1st December is a pretty big deal to me. No matter how excited I get about Christmas I always wait it out until 1st December to decorate the house. The past two years we have had to be really careful about what we had and where it went because we had Jackson who loved to eat sparkly reindeer! Having a toddler isn’t much easier to be completely honest. Still, I get really excited about decorating the house for Christmas and even more so now because Erin loves anything shiny and she loves stars.
I had sorted out the advent calendars the night before so that Erin could open hers in the morning. She’s a very lucky girl this year as she has three; 2 chocolate and one Toot-Toot Animals calendars. John and I have make your own advent calendars which I filled with all kinds of yummy surprises!
On the evening of 1st December I carried on decorating. We don’t go mad but we do have some lovely bits.
The fireplace is the focal point of our 25ft living room/ dining room so I like to make a big deal of it. Last year I bought a lovely garland for the shelf and we have some lovely soft lights wound around it. I don’t like these to be too bright but I like that they add a bit of sparkle to it. In the middle we have a light up village scene, nutcracker figures and a musical carousel. When we have the fire going too it’s really quite magical.
We only have a small 4ft Christmas tree which sits in the alcove next to the fireplace. I did buy a 7ft Christmas tree a few years ago but Jackson kept trying to eat it and I haven’t bothered with it since. We don’t really have space for it though actually so it will be a few years until we try using that one again.
I do love our little tree though. I bought this back in 2012 while I was still at university. We have a silver and glass theme which John doesn’t really like. Well, that’s probably not entirely true. I think if John had a choice the tree would be bright and colourful and more… fun. I like it classic and beautiful. Every year we buy a new decoration for the past 2 years Erin has chosen them. This year she chose a box full of glass baubles filled with silver stars! They’re lovely.
My auntie made us a gorgeous Christmas bunting a couple of years ago that sits between the living room and dining room. It’s one of my favourite pieces. Last year Erin loved reaching up for it and this year she got so excited when she saw it. I think it helps that some of the flags have stars on them as she loves stars.
We don’t have too many decorations in the dining room. This year we have two amazing wall stickers from Stickerscape on the bare chimney breast and mine and John’s advent calendars on the side of one of our storage units. I haven’t actually bothered with the dining room until this year and I think it makes a real difference. It ties to rooms together and I think if I had the table done up all nicely on Christmas Day it would be really perfect.
You can watch a tour of our decorations below too!
I’m hoping to get a few more decorations for next year to really make the dining room special. I’d love to know what your favourite decorations are!
