Holiday Home Tour 2023
Happy Holidays, friends!
Today I am taking you on a home tour of our holiday décor! I’ve been waiting to write and share this as I’ve been adding new things and/or moving things around the house as we settle into our home for the first Christmas season. I went ahead and added some links, but I realize a lot of things may not be available this late into the season.
Welcome home for the holidays!
We’ve added new holiday decor to our home this year because we moved…again. Our neighborhood is enthusiastically festive and I’m here for it. I love the magic of the holidays in general but I especially love to make the holidays magical for children. It’s a cherished time that goes by too quickly.
OUTSIDE
I found these light up trees for our yard that were simple to assemble and will be easy to store. I sort of thought we’d add more to our yard but time got away from us with everything we’ve had going on (which is a lot) and I didn’t get back to it.
I used reward dollars and purchased two 9 foot corded garlands from Front Gate. I wanted corded so I wouldn’t have to worry about changing the batteries. I found these beautiful ornament finial topiaries at At Home and put two of the three in my cart. An hour later when I checked out I had already had four women walk over to my cart to admire them and tell me how beautiful they were. I was excited to have found them and they helped cover the cord of the garlands a bit. They were sold out online every time I checked so I wasn’t able to link the exact ones.
Come on inside!
ENTRYWAY
For the life of me I will never understand why some of the Christmas lights do not show when I take a photo and make the tree etc look splotchy.
POWDER BATHROOM
I added some holiday touches to our powder bathroom using things I already had that didn’t clash with the colors.
I had not cleaned yet post hosting a baby shower when I took these photos so don’t zoom in too much. 😳
FORMAL SITTING ROOM
Our formal sitting room (or parlor?) is my favorite room and I didn’t want to do too much in this room to take away from it’s beauty, but rather compliment it with a holiday flare.
I used a flocked, weeping garland and added a battery operated string of lights and black beaded garland and velvet bow for a touch of black to compliment the wall color (Racoon Fur by Benjamin Moore). I added a flocked 7.5 ft pencil tree and decorated it with silvers, golds, and black velvet bows.
I had to shift things around to add a glass Avon Christmas tree that was my Mammaw’s and placed two white Christmas tree candles on the tray as well.
I toyed with adding in a Christmas Vacation pillow but it was a hint too large for the sofa size so the pillow ended up in our master bedroom.
I just love how this room turned out!
Formal Sitting Room Pencil Tree & Decor
Formal Sitting Room Holiday Decor
FOYER
We moved the foyer table up to the 3rd floor and out of the way so we could put out 9 ft tree in the foyer - stairway area. I decided to stick with the pinks and golds we used for the trees downstairs last year at our previous house because it is soft in color and sort of neutral enough. I did purchase some 6” ornaments and glitter branches to add to the tree (holy heck that was a mess!). While I was pleased enough with the look, I think I may need to add ribbon next year. It just doesn’t feel “complete” to me but I ran out of steam.
The open area between the tree collar and the walls felt empty and I could see the step on cord PLUS I didn’t want to entice anyone with wrapped gifts under the tree that can easily be seen through the front door glass so I added two sets of LED lit present boxes. It was the perfect (but messy) touch.
You can see the before and after with the lit present boxes below.
Foyer Tree and Vintage Bells with Garland
FORMAL DINING ROOM
In our formal dining area is situated between the formal sitting room and butler’s pantry. I added a tree in in pinks and golds and found some new decor for the table centerpiece as well as new lit-mercury trees. My sweet sister in law gifted me the cutest gingerbread house candle wax warmer. ❤️
Formal Dining Room Holiday Decor
BUTLER’S PANTRY
Our bar / butler’s pantry area and the vestibule area that looks into it offered me ample space to set out multiple “stations” of decor. I started with what I had and shifted some of the more traditional holiday colors upstairs when I found decor that had black/white/silver/gold. Some traditional holiday colors stayed downstairs but I wanted to try to keep the color palette flowing. You can see in the first photo of the butler’s pantry that some things were moved or added since that photo was taken. 😏
In the vestibule that looks into the butler’s pantry and also leads to the den, I found a set of thin flocked trees at Walmart and ended up purchasing a second set. I loved that it felt wintery and not so Christmasy and will be able to stay out post Christmas when I shift from Christmas to winter decor.
Vestibule Flocked Trees
KITCHEN
In the kitchen I tried to keep the decor somewhat minimal and couldn’t get away from the cute items I had that were the traditional Christmas reds, but it turned out festive without a shock of color change from the other rooms downstairs.
Just this past week I added Norfolk pine branches to a black vase I’ve had and placed in on our kitchen counter, that’s why it’s not in some of these photos. I founds these battery operated star burst yard stakes at Target and they add a perfect touch. Thankfully the battery turns off automatically after 6 hours and will turn on again after 18 hours so I don’t have to dig into the vase every day…let’s be real, that nuisance wouldn’t happen. These were the perfect find! I had great feedback about how real the Norfolk pine branches looked. 😍
The 4ft garlands on top of the cabinets were difficult to find! I was worried about getting longer ones and probably could have worked with 6ft garlands, but I found these and am pleased with them.
And to note - I love all of the Christmas colors and goodness, I love just about every Christmas theme (except maybe the Grinch - I’ve seen some really cute ideas others have done but I can’t imagine his face so prominently displayed).
DEN (FAMILY ROOM)
Our console table has been the home of every bit of decorating for any given holiday. In this house it is in our den versus the foyer because there isn’t a spot for it, but I still do the same type of set ups to display things.
My dear friend, Konni, gifted me the life size Clark W. Griswold Jr. and let me tell you - it makes me so happy. Husband purchased the autographed framed photo of him (Chevy Chase) at a silent auction at a gala. 😊 Christmas Vacation is my favorite Christmas movie and it is not only funny and nostalgic for me, but it reminds me SO MUCH of my dad because he was sooooo much like Clark Griswold in that movie and my dad also loved that movie AND it was something we quoted quite literally at some point in every conversation. So in years past I put the movie on in the background and don’t even need to watch it to enjoy it but now it just feels like it’s connecting me to my dad even more.
I miss him in an indescribable way that is suffocating my soul.
Moving into our den…I did purchase a new slim, flocked 9ft tree for our den this year as we used our regular 9ft flocked tree in the entryway foyer. I continued the pinks and golds and neutrals into the den. This tree has general ornaments on it, but also some personalized ornaments such as: 3 cute hand painted watercolor ornaments of our pups (thank you Emily C. 🤍), engraved bone ornaments for the pups gifted by a sweet Houstonian/blog follower named Gloria, and the twelve days of Christmas ornaments with one main one included with our last name that I purchased last year to be used in a Christmas themed baby shower game where the guests had to spot the ornaments during the shower and whoever had the most at the end won a prize.
Family Room Tree and Mantle Decor
Moving on to upstairs!
LANDING / UTILITY ROOM
I found a 50ft garland (YES, FIFTY FOOT) and cut it when it reached my office door and the second piece of it was literally only about a foot too long so I wound it around the banister - we cannot hang it or drape it down (which would look better) because our rotten misfits would surely try to pee on it. I added strands of lights to it.
I placed my old 2007 (non-lit) Christmas tree at the top of the stairs this year which can be seen from outside of the front door. This tree has a lot of my personal/family ornaments that I’ve collected since before I moved out of my parent’s house and the personalized ornaments I make each year of our Christmas card photos and/or to honor my loved ones who have passed away.
I am literally shaking my head right now. My heart hurts so unimaginably much right now still grasping that my dad (AND Marie) are gone. It’s like one of those large ride on machines that flattens concrete is rolling over my heart only this one would also have a million little spikes in it to inflict additional pain and take the breath out of me. By the grace of God I am waking up each morning and getting through each day approaching the one year anniversary of my dad leaving his earthly body. I may smile in pictures but I am not well and I have no qualms in acknowledging that I may publicly appear “OK” but I am, in fact, not OK.
Next year I don’t know that this tree will go in this spot because our custom chairs arrived over a month early this year and I didn’t want to move the tree. We’ll see…
The added pic of a counter is the decor in the utility room at the top of the stairs. It’s a mix of items from Walmart, Ross, Target, and At Home.
2nd Floor Landing Personalized Ornament Tree and Garland
OFFICE / GYM
My office/gym is where I spend a lot of time during the day if I’m home. Between exercise and running/training for the half and working on things for the house/emails/the blog, you can easily find me in and out of this room all day long in between cleaning, appointments, and taking the pups out.
I fanatically love my electric fireplace. I assembled it myself. It has various settings and emits heat if you select that option which I have on various days. I love the ambiance it gives and as I’m typing this I can see it flickering in my peripheral vision.
RB Office Electric Fireplace
MEDIA ROOM
Because I shifted the traditional colors upstairs, our media room currently houses all of our Christmas blankets and afghan blankets. Loretta loves to perch in there most of the day so it works well for her. ❤️
This tree is neat because it has light options that can be white or colored and can even switch back and forth between the two all day if you wanted it to. I do not like that, but it’s an option. This is the only tree that I use colored lights on and I think it works better with our childhood ornaments.
GUEST ROOM 1 & BATHROOM
I played off of the color palette of the room when I added decor that we had from our previous home that was used in my mom’s room for Christmas and added a new tabletop tree and a simple garland. I almost didn’t decorate the guest rooms because my heart doesn’t feel the Christmas joy and I’m just going through the motions this year, but in the end I do prefer to see Christmas lights when I walk by the room(s) and kept it simple with the tabletop tree. Plus, we’ve had quite a few visitors this season so I’m glad I added some cheer to the room(s).
GUEST ROOM 2 & BATHROOM
In this room I also tried to tie in the room’s decor colors but because the room is black and white, it lent itself to some of the traditional reds as well.
MASTER BEDROOM & (my) BATHROOM
We had a Christmas light casualty on the old janky tree we’ve had in our room. I don’t even know where or when we got this tree but it has bothered me for years and every year I tell myself I’ll get rid of it or use it elsewhere but then out it comes and I just can’t waste a Christmas tree.
Well, the day before Thanksgiving the top portion of the tree’s lights burned out (see pic - I’ve added a strand to the top but it doesn’t match well enough and I just don’t care). Epic timing of course. But, I had this tinsel tree on my radar anyway and decided to pull the trigger on Cyber Monday. Let me tell you, it is worth every penny. It is SO BEAUTIFUL!! And because it’s a champagne gold it can be decorated with any color palette / style. I went with black and kept it simple because again, I ran out of steam. But, next year I may add more to it.
I decided not to bother moving the old tree out of the room - just don’t have the energy to contend with that. I like the ornaments on the tree as they’re a mix of religious, some family photos, and mostly ornaments I had purchased to decorate a tree in my Great Aunt Veila’s apartment so it makes me think of her.
Last year the hubs got me the Christmas Vacation sheets and I am finally able to use them! I am so happy about that. I splurged and purchased the light up Christmas Vacation pillow this year as well. The pups like to snuggle into the pillows for a nap. 😍
I added some simple gold and silver tinsel to our console and found the NOEL light up sign at Target. It’s on a timer which is fantastic. Next year I’ll likely get a garland for the console but with the transition of the two trees in our room I never did commit to an idea on that.
I never did get around to adding much to my bathroom or closet this year because it has been sheer chaos in my life so perhaps next year. I did add a small wreath and lights to my mirror and two small trees I found midway through December.
Onwards we go up to the third floor.
3rd FLOOR LANDING
I added a small tree to the 3rd floor landing to add some festiveness up there for guests and Robert’s home office area.
GUEST ROOM 3 & BATHROOM
BACK PATIO DECOR
I added these birch twinkle trees and indoor/outdoor portable firepit to our back patio to give it a some ambiance. We don’t really ever sit out there for a variety of reasons but I like having the lights on at night because we have four glass doors looking out onto the patio so we can see it all the time. Naturally we wouldn’t light the firepit unless we are sitting outside, but it’s so pretty!
Well, this sums up our holiday home tour for 2023. This is our first holiday in this house so there’s a lot of things in flux so some things may change next year. I gave away quite a bit that didn’t have a place in this house as well.
I want to eventually have a Christmas Vacation themed tree and an Anna Lee ornament themed tree (maybe mixed in with the wool/felt mice). I normally buy one Anna Lee ornament each year but as of the time I’m writing this post I have not seen any at Marshall’s like I normally do.
How many Christmas trees do you have in your home? Do you add decor to each room or keep it to your main living room? Do you have a theme or an eclectic mix of decor? Comment below!
XOXO
