Everyone who knows me well knows that Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. I love having a day to enjoy with my family and my favorite food items (especially the mashed potatoes – yum!). My mom’s cooking is outrageously delicious so it’s hard not to look forward to a whole feast of that once a year. So, because of that, I have a pet peeve when people start playing Christmas music or decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving is over. I tend to think, “Um, hello! The best holiday of the year hasn’t happened yet and you’re already moving onto the next one??”

Even so, there are certain things about Christmas that I love. I love how cozy it feels and how friendly everyone is. I love that whenever you check out at a store, they say either “Happy Holidays!” or “Merry Christmas!”. I love going Christmas shopping, even during all the craziness of hunting for a parking spot or waiting in long lines. I looove hot chocolate and the smell of Christmas trees. I love the Elvis Presley song “Blue Christmas” because my dad used to play it on repeat right after Thanksgiving until Christmas. My sister and I used to tease him about it but we not-so-secretly loved it. I love seeing all the wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree.

I think that’s why I’m so incredibly excited for next year’s Christmas because we’ll have our baby girl with us and we’ll get to decide what Christmas traditions we want to do with her. I can’t wait until she’s old enough to wake us up at 6am to see what Santa brought her. I remember being like that when I was little and loved how magical it felt. One of my favorite traditions from when I was little was having Santa come visit us on Christmas Eve and bring everyone a new pair of pajamas. I remember loving that and, on one particular Christmas Eve, going outside and seeing something flying in the air that I thought was Santa flying away in his sleigh. Looking back, it was probably an airplane flying by but thinking that it was Santa made the experience so much better.

So, back to the title of this blog post, Christmas decorations are another thing. What I dislike the most about them – how long it takes to unpack them and set them up and…even more than that… putting them away after all the fun of Christmas is over. It’s such a chore to do it but I enjoy them for the short time that they are up. I am very very particular about what Christmas decorations I like which is why I’d rather pick out decorations with CJ and buy them ourselves. I want everything to match and to have a certain look to it. I like the types of decorations that are definitely for Christmas but that coordinate with the existing decor in the house. I love rustic decorations that blend in with what we’ve already put in the house.

Below is an example of my favorite style of Christmas decorations (from The Lily Pad Cottage). We loooove this.

The Lily Pad Cottage – Christmas Mantel

There are some decorations we found at Nordstrom a couple of months ago that I love too. Here are a couple of adorable Nordstrom decorations:

Linen Runner 

Burlap Tree

I was inspired by what we saw at Nordstrom so we found some adorable decorations at Target that mirror that same style. You’ll see them in the photos of what we’ve done on the fireplace mantel.

For this year, we only bought a few decorations as we know we’ll build up a supply over time and I really love what we’ve done. It’s so simple and understated yet definitely incorporates the Christmas feel.  I love what we have so much that I’m a little sad to pack them away once the holidays are over.

Our Christmas mantel decorations. We have a third stocking for Baby T! We’ll add in her initial next year. I’d love to add some garland on the mantel, we just haven’t found any that meet our standards.

Close up of the left side – both items are from Target

Close up of our adorable stocking hangers – from Crate & Barrel. I love that they match the wooden picture frames that we already have in the family room.

I love these two little guys – both from Target

Our majestic ceramic reindeer – from Target

I love our little Christmas tree that we found at the Christmas tree lot where my parents get their tree

We still need to do some work on our Christmas tree decorations – I really want all the ornaments to coordinate and for it to look like one of those beautiful trees in a department store (with sprinkles of personalized ornaments that we’ll gather over the years). We’re nowhere near that yet but we’ll get there eventually. 🙂 Our Christmas tree this year is simple yet beautiful, we love it.

Our first Christmas tree in our home!