Decorating for my first married Christmas is something I’ve looked forward to for a really long time. This year, Grace and I are celebrating Christmas in our own little house (our first time not being with our families). A big part of this is because we’re traveling right after Christmas through the New Year, but also, it’s sweet to start our own traditions as a married couple.
Fun fact: for the past several years I have wanted to wait until I was married to get a Christmas tree (I’m not even really sure why, it just seemed like a romantic idea) so this is my FIRST ever Christmas tree of my own! And I love it so much!
So, welcome to my Christmas home tour!
Getting fresh greenery for Christmas was my favorite thing about decorating. I know artificial trees, garlands, and wreaths are popular, but nothing compares to the smell of the real thing. I love getting a festive pine scent from our wreath every time I walk in and out of our front door.
And here’s our lovely Fraser Fir! We picked a nice round tree and I have loved having it in our house. It still smells amazing and is the perfect size for our still-growing collection of Christmas ornaments. Speaking of which, here are a few of my favorites:
Even though it’s just the two of us, I’m very excited for Christmas morning. Every year up until now, Grace and I have chosen to give each other Christmas gifts of no monetary value (like something we write for each other, or a song from Grace). This year, we decided to do presents for the first time which I am actually so excited for-I hope Grace likes what I got her!
And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care . . .
This is the same stocking I’ve had since I was a baby. Last year, Grace was with my family on Christmas Day, so they had one embroidered for her too. This year, we have them both in our house!
We have a few other little details in the living room:
Our running list of Christmas movies to watch!
This is a fresh garland from the same place where we got our Christmas tree. I took a few small ornaments and threaded them through the strands of pine needles for pops of color.
For this, I took some of the trimmings from the bottom of our tree and just put them in a vase with some gold spray-painted branches! And you can see my chocolate Advent calendar in this shot too :)
This bowl of ornaments has a few leftover fairy light strands from our wedding exit in it! It’s so cozy and festive to me to turn on the lights at night.
I also changed out our usual throw blanket for a red plaid Christmasy blanket (which the dogs oddly LOVE laying on much more than the old one), and added a “Home for the Holidays” throw pillow to our couch!
In the dining room, I changed out our usual table runner for a seasonal one, and placed some more tree trimmings under our centerpiece.
I also got some Christmas Crackers for a Christmas Day feast we are having with a few friends! I think this is more of a British tradition but I love them, so I just had to get some :)
I also added the same type of garland by our TV to our piano!
I dressed up our bar area with some greenery too.
In November on a date night we went to our favorite record store and picked out a few Christmas records. I think the Charlie Brown one in the picture is our favorite, but there are so many good ones! Willie Nelson’s Pretty Paper album is so good too.
As a final touch, I used some leftover decorations to add a little festivity to some of our house plants! They make me smile every time I see them.
And of course I had to put up some mistletoe!
Merry Christmas! xoxo