Growing up, Christmas has always been a time of the year that I cherish.  My most fondest memories were when my dad would bring home the Christmas tree.  My mom, sisters and I would decorate the tree together.  We didn’t have much then, so we would roll up tin foil, and then fold the top like a candy cane.  We would then hang them on the tree as our decoration.  My mom taught us, as long as you have red ribbon, you could decorate anything for Christmas.  As time passed, and we all moved on and had families of our own, decorating has continued to be a tradition for all of us.  Decorating has become an activity that brings our families together.  Every year when I decorate, I think about how it felt to decorate as a child with my family.

That’s why, this year, I wanted to share with you, my love for decorating.  Not only will you get a sneak peek into what I have created this year, but you will also get a sneak peek of all three of my sisters decorating styles this Christmas. We have come a long way since those tin foil candy canes.  I hope you enjoy my Christmas look book.  I hope to inspire you this year to take your Christmas decorating just one step further!

First, I will take you on a magical tour through my ‘Magical Winter Wonderland’. This year, I was inspired by my tiny tots.  Enjoy!

This first photo is a homemade winter planter I created out of old brush, branches and pine bows.

Welcome to my ‘Magical Wonderland’

This area was definitely inspired by my tiny tots.  We were outside cleaning up the yard before a good old fashioned Wisconsin winter came, and I was wondering what we should do with their playhouse.  That’s when it came to me.  I knew that I needed to bring it in, and mix it into my Christmas decor.  Now, it has become their favorite place to play this Christmas season.  Behind the playhouse, I created two big natural planters with greens and branches.  This gave the feel of a wooded winter wonderland. I also love creating and using good old fashioned paper chains!  And, because I have all my Christmas shopping done, I use christmas presents as decor throughout my house. This magical spot is even more beautiful at night.

This next area has become one of our favorite spaces to read together.  I tend to find my little ones waiting for me to come and read to them.

At night time…

Here is the most used room in the house, the play room.  Here is where we spend most of our time as a family.  There are little hands in the family that like to grab ornaments and decorations, so I keep all of the fun up high on the mantle.  I have two girls, which means, everything is pink! So I decorate with red, pink, mint green and light blue.  That way, the decorations don’t clash with everything else in the room.  Keep in mind, I don’t just buy items to decorate with.  I buy items to create pieces, then I decorate with them.  Everything you see, is created by me! From the palette ‘Play’ sign, all the way to the vase with the pines.  I love intermixing the outdoors, so I have to add in some real bare branches found on the farm.

At night time….

Even Big Teddy likes to sit by the fire and warm his toesies…

Next is my kitchen.  I don’t do much now, but pretty soon my counter will be filled with trays of Christmas cookies and a homemade Gingerbread house.

This is a wreath I created…

Now lets enter, what I call, ‘The Grown Up Space’. Everything in this room was created by me.  You will find a lit up palette, Christmas arrangements, textures from outdoors and so much more in this room! This is what I consider ‘Classic Christmas’. I’d like to start with an image before everything was complete.  This image was taken while I was decorating my 12′ tree.

BEFORE

AFTER

I made this palette for summer time decorating, and I used succulents, along with trailing greens in the jars.  Then for fall, I put cut corn stalks in the jars.  Now, for Winter, I added lights and put pines in the jars.

Now lets take a look at this room at night…

Here, you can see I added a red barn into the mix of my decorating.  This is one of my most meaningful pieces in this room.  The red barn symbolizes the farm that I grew up on, which is the farm land I built on.  This farm has been in our family since 1838, before Wisconsin was even a state.  

We have come to the end of the tour through the ‘Magical Winter Wonderland’.  Now let’s move on, and get more ideas!

This next decorating style belongs to my sister, Jennifer.  I would consider this ‘Woodsy, Traditional’, with a touch of ‘Glam’. Welcome…

Jennifer spruced up a bare corner by just simply adding pine bows to a copper vase.

Be sure to be nice, because Chippy is always watching…

We have come to the end of Jennifer’s Christmas decorating.  Maybe this year you will want to add a little winter plaid into your decorating.  Maybe even something a little shiny against something rustic.  Dare to be bold. That’s Jennifer’s style.

Next we will be getting a visual tour of Katie’s Christmas decorating.  I’d call her style ‘Traditional’, with a touch of ‘Whimsy’.  Welcome…

Katie is known to be very creative, and has an ‘I can do or make anything’ kind of mentality.  In this next image, you will see a decorative sled she made, along with some other cool items throughout this tour.

This next sign, is also something Katie made this year to decorate her house.  I actually had to come over and write her little ones wish list, because she has really bad hand writing.  When she was little, she was forced to be a righty, when she should have been a lefty. Her plans for this sign are to write her little ones wish list every year and take a picture of it.  Then she will start a Christmas picture wall of all the wish lists throughout the years. This would be a great idea for any of you reading this!

Here is the advent calendar she made last year…

This concludes the Christmas tour through Katie’s home.  Are you getting excited for Christmas decorating yet? Well, either way, you are getting a lot of ideas, in all kinds of styles.  But just wait, we have one more home for you.  So lets go!

This next Christmas decorating is done by my sister, Kari.  Her style is what I call, ‘Rustic, Traditional’. Lets take a look!

Welcome…

When I went over to Kari’s to take photos, I caught her putting on the final touches to her tree.

Are you in love with that Christmas tree box? Yeah, me too! Kari’s husband made that for her by hand.  Yeah, I know, I’ve got a lot of handy, crafty people that surround me.

The coffee table in this next picture is one of the three we were able to refurbish from my dad’s barn.

One thing that is similar throughout all of our decorating, that you may have noticed already, is that we all find a way to use what we have. We just tweak it enough to turn it into a christmas decoration.  We get that skill from my mom.

Below is a tree decorated by my niece.  She is really getting into this whole decorating thing.  It’s so wonderful to see this past time passed on from generation to generation.

This concludes the entire Christmas tour.  I hope you enjoyed looking through this years Christmas Look Book.  I hope you are able to be inspired to take your decorating just one step further this year.  Maybe you even got a few new ideas.  Who knows! All I know, is that I’m a Christmas nut! Merry Christmas!

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