Christmas Around the House {2024}

I always joke that our house was *meant* for Christmas decorations. We moved in mid-November, so we put up a Christmas tree the first night in our home. I think because of that, it always just feels a little more like home when I get all the decorations up. If it was socially acceptable to leave them up year-round, I probably would.

I’m just kidding. They’ll come down on December 26th and I’ll be thrilled about it. But I sure will enjoy the heck out of them between now and then.

Some people get really creative with their Christmas decor and change things up from year to year. I’m always amazed by the bloggers I see who do entirely new themes for their tree each year. Or, those who change up their color palette for Christmas on the regular. That’s not what happens in my house. I find such comfort in pulling out the same, beloved decorations year after year. I love thinking back to the year we got them, seeing them in old photos throughout our houses, and putting things in more or less the same place every year. Don’t get me wrong – I’m always adding to our Christmas decor collection and things do get changed up a bit each year. But, for the most part? I like what I like and I keep it that way.

So today, let’s take a little tour through our home all decked out for Christmas. If you’ve seen our Christmas tours from years past, you won’t find anything revolutionary here. But maybe it’ll make you feel a little warm and cozy inside, just like it does for me. Grab yourself a cup of coffee (or hot chocolate, or wine – I’m not judging) and settle in for a little walkabout through our house with me.

The Exterior + Entry

I like to keep things largely simple on the outside, and this year I really feel like I nailed it. The only thing I changed from last year was added two of these gold and white nutcrackers, and they make all the difference. I’m absolutely obsessed with them, and I feel like they bring the front steps to life.

Real talk? The little trees on the steps are adorable but every year I spend weeks fighting them to actually stay up. November and December can be pretty windy around here, and I feel like at least two or three times a week I’m picking these guys up off the ground. I have yet to find a solution for it other than cursing at them and calling them names all season long. It’s very holly jolly.

Last year was the first year I added wreaths on the windows upstairs and they make me so happy. I used real wreaths last year, but this year I just grabbed some cheap fakes ones and added a bit of ribbon. It was so simple (and cheap!) and now they’ll last year after year. They’re just hung with some Command hooks that I leave on the windows year-round. Easy peasy!

Once you step inside, things feel pretty cozy and welcoming right away. We’ve got our big snowflake garland in the entry (my absolute favorite!), along with our activity advent tree and a few other small touches. I always have so much fun decorating the peg rails in the entry for the holidays, and Christmas is easily the most fun.

The Living Room

I’ve talked about this a lot over the years, but I find this big open space tricky to decorate when it comes to the seasonal stuff. You can see everything in our entire great room from the moment you walk in the front door. It can get overwhelming fast! I’ve had to practice a lot of restraint and learn how to decorate so that it feels full and warm and cozy but not overstimulating.

Of course, the star of the show in here is our 12′ Christmas tree. This guy was new to us last year (the lights on our old one died), and I was a little nervous to pull it out. I was slightly regretting getting a flocked tree last year, and I was worried that when I got it out I’d have regrets. But you know what? I truly love it. I still think a plain green tree would be more my style. But, Corey loves a flocked tree. And really, this one feels so elegant and sparkly and beautiful. I’s a great choice for this space! It’s always quite an undertaking to decorate, but it’s completely worth the effort. Also, I grab at least 20-3o new ornaments every single year and I still don’t feel like we have enough. A 12″ tree is a lot to decorate!

Of course, the mantel is also always a blast to decorate. The only thing that has really changed on it over the years is the number of garlands I use. I used to just put two, but I’ve added a few more to make it look fuller. Other than that, I do the same thing every year!

Oh, except I added this cute 2′ tree to the hearth this year, and I think it really completes the look. I also added a couple of bows to the sconces on either side of the fireplace. I think they might be one of my favorite things I added out of everything this year!

The Kitchen + Dining Room

The dining room gets another round of paper bag snowflakes, because that area above the window is just begging to be made into a show-stopper. I’m keeping our table extra simple on a day-to-day basis this year, because we’ve been doing more LEGO building and puzzle-putting-together and board game playing than ever. But, I have a blast getting it all gussied up for guests, so maybe I’ll have to write a post about that, too.

The kitchen is hands down the area of our house I’ve had the hardest time decorating historically. I want it to feel Christmas-y, but I’ve struggled to find things that fit in with the rest of my decor and don’t make things feel cluttered. I put some extra effort into making it work this year and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

The biggest win is the garland above the sink. I’ve always put garland here and I’ve never been fully happy with how it looked or how it was hung. This year, I grabbed a tension rod and wrapped the garland around that. It was a total game-changer and I’m so beyond pleased with how it turned out. I added some twinkly lights and a sliced orange garland to it, and it feels like it was always meant to be.

Our Bedroom

This is another area that saw a few changes this year (apparently I switched it up more than I thought!), mainly a new tree! For the last few Christmases in here we’ve been using an old pencil tree that was our main tree at our last house. It didn’t actually fit in here at all – it was too tall and I couldn’t use the top section! But, we made it work because I didn’t want to buy another tree.

This year, I declared enough was enough and I grabbed this tree from Target when it was on sale (50% off!). It’s absolutely perfect. The lights on it are so sparkly and magical, it’s absolutely stunning, and I can use all of the pieces of the tree. I also swapped out the old bronze & silver ornaments we used to use for white and red, and I love it so much more than I even expected to.

I decided to skip the tree base in favor of putting the tree in a big vase (stuffed with towels to hold it up). It looks beautiful, and it’s a trick I can see myself using year after year.

Our room also got some fresh Christmas bedding this year, along with a couple of garlands. I’ve really found myself leaning into even more traditional decor for Christmas this year (more red than I’ve ever used before!), and it is bringing me a lot of joy. There’s just something so cozy and nostalgic and comforting about it, and that feels like exactly what we need right now.

The Upstairs

And finally, let’s take it upstairs where things start to come unraveled a bit. Just kidding – I actually love our upstairs decor. But, it doesn’t match the rest of the house at all! A few years ago, we gave up on trying to make this area “fit in” with the rest of our decor, and we leaned in hard to the cheesy over-the-top decor that brings our kids (and let’s be honest, my husband) a lot of joy. There’s bright red everywhere. Tons of Santa’s. Trucks with Christmas trees. Nothing really matches. And it’s truly delightful.

We keep it pretty simple up here – just a Christmas tree and some fresh pillows in the bonus room, some Christmas-y photos in the hallway, and small trees in the kids’ rooms. Our kids are still young enough that this part of the house is a complete mess about 85% of the time, so there’s no reason to put a ton of effort into decorating it.

But, that doesn’t mean it can’t be a little festive!

Corey and the kids have a blast decorating the bonus room tree together every year, and we are slowly transitioning it over to be a Disney-themed tree. In years past, we just used whatever ornaments we had leftover for that one. But, we’ve been adding some Disney themed ornaments to our collection and my vision for this space is to eventually be fully themed out. Because why not?!

And there you have it – our cozy, welcoming, nostalgic Christmas home. If you want to peek through the years and see how things have evolved, I’ll link all of our old Christmas home tours below! Grab yourself a Christmas cookie and settle in to see how things have changed – I always think it’s so fun to look back!