Goodbye Pumpkins . . . Hello Christmas Trees!

It’s beginning to look a lot like…well, a bit of a hot mess actually! I spent the day after Thanksgiving gathering up all the fall décor and the last of the white pumpkins from my dinner tablescape (check out my last blog post if you missed it) and packing it up until next year. In the midst of that, I was navigating between all the Christmas trimmings that I had already started pulling out and laying around the floor a few weeks before ~ Thanksgiving was late this year and with my upcoming work schedule, I knew I only had the holiday weekend to get most of my house ready for Christmas ~ and lets just say I am glad I have part of the basement that I can close off to the world because it looks like a bomb went off in there!

I hate messes and its not fun to have the clutter, but it’s a necessary step for me.  Like the Thanksgiving table, I start thinking about what I want to do for my Christmas décor around late summer, early fall. Often times, as I am doing this year, I’ll tie the two together. Maybe I’ll use the same or a similar color scheme or maybe something I used for Thanksgiving can be used again, but in a different way to not look exactly the same – this friends, saves time and $$ and who doesn’t like that?!? So, I took stock of everything I had, made a list of what I needed and voila…a Christmas décor plan was born amongst the hot mess!

Here are just a few (ahem) of my Christmas decorations.

First thing is first though after those pumpkins get packed away…its all about the trees.  Call me crazy, but six, yes six, trees go up in my home (it used to be 5, but I am adding one this year – I already said you could call me crazy!).  Four of them are pencil trees that I tuck in little corners of the entryways, the kitchen and the dining room and then the other two are for the main living spaces we find ourselves hanging out in most of the time when we are home. I love sitting amongst the lights when just watching tv (Hallmark Christmas movie anyone – lololol) or working on my laptop, but I also love when we have family or friends over and they can catch some holiday spirit wherever they find themselves sitting. The holidays can be stressful so I like any visitors to our home to hopefully feel a little lighter and hopeful about the season when they are here and what better way to bring holiday cheer than sitting by a Christmas tree…with eggnog…spiked, of course! 😊

Yes. I know. They’re not real but it’s kinda hard to find a real tree for early bird decorators like me!

I’ve found that storing my Christmas tree skirts on hangers is the best way to organize them and keep them wrinkle-free.

I got three of my pencil trees at Michael’s during a Black Friday sale a few years ago and they were less than $50 each; the fourth I got at Walmart when Michael’s ran out and it was also under $50 during a sale (all pictured here in their boxes). Two of them are the Ashland 7’ Pre-lit Artificial Tree and this year, they are currently on sale for $59 each at Michael’s and the other two are both 7” Pre-lit Cashmere and they are currently at Michael’s for $69 each.  Honestly, I like all of them on their own without any décor and so I sometimes leave the two Cashmeres on my entryways without a thing on them except for their skirts; we can’t be flashin’ the neighbors! 😉

So, I’m off to get all the trees up! Wish me luck and follow along on IG and Facebook to see the finished looks and to get some style inspo using some of the on-trend items you’re seeing this season. 

Xoxo – ShelleyB.