Christmas 2010: Don we now our gay apparel

It’s that time of year again!! Falalalalalalalala! We’ve been decorating for about a week around here, and finally it’s all coming together. I am so excited to decorate this new house for Christmas. It was MADE for Christmas decorations. Some of my other projects (ahem: the tree) are still under construction, so let’s start with the mantel!

This year I decided to do something kind of whimsical and fun and happy, without any fake greenery in sight. Trust me, there is plenty more fake greenery to be found in the rest of my Christmas decorating. You’ll see that soon enough.

One of my favorite things on the mantel is this Holiday Door Bucket from Willow House. I purchased this back when they were still Southern Living at Home, and thankfully they kept this in their line when they transitioned over to the new company.

Yesterday I ventured out to our new outlet mall in the Birmingham area and found these two primitive wooden plaques at The Old Farmers Almanac store.

Primitives by Kathy is the maker of these two pieces of painted awesomeness. Love them both.

The birch bark candles came from Target after Christmas clearance a few years ago. I got them for dirt (and I mean like $2.00 dirt!) cheap. When I see similar ones in the Pottery Barn Catalog this year, I smile and think to myself “SUCKA!” to anyone who would pay $69 for a candle. :blink

I have no idea where the wooden reindeer is from. He came from my husband’s pre-Beth Christmas stash. Isn’t he cute??

Speaking of my husband, here he is attempting to light our gas logs for the first time since we bought this house. Hey babe, thanks for helping with my photo shoot! Isn’t he cute??

Ahhhh this shaved wood wreath is my new favorite thing. Purchased it at the Country Living fair from this vendor. I love that it’s so versatile for any season. The strands of wooden cran-beads are also from my husband’s pre-Beth stash. It was like a treasure trove in there! The rustic brown metal Moravian star came from Pier One off my wedding registry in 2004. It’s a way back playback decor item.

These wooden Christmas trees are similar to bobbleheads- one flick and they are wobbling all over the place. They make me smile. 🙂

I believe these stocking hangers came from Target after Christmas sale a few years ago. They represent our little family of three pretty well, I think.

Since we are toddler friendly around this joint, we can’t hang our actual stockings from the stocking hangers. We tried, but of course the first thing Garrett did was try to pull the stocking off onto his head. I like to avoid potential brain injuries in my decoration, so off came the stockings and up went these cute metal stars. These were in my lake cabin stash so I’m having to dig deep to remember where I purchased them but I believe they came from these folks.

So there she is… my 2010 Christmas mantel. Happy Holidays to all of you!

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