Christmas decoration goals: To have less. To have better (no junk). To have cohesion. Tasteful but tacky. Festive but simple. Easy set up. Big impact. Minimal storage. I’m not even close to there yet, but every year I try to pare it down a bit to the best of the best/things I love most. My house is already at my clutter breaking point, so extra stuff is hard…but I also have strong impulses to put Christmas crap everywhere…? I’m working on a December balance (that I’ve been working on for, like, 10 years and not limited to decorations, just consumerism in general). I’ve learned that having a few areas of “whoa, crazy Christmas time!” works better for me than stuff sprinkled throughout the house. How old/adult will I be when I finally get this down? Do you ever shout “grow up!” at yourself? I do daily.

The family room is where most of the action is at. I talked about our aluminum tree at length last time. I would love to have just gold, silver, orange over here but my kids want a rainbow and their decor opinions take priority at Christmas.

The other side of the family room has this cute little orange area and the rest is STILL stacks of wood flooring! The adjoining dining room with the unfinished hole in the wall, but newly hung grasscloth wallpaper. I always feel so sad when fall pumpkins get kicked to the curb, so I’ve decided to embrace them and extend their usefulness. (Are you wondering if I’m a smoker? NO!!! Smoking is the worst. But amazing ceramic ashtray sculptures are THE BEST.)

In past years, I’ve hung the stockings on the real fireplace, but I had the brilliant idea to try the fake one out this year and I love it! Check out the weird vintage stockings – I didn’t get a close up, but my favorite is the magical space Santa hovering in the sky.

Handsome dog alert! He is the family member that pees on aluminum Christmas trees and he also thinks this rug is his own personal giant dog bed. And I’m gonna be OK with it all because in the past few months he somehow instantly went from “forever puppy” to “old man Jackson”.
And last but not least, my kiddos’ room. They have a mini white tree in their room, mostly for fun but, as I mentioned last time, also to hold all the sentimental ornaments when we do full aluminum with our big tree.

Now, the plan today is to nag my husband until he puts the Christmas lights up. We are the shame of the neighborhood, as if our dead front yard wasn’t enough. Merry Christmas everybody! See you next year and thanks a bazillion for reading this wacky blog of mine this year!

xoxo Jenny