Deck The Halls ~ Part 1

Christmas is my all time favorite holiday. I love everything about Christmas, the baking, cooking, gift giving and especially the decorating. I started my decorating, which usually takes me about a week to finish, last weekend.

We usually start with our Family Tree (I do 7 trees), we have all the ornaments that the boys have received and made over the years. We have plenty of traditions while putting the tree up. The very first is the assembly of the tree. Many years ago, when my husband and I were in our first few years of marriage, we switched from a live tree to an artifical tree. While I love the smell of the fresh trees, they really bother our allergies.

When we assemble the tree, Doug puts in the branches in one layer at a time, after the layer is in, my job is to “fluff” the branches.

Then Doug puts the lights all the way around that layer, so that the lights are inside of the tree as well.

And after the tree is all put together, you can see how putting the lights inside make it beautiful.

After the lights are on, I decorate with the gold beads. Then the ornament decorating begins, I sit on the couch and open the ornaments, telling the boys who the ornament was from and when they received it. I have each of the ornament boxes marked with names, dates and who gave them the ornament. The boys have fun hanging their ornaments on the tree.

After the tree is done, I begin on all the other decorations.  I have lots and lots of decorations, in fact, like Melissa from The Inspired Room said earlier this week, the Christmas Bomb went off in our home. (this is just one little corner)

I have lots of Santas and a huge collection of Snowmen. I decided this year, to keep most of the Santas in the Living Room, I started with the Mantle.

Before…

And after…

Then I moved onto the Entertainment Center. I start with an antique sled, and added the garland and Santas.

Before…

And after…

Stay tuned, while I complete my decorating, I’ll be sharing it with you.

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~The Inspired Room