I thought it would be fun to take you on a little festive tour of how things are decked out around our place for the holidays. I can’t have all my bloggy friends over for a Christmas party (HOW FUN WOULD THAT BE?!), but I can bring the party to you.
Well… sort of.
You’re really just getting static pictures of my decorations. I may be overselling this post. 😉
Still, I recommend you grab a hot chocolate or coffee (or sparkling water—anything remotely cozy counts), and use your imagination for a few minutes. If you were actually here, I’d have a lo-fi Christmas soundtrack playing in the background, a little dish of chocolate mints on the table, and all the lamps and twinkle lights would be glowing!
One of my “goals” for the year was to get outside lights set up. I ended up opting out, but at night the whole front is beautifully lit by recessed lighting, and our Christmas tree sparkles through the window.
My dad brings fresh evergreen branches from their property, and I used a few things from thrift stores/Dollarama to brighten up my little arrangements.
When you come in the door, you’re greeted by a giant gnome! I found him last year at a thrift store and I think he is adorable!
Last week I decided the top plant on the little shelf had finally reached the end of its lifespan. I think I bought it for something like $3 at IKEA and it lasted for several years, which feels like a perfectly acceptable ROI for a plant. (I suspect I overwatered it; the picture doesn’t quite capture its tragic state.) So it went into the compost bin.
At first I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this newly empty shelf space, but I decided to use some faux sprays I found for $2 at a thrift store a few weeks ago. Floral picks can be so darn expensive, so I grabbed these knowing I’d eventually find them a home. And it didn’t take long!
Now the shelf looks like this. Admittedly, the greens in the real plant don’t match the faux sprays (and yes, my mind immediately went to the saying that the carpet does not match the drapes; apparently my mind is both festive and in the gutter), but that’s okay. We’re not decorating the Plaza here…
The extent of my Christmas decor in the kitchen is those metal, glitzy snowflake magnets you can get a peek at in the picture above, a wreath on our pantry door, and my beloved Avon Mistletoe figurine*.
*This was gifted to my parents for their wedding. It’s made of scented wax and every year growing up our Christmas decorations would all come out of seasonal storage smelling like this figurine. It meant so much to me that my mom gave it to me when I got married and it is one of my most treasured possessions. A single sniff takes me right back to childhood Christmases.
I’ve already shown most of the living room this year, but here it is again at different times of day/from different angles.
The hutch…
The record player paraphernalia (with a Christmas record all queued up!)…
A friend hand-painted the Peace sign and the little Christmas house boxes are what I put the kids’ new ornaments in to be opened on Christmas Eve.
Our dining room decor consists of a nightlight.
Some inset shelving (I didn’t get around to taking pictures this year, but it looks mostly the same. This is also where I display all our holiday cards as they trickle in).
And, of course, the candles! We go through a lot of white taper candles, and I absolutely love lighting them before dinner.
The last few weeks we’ve had our Danish Advent candle burning brightly as well.
Indy has a little tree, a gnome, and some lights at the bottom of his bed.
Belle had a wonderful time decorating her room and it has remained surprisingly neat and undeniably festive.
I did not bring my A-game to the basement this year. Oh well. We have a Dollarama garland (this picture is from last year in case any eagle-eyed readers spot different art) and a little wooden tree I wrapped in lights. It was decidedly less work than putting up a second artificial tree, and since it sits behind the couch where no one can see it, decorating the whole area always felt a bit pointless.
I felt Grinch-y leaving it completely bare, so this little twinkly compromise has been perfect.
And then back outside, from whence we came, to see one of my favourite vignette’s: our little shed in the back yard. It looks approximately 10,000x more quaint with snow, and we’ve had plenty of the white stuff lately.
And that’s a wrap on my “holiday house tour” for 2025. Thanks for stopping by 😉
Your turn.
- What’s your favourite room once it’s decorated?
- Do you have a favourite seasonal decoration?
- What’s a piece of holiday decor that stands out from your childhood?
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That shed is so cute! Especially with the wreath!
We decorated our living/dining room and the outside of the house. It’s our first time as adults that we did a big tree, and I’m really enjoying sitting by it in the evenings and mornings
There is something so relaxing and lovely about having a focal point to sit and enjoy in the dark mornings/evenings of winter! I absolutely love the tree this time of year. And I feel like I put it up earlier/leave it up later every year because the glow of twinkle lights is irresistible to me.
Lovely! It all looks so cozy and festive (albeit cold!). We’ve been pretty minimal this year as we’re off to London and then Portugal, get back and are scrambling to get the house on the market (we’ve got an offer in on a city flat – noon deadline – so will hear in next 24 hours). I didn’t want loads to take down. So we just have our (real) tree, the brio round it, and a few deer figurines.
Oh and Alex put lights up outside. He went around one year and put up permanent hooks so it’s super easy.
It was so cold here, but now it’s warming up and tomorrow we’re supposed to get rain! I wonder if we’ll have a white Christmas after all??
What a hectic time in your life, but all the best with the offer on the flat!
Re. your follow-up comment, permanent hooks is brilliant!
Your house is adorable, Elisabeth! I especially like the gnome and the penguin light. 🙂 I confess to doing very little decorating. My sentiment towards Christmas lights and decor is much like that towards beautifully kept gardens: I appreciate the aesthetics and I love to see other people’s work, but I have zero inclination to put in the time myself. 😉 Also, we have a very small house (1700 sq feet, six people) so we gave up on having a tree anywhere when we moved here AND got a cat. My kids are not very sentimental about Christmas decorations either, though in past years we have put up a nativity in our front yard and they enjoyed that.
I have a sweet little nativity set we acquired years ago, and I set that up on a bookshelf in our dining area, and my favorite decoration is a small ceramic light-up Christmas tree that was made by a friend of my mother’s in 1972. It was all the rage for housewives to go to ceramics classes and paint these back then! My mom had two of them, this is the smaller one, and when a couple of lights broke off she didn’t want it anymore. It sat on our piano every year, and I was happy to take it in. My husband rewired the light after it went bad, and it shines proudly on another bookshelf, with a little statue of St Nicholas next to it. A friend of mine sent a wooden sculpture of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and I put that out this time of year as well. Our cat is insatiably curious about any sort of flame, so no candles without strict supervision around here!
I love how there is no one “right” way to decorate for the holidays and it all feels special and can really suit each personality and set of circumstances. For many years we lived as a family of 4 in a TINY apartment and so I had very few decorations (and a tiny tree)!
Having pets definitely complicates decorations! Sounds like you’ve found some great compromises and that’ so lovely you have a ceramic house painted by your mother. There is something extra special about those links to our past, especially at Christmas.
The carpet doesn’t match the drapes over here either, hashtag old grey mare.
I love your decor! It’s so festive and lovely – and it really is so “you!” Of course my favourite are the gnomes and the gnome door – I mean, how could it not be – but I love your use of lights! It just makes everything feel so warm and cosy.
I am going to do my own house tour, kind of, more like a tree tour, on Monday’s post. By the way, your posts weren’t popping up in my feed reader, and now I see I missed a few!
Ohhhh. I can’t WAIT for your house tour, Nicole. I know you are very festive and so I will plan to save my coffee for while I’m reading out post.
Yes! My decor definitely feels like me and I love that <3 It's the right amount - not too much, not too glitzy, and just the right amount of sentiment.
That blue little shed has to be my absolute favourite. It’s so simple, so inviting and charming – it’s perfect, especially with the snow.
I’ve just disappeared down a proper rabbit hole on Avon wax figurines. I had no idea they’re such a collectors’ thing. Is it actually soft to the touch because it’s wax, or does it feel more like a solid figurine?
It’s fairly soft (like I could stick a fingernail into it); I have to admit I’ve never really looked into them myself so didn’t realize they were popular!
Very cozy and cheery! I love the story behind the Christmas scent, I’ve never heard of Avon figures!
Apparently they were a “thing” in the 70’s! It smells sooooo good!
Everything is beautiful! Your house looks festive and cozy! And I like how elegant and intentional it all looks. The one thing I really wish is that I could smell that wax figurine- you’ve mentioned it many times now and I’m so curious about this nostalgic, Christmas-y smell!
Of course the level of nostalgia for me is tied to having it in my life for every Christmas, but even objectively I think it smells wonderful! And after all these years to STILL BE SMELLING! It’s 50+ years old at this point. Yet another example of “they don’t make things like they used to!”
I love your giant gnome and those silver candlesticks are positively gorgeous. I have a number of things from my childhood, but my favorite is a white ceramic tree that belonged to my grandmother.
I LOVE those silver candlesticks. They’re Georg Jensen from Denmark. My brother and SIL (who live in Denmark) gifted them to me one Christmas and they are one of my favourite decor items in our house.
It’s so special to have parts of our past with us at Christmas via decor. It really warms my heart <3
I love every bit of this, Elisabeth. Thanks for the tour 🙂
Aww, thanks. I only wish you could come for a proper visit and cup of tea 🙂
You have so much snow! I love having snow at Christmas. We have had some brown Christmases and I find them to be a bit of a drag. We are getting oddly warm weather this week + rain so I fear we are going to lose all of our snow. Sob. And instead we’ll have ice which is awful.
Ok, time to nip the negativity in the bud! Your home looks so beautiful – and so very clean!! I am envious of the lack of small toys littering your floors. Lol. I love that you decorate throughout the house! I have very minimal Christmas decorations – just a tree in the living room + lights on our mantel + a holiday kind of wood garland of sorts that I weave through the light fixture over our dining room table. I also put up lights outside this year for the first time ever which I am quite proud of! Next year I want to do more and also put some on our fence. The light on the dark nights is such a balm to my soul!
My mom’s Christmas village is my favorite decor from my childhood. But I do not want one of my own because I have no where to put said village! But I love seeing it when we are home for Christmas. I also have fond memories of rearranging my parents nativity set. And now my boys like to do this at Phil’s moms, except last year Jesus was lost for a good week or so. But was eventually found. So now they are watched closely when they play with it!
I hate brown Christmases. The only time of the year I actually want snow is on Christmas. We had a lot of snow…but now it’s warming up and tomorrow it’s raining so I wonder if we’ll have a white Christmas after all???
I love the villages but they take so much space!!!! My mom also had one and I absolutely LOVED arranging it on the top of the piano each year. It was one of my favourite things to do in terms decorating as a kid.
Ha! Jesus was lost for a week. This made me laugh out loud!!!
It must be the day for sharing cozy Christmas decor tours: I posted mine too! 😉
Your holiday home tour is absolutely beautifully festive.
Your house itself is also so fun and I am in love with that color blue. Plus your shed! Ahh!!
The gnome door inside? Adorable. I will go deep down the rabbit hole watching women make fairy door type things, actually cutting into the wall to make a real little room?!
We also burn candles a lot more in winter, usually beeswax. There’s something so delightful about a warm glow of light in a dark night, and it reaches somewhere deep deep inside. 🙂
YES! Candles do reach somewhere deep inside. There is something so organic and primal about natural light, the flickering is so relaxing.
Off to read your post <3
I have to say you have one clean tidy house there, and lots of very lovely tasteful decorations. We’re very subdued in our apartment this year (as we were the last couple of years since the passing on my FiL), as the OH has not been feeling that festive. We did put the big tree up and over did it with the decorations. You can see some of our decorations here: https://alexwolfe.ca/weeknotes-50/
I don’t think you can overdo it with tree decorations!
Thanks for sharing the link to your post. For some reason, your posts aren’t coming through to my feed reader, so I get behind in keeping up with your blog 🙁
I’m obsessed with your giant gnome at the door, and I will be right over! All of your decorations are gorgeous and I really enjoyed your tour. Of course, the gnomes are my favorites. I have a very simple Christmas set up these days. It’s calmly festive!
Isn’t the giant gnome so fun. I think he was less than $10 at the thrift store last year. I really like how big he is; feels like a proper decoration!
Calmly festive sounds like a truly wonderful vibe.
Your gnome is adorable! Also, you did decorate the shed outside! We found a cute duo of gnomes at the thrift store, so they’re gracing my bookshelf at the moment.
When my grandmother on my mom’s side passed away, my mom asked if I wanted her Christmas decorations. It’s so lovely to have them. I use the string of coloured lights in a vase on my desk this time of year, for some added cheer. Some of the balls go onto the tree – high up and carefully! Cause cat and kids.
I also had the nativity set, which is lovely. I remember playing with it, and being allowed to move the three kings a bit closer each day. It’s currently at my sister, as her husband is practicing catholic and she wanted to give him a nice nativity set, but nothing matched the one from our grandparents. So we’re sharing it, and for now it lives at their house.
That’s true! I never count the lights on the shed because they stay there year-round, but now that you point it out…I kinda did!
Hooray for thrift-store gnomes <3
That's so lovely of you to share the nativity!
I’ve never heard of an Avon figurine either. I love that story. I guess my fav decoration from childhood would be specific ornaments. I don’t recall many other decorations.
My fav room to see my decorations is probably the kitchen. I have my village houses displayed on the hutch and I can see the lighted garland in the family room over the fireplace. Maybe some day when I no longer babysit we will set up our tree in the family room. For now, it’s in the living room at the front of the house so we cannot see it unless we’re in the front hall.
Your decorations are so pretty. I love that the kids decorate their rooms too.
I only have one ornament from my childhood (it is my birth year ornament…but it’s in a box and not on my tree, so I guess I don’t really have many sentimental ornaments!) But we gift the kids a new ornament each year and that’s my attempt to make sure they have VERY sentimental ornaments when they are grown.
Babies and trees do NOT mix!
Your house is so cute – inside and out. And I love that your little shed has been decorated too 🙂
Jon is not a big fan of outdoor decorations/light, but I insisted no hanging a winter wreath on the door. We mostly just decorate the living room… but it’s cozy. And I have a couple of things that are meaningful (a candlelight holder from my sister, a glass angel from my late best friend, and a few gifted ornaments from friends).
The little blue shed is SO darling! I adore all of your home and the Christmas decor! The little Nativity on the shelf is so cute; it looks like it could be paper? I really love the artistic style of it.
I wish I burned more taper candles….why don’t I? Am I worried they will drip all over? Am I envious of your lovely candle holders, and mine won’t be as pretty? Yes, that must be it. 🤣 The Advent candle is fantastic too.
The Wax figurine passed down from your parents is the most special thing ever!
I wish I had a lot of the decorations from my childhood, but the only thing I still have is our Angel from our Nativity. I have no idea how or why she survived all the moves and people dying in my life, but I have her and made her into an ornament. Gloria always has a prominent spot on our tree.
It’s cardboard. Indy got a book one year from his preschool teacher with a removable Nativity. I think I donated the book, but I kept the Nativity and it’s so sweet.
I LOVE taper candles. LOVE them. The ones from IKEA are great. Inexpensive, burn well – 10/10 recommend.
Aww. Love that story about the ornament and I hope you blog about Gloria <3
I have two different Christmas countdowns that I update every day, and I have considered getting a third one for my bedroom. I HAVE TO BE STOPPED. It’s one of my favorite things to update the countdowns every morning!
My favorite Christmas decoration from childhood is this obnoxiously large stocking. It was large enough to fit at least a few very large-sized toys. It was never filled, but we always displayed it for comedic purposes. 🙂
Your home looks so cozy and Christmassy. I love it!
Don’t stop. It is amazing and I think you should have as many as your heart desires! Life is short and hard and sometimes not very fun and whimsical so I say you should do MANY countdowns.
That stocking sounds hilarious.