It’s taking everything I have within me not to title this post, “It’s beginning to look a lot like…”

You’re welcome for avoiding the blog post cliche. You’re welcome.

But really, it looks like Christmas around here! This was my first year decorating our house for Christmas, and Michaels and Dollar Tree are thanking me. 🙂

I started with the mantle following this tutorial. (I think I have “a thing” for monograms. You could slap a giant “M” on toilet paper and I’d be pretty excited, so when I saw that you can make a WREATH shaped like a letter, I couldn’t get started fast enough.)

Then, I pulled every craft supply we owned onto the living room floor and got started on the rest of the mantle.

I like the idea of sparkle with some natural elements, so I pulled out my mercury glass candle holders, and made little snowflakes out of napkins for two of them (like this, but mine aren’t as pretty.) On the third, I put a plain white candle, wrapped it in jute and hot-glued a little snowflake to the front.

I wrapped some boxes of food from our pantry in fun silver and white paper, and brown craft paper, then wrapped them in burlap, jute twine and silver ribbon, and used the little faux gifts to create some height.

In the middle is a little bowl of sparkly ornaments, and on the right, a plain white vase filled with sparkly branches, and a snowflake ornament attached with jute twine.

Finally, I snipped some greenery out of our yard and just kept adding and adding!

(I don’t know what it is with these guys, but as soon as I get out the camera, they end up in front of it!)

On to the tree!

This was my first real tree, so it was a challenge to figure out how to fill any holes and keep it looking even. (PSA to anyone with babies or small kids: artificial trees can have lead, and release lead dust on all your stuff, so that’s why we moved to real this year.)

Check out how fun this ceramic reindeer is, hanging out on my entertainment center. I didn’t tell Andy about him when I put him out, so it was fun to see his crazy reaction to Blitzen’s head suddenly living on our cabinet. (Yes, this is definitely Blitzen.)

In front of the tree, I added some garland and my nativity scene that was a gift from my mom a few Christmases back. I love the detail in the faces.

A note about garland: WHY had it never occurred to me until this year to fluff up that cheapo garland with the real stuff? I picked up some $1 garland from Michaels – the kind that looks thin and ugly on its own – then doubled it over and added tons of clippings from my yard. So much better!

I added some of that garland (faux and real) over the window in the breakfast nook:

And to the left of the table, I brought in some branches from the yard and hung snowflake ornaments from them.

I can’t figure out how to get nice pictures of this area, but this is the best I can do! In the window behind the sofa, I hung ornaments and made a little fur-wrapped wreath. (So easy – just hot glued fur to a wreath form from the Dollar Store.)

On the sofa table are apothecary jars and every clear vase I could scrounge up, filled with Christmasy things like pinecones, Christmas lights, tiny presents and ornaments.

Finally, I added some (faux + real) garland to the staircase. I meant to go back and add lights or more flowers or something, but it is now Christmas Eve, and I think I may have missed the boat on that! Maybe next year…

Funny how decorating for Christmas makes it feel so much more festive, and inspires us to entertain. It’s been a fantastic holiday season so far… Merry Christmas!

P.S.: Check out these other holiday decorating ideas!

• DIY Kissing Ball with fresh greenery
• Easy glittery snowballs
• Tricks for (free) fancy Christmas garland
• Turquoise and green Christmas mantel
• Metallic nativity-inspired mantel
• How to make an easy Christmas vignette
• Full holiday home tour
• Make a monogram wreath
• Make your own Christmas art (one of my most popular posts!)(…and here’s take 2!