt our eyes to look at them. And they were only warm white in comparison to the blue-white LEDs, meaning, not very. Back to the store they went.

Hopefully they'll get better in the future!

Christmas Tree Skirt

After showing our tree a few days ago I got some questions about the tree skirt. I typically throw a vintage tablecloth under the tree and call it good, but I realized last year that our son's old burlap table cloth (from his room before we gave him an Extreme Room Makeover), was...round. Duh.

Unfortunately, I figured that out after I had cut a piece from it to use for something.

Fortunately, no one sees the back where the ends don't quite cover the tree holder!

My solution was to surge all the unfinished edges and add a simple burlap ruffle to the top of the hem. I figure I can remove it if I grow tired of it.

I just cut a length of burlap and pinched the ruffles as I sewed it on - complete with fraying edges. Simple.

Favorite Christmas Tree Ornaments

• Top: we only have one glittery bird (on the left) so he gets a prime spot every year along with our handmade book page ornaments.
• Left: our cousins gave us a set of metal, glittered word ornaments one year and they always have a prime spot, too.
• Right: Last year I found a bunch of these gold and glitter frosted pinecones on a ribbon to be hung together 50% off. I separated them into individual ornaments and they are my absolute favorites because when they're placed where the lights are around them the sparkle makes them almost glow.

Christmas Decor

Entryway

I'm still enjoying the enormous vintage sheet music wreath I made last year. It actually took us a few months after Christmas to find a box big enough to hold it, but we did and it stored fairly well - there were only a few crumpled ends.

I made the topiary Christmas trees years ago and they've been stored in the back of a cupboard for awhile - in fact they almost went to Goodwill last year. Glad I didn't.

What's old is new again.

Sideboard in Dining Room

Here's another view of our sideboard which has always held a white feather tree at Christmas. I moved that to another table so that I could have this area to work with and I'm loving it.

As in, love, love, love. So simple to pull together with things from around the house and clippings from the yard. That feather tree is destined to live somewhere else from now on.

Living Room Decorations

• Left: our daughter decorated this area and I think she did a fabulous job! I made the sugar-pinecone topiaries a number of years ago and she added silver glitter to them last year. Oh, and I don't think I've told you about this great vintage mirror we found in Arizona last spring. It was only $20 and I thought I'd have to leave it behind because we were flying, but my sweet parents volunteered to cart it back for us when they returned. It was worth the wait - I love that it's elegant and yet chippy.
• Top right: one of the transformed plastic trophies is the perfect holder for some burlap, a few sprigs of greenery, and a "disco ball" ornament I found at a dollar store last summer. It's a huge ornament, so I can see why it didn't sell, but it's great here and reflects the light in such a fun way.
• Middle right: I tried to work some chalkboard tags into different areas around the house. I think they look so festive with holiday sayings. I really am surprised all the different ways I'm finding to use those tags!
• Bottom right: with the addition of the decorated trophy and a simple silver candle holder our book page decoupaged thrift store tray got a little holiday lift.

I really love looking at all the inspiring decorating everyone's doing this time of year - on blogs, Pinterest, and magazines. It gets me excited to find new ways to use things I already have - or do simple crafts to create something new.

Now that the decorating is done, it's on to the cookies! I've only made two cookies so far (and they're really candy, and one's a bark, so I'm not sure they even count...), and you can probably guess that my list is long. Ahem.

What about you - have you finished your Christmas decorations?