Christmas Decorating

The Christmas decorating season has officially begun at our household.   My love for Christmas decorating started early.  My mother has always decorated, literally, every flat surface in her house for the holidays!  Every year, we would go to Thanksgiving day lunch at my Aunt's house.  After dinner, we would come home and spend the rest of the night watching Christmas movies, putting up the tree & decorating the mantle.  The 'bug' had been planted in my brain & I was a Christmas decorator for life!

Matt & I aren't quite as regimented in our house, but the decorating did begin just after Thanksgiving.  The tree is up, devoid of any lights, but up, some things are getting placed up on other surfaces. 

One of the projects that I wanted to work on was our dining room table.  I found some great white linen fabric at JoAnn's for $2.50 and thought that it would make a great runner.  Unfortunately, it turned out not to be as long as I would have liked.  After taking a look at the situation, I decided that it was okay to have a runner that didn't hang over the edge!  So the project began.

First I pinned and hemmed the first edge:


Personal Photo

 Then I trimmed the runner to the width that I wanted, plus one inch for the other hem.  Then hemmed the other side.  I folded the corners and trimmed them, and hemmed both ends.

I also wanted a simple centerpiece to go on the table.  I took two footed vases, that we got for our wedding, from Crate & Barrel and added one white pillar candle to each vase.  I filled one with red wood balls, as I wanted them to simulate cranberries without having to worry about them molding, wrinkling, etc.  Then for the other one, I wrapped green garland several times around the bottom, adding white and silver glass ornaments on top.

Here is the final table:



Personal Photo

 Pretty, right?  I think it might be a little TOO simple though.  My first idea is to make a larger runner out of dark red or silver fabric to give it a little something extra.  I've also added a couple of votive candles to add a little decoration.  My other goal is to find a great red ribbon and tie a bow under each vase.

But there is our runner and the START at our dining room table.

Another thing that I love to decorate is the mantle.  We aren't even close to getting it done yet, but here is just a little glimpse of our first hint of decoration up there:



Personal Photo

Another area I like to dress up is our tiny foyer.  We started with hanging green garland around the door casing.  Then we added white lights to the garland.  There were left over lights, so I decided to grab a glass container, and contain them at the bottom.  Here is what the bottom looks like & I love how it turned out.



Personal Photo

 We still have a ton of decorating to do, and will update everyone as it happens!
What are you guys doing to decorate for the holidays?