Christmas Home Tour

Christmas time is here and I have partnered with seven great friends and bloggers to bring you into our festive homes. Join me and take a peek of my home all decked out for Christmas. 

When I think of Christmas I think of family, traditions and gatherings. I think of the biggest feast there is celebrating Jesus's birthday and opening our homes and hearts to others. Every December I try to create more traditions and continue the ones I cherish since I was a little girl.

My grandmother always baked cookies, prepare homemade caramels and jams to eat and gift and that's one of my favorite things to do with my three girls. My mother will spend days decorating Christmas trees all over our home and she will pay so much attention to detail: from the tea towels, fresh stems, lifetime collected ornaments to the beautiful Nativity house. The cheerful holiday spirit those ladies they had was so contagious that I knew I wanted to continue those traditions with my own family one day. That day has come and it's the season to be jolly, right?

This year, I have added tons of greenery and stayed with my neutral colors and wonderful textures. Back to basics if you rather calling it but I just find so much elegance in the simplicity of things and sometimes I just crave that. Rich and I are also making a bigger effort to have our children focus on our Lord Jesus Christ and thinking of many ways to show kindness to others during this holiday season. Sometimes as parents we love to give them as much as we can but we need to remind them of how fortunate they are and teach them to open their hearts to others in need.

I hope you all enjoy the preparation towards Christmas and I thank you in  advance for joining me!

Christmas entryway

This is one of my favorite spaces to decorate! I have added this wonderful hanging basket from Target that I'm sure I will be using around my house very often. I added simple little pine trees, brass pinecone book ends and this lovely sign from my friend Brittany from Currently Chic Boutique. I have accents in hunter green like this very inexpensive pillow from Ikea and I wanted to add a touch of antlers so when I found this embroider antler pillow I knew I had to have it. Vintage crates and a chippy church pew finish this space mixed with new and old treasures.

Christmas Living room

Continuing with the deep hunter greens that contrast the light colors of our couch and rug, I added pillows from one of my favorite makers. Bianca from With Lavender and Grace hand makes them all. I have always wished I had talent for sewing so I admire this lady's love for it. The green and black check pillows are from her, the pine tree from Ikea and the pine branches pillow from Target. As always I love to mix textures so you will find a knitted pillow and patched pillow as well. Adding coziness with a pom pom blanket and keeping it simple with a tray centerpiece, a cloche and some brass candle light holders. My sectional couch is from Wayfair as well as my rug. 

Since tradition is always a number one priority in my list, I made my very own advent calendar that I'm so happy to showcase in this space. For the tutorial on this advent calendar click here to go to that blog post.

Christmas Tree

We cut our own Christmas tree every single year. This is a tradition my husband and I started with our girls. We look forward for the weekend after Thanksgiving to go to a farm and hour away from home and look for the perfect tree for our home. We get on the hayride, dance around the tree like a Charlie Brown movie, take pictures with Santa, drink hot cocoa and we head out for lunch to one of our favorite town in New Jersey afterwards. This town can be in Hallmark movie and we just enjoy it so much. When we come home we can't wait to put it up, add some twinkle lights and start decorating. Every year we do it a little it different in style depending on the colors we are using but we do it together. So no matter what the tree looks like we make it our own.

This year we kept it very simple and neutral adding only rustic wooden ornaments, white ornament balls and deer antlers. The most beautiful piece of our tree is the angel on top. This was a gift from my late mother in law to my husband and one of our most precious treasures of her.

Christmas dining room

If you followed along my Fall tour you know that I change back and forth my plate chargers seasonally. This plain white charger with some worn gold touches is from Pier 1 Imports. I found matching deer antlers napkins to the pillow I showed at the beginning and I thought it was a great touch. The pine cone napkin rings add the greenery I always love and they are from World Market. For the centerpiece I only added a plain garland from Walmart, I folded it in half and braided lightly to get this greenery in the middle. In between I added simple raw wood candle lights and few deer antlers. 

Christmas Kitchen

I don't over decorate this space. I like the simplicity of it. I'm one of those gals who spends a lot of time in the kitchen and the cleaner it is the better. I love almost-empty countertops and a mess-free kitchen island. I'm very practical when it comes to my kitchen. It is not a huge space so I need to make the best out of it. My floating shelves get some decorations to make it a little festive such pine sprigs, cute little houses (I'm in love with those village-type wooden and white houses), and glass jars. I have tons of those always filled with usable and eatable goodies. On one side of my kitchen I have jars filled with homemade cookies: ready to be eaten! Accompanied by some more greenery in farmhouse pitchers, some petite cake stands and marble boards. 

On the other side of the kitchen I have my coffee bar that converts in a coffee and cocoa bar for this season. My sweet friend Christine from Dandelion Wishes Home made this gorgeous sign for me. I think it's the perfect touch to this space. In glass jars I have the keurig pods, the hot cocoa and marshmallows and some sweet treats. Copper accents add life to this space during colder months and get ready to say goodbye after winter when I add only galvanized touches. 

When I was talking about cookies I almost forgot to mention these wonderful decorated ones I have from Colibri Cookies. This gal has some serious decorating talent. She knew my color scheme for the season, my love for farms with silos and my goat's mama heart and she sent me these delicious goodies. To tell you they were gone in 5 minutes make me a little upset actually as I wish I could keep them forever. Not only beautiful but delicious too! I'm planning on getting some for my daughter's teachers for Christmas to add to their gifts.

I really hope you enjoyed my tour. If you have been following me on Instagram you know I'm all about simplicity, natural beauty and recreate spaces with things you might have and you can use again. If you haven't stopped by my account I would love to invite you to do so and also to check my other super talented friends who are sharing their homes as well:

Ashlee @thesassybarn

Sarah @graceinmyspace

Lindsay @aratariathome

Bethany @crispcollectiveig

Alyssa @cottonwoodacres

Becky @becky.cunningham.home

Leanna @clareandgracedesigns

Make sure you check their gorgeous and festive homes for more ideas and inspiration. 

I always love to hear from you, don't forget to leave me a comment or question below. Merry Christmas everybody! 

XOXO

Carla