Christmas at the VanLandingham's - The Sarah Beth Blog

Hey friends!

Before I sat down to write this post, I started this playlist on itunes. It’s so festive, you should give it a listen.

Eric and I both love Christmas. I even tried to decorate before Thanksgiving this year, but with us hosting, it was not logistically possible. SO we went and got our tree day after Thanksgiving. YAY!

Since we buy a live tree every year I like to give the tree a day or two to “fluff” out and rest before I cover it in decorations. The live trees usually soak up the most water on their first few days at home. We buy our tree from our local Publix. We purchased a 6 foot tree this year.

This is me impatiently waiting to decorate it. lol You can also shop my outfit here. Side note.. the leggings I am wearing are magical. I wear them multiple times a week.

Before I decorated my tree I went ahead and decorated other places in our home…

KITCHEN:
I have mini boxwood wreaths hung on our kitchen cabinets and I added these red plaid and these snowflake bows to them.

You could also purchase something like this, these are festive and already decorated for you!

We have a make-shift island in our kitchen. I added two trees to this tabletop. The three foot one and this two foot. I kind of wish I had also purchased this one foot tree. I like grouping trees in odd numbers.

I am going to add these mini tree toppers to the three trees, once I have them all.

The beaded garland and tinsel garland are both from Target, last year. But they have them again! Plus, they are super affordable.

The letter ornaments are from Kirkland’s last year, but here are some similar ones. The other ornaments are miscellaneous once we have from over the years. Here are similar ornaments to the campers. We love these!

The wood tree garland is from the Target dollar spot last year. This Etsy account is one of my favorites and has a ton of fun laser-cut wood pieces you can make into garland. DIY’s like this are my favorite!

OUTDOOR:
Onto our outdoor area..

E and I are both pro EASY outside decorations. We will not have any family over this year for Christmas so we want as minimally invasive as possible. We decided to go with an outdoor projector to act as our house lights this year. It was on sale at Target and less work than anything else out there. Plus it looks nice and it easy to turn off and on.

Their image is way better than mine.. But you get the idea. lol

This projector is what we used. I liked the snowflakes because they are neutral and if we want to add light garlands to our house next year this projector can still be used. I had no idea how inexpensive they are! We should of tried these years ago.

We have this boxwood wreath on out door year-round and I like to add little decorations to it for each holiday. I will do a blog post on that soon. Since we wanted minimal decorations outside, and frankly I was getting lazy because I knew how much decorating I was about to do with our tree, I just added one of the leftover bows from the kitchen wreaths to the outdoor one. I love the simplicity of it.

DINING ROOM:

Again, we will be hosting Christmas this year so the tablescape is really for our own eyes. I wanted something simple, and not too much in the way. We use our dining room table to work and eat daily. SO the more room, the better.

I took out one leaf from Thanksgiving tablescape, and folded the ends of our table runner. You can read out this runner here.

I have had this plain garland for years and love the versatility of it. Last year I formed it into a wreath for our bedroom, This year I simply folded it up to lay flat on the table.

I also added, these mini ornaments to it. They just slid right on the branches of garland.

The battery operated pinecone candles were a gift last year. They have a timer on them, so you do not have to remember to turn them off!

Now for the good stuff..
THE TREE:

I am going to tell you about this in the order I added the decorations. The order you add items to your tree really helps keep the tree looking it’s best and not too cluttered.

First I added the tree skirt. This is the most functional tree skirt ever! It is actually this blanket. I loved the color and will be able to use it once Christmas is over! I secretly want to steal it and bundle up with it right now. It’s very cozy!

Second I add the lights. I usually use these green braided lights, but this year I went with the white, hoping it would help bring the tree together. I am glad I used the all white.

The third part I added was the garland. Conquencidentally I used three types of garland. The first was the tinsel I also used on our mini trees. The second was this thick yarn. The third type I used was the pom-pom sparkle garland. I bought it at Hobby Lobby but cannot find it online yet. I think the three different textures really go well together here.

The fourth part I added was the ornaments. I added these hooks to all of the ornaments used. I feel like I buy hooks every single year! I used clear snowflakes and icicles. I also used the gold ball ornaments from this set. I like that the ball ornaments take up space on the tree and really fill it out. This set would also be lovely. I wanted to mix the textures again so I also used these faux fur ornaments and these sparkly onion ornaments.

The fifth piece I added was the stems. I added swirly sequin stems, I got them at Hobby Lobby, but they are not online yet. I added sparkly pom pom stems, these are similar. I also added these pearl beaded stems.