Holiday House Tour 2020

Today, I am sharing my Holiday House Tour 2020. Christmas 2020 are very different this year but we made the best out the situation.

Just like many homes, Christmas 2020 was very different. For us, there were no large gathering of family. Two of my sons were not home for Christmas. As of Christmas Eve, I had not seen my oldest son, my beautiful daughter-in-law and two of my four grandchildren in a year. My heart hurt just like many families during this dreadful pandemic.

COVID impacted many lives in 2020 for holiday celebrations. Some families were waking up on Christmas Day without their cherished loved ones. Thankfully, family members that came down with this horrible virus have recovered. Our family has much to be thankfully for this blessing. My prayers go out to those that have been less fortunate.

It was the first time for me to be separated from my parents and two brothers on Christmas Eve. As far as I can remember, we have always been together on this evening from the time we were little tikes to grown adults with our own families. Every year, we spent Christmas Eve with my parents opening gifts, laughing, playing games and eating way too much good foods.

Recently, my youngest brother, Tony had some old slides of my father’s converted to CDs. He sent me some digital photos of us when we were little. What a wonderful gift to see old Christmas photos of us. If I was to guess the ages in these photos, I was probably around 9. My brother Jimmy would be 6 and Tony around 4.

That ugly French tapestry chair in the background, we use to call it “the pick pocket chair”. If you look at the guy on the far left, it looks like he is sticking his hand in someone’s pocket. Too funny! Looking at these photos helped to boost my spirits up for the holiday along with decorating my new home.

As a child, I remember how magical Christmas was for us. My parents always made it wonderful. We never had abundance of gifts, it was always the right amount in our eyes. My mother especially made Christmas very special with all of the family traditions. On Christmas Eve, when we got home from the children’s service there would be all kinds of finger foods for our evening party. It would just be us and the occasional grandparent or friend that would drop over. We would exchange gifts with each other. Then my parents would put us to bed for Santa to arrive at our home. Such wonderful childhood memories of Christmas!

With the pandemic this year and not being with all of the family, one would say why bother to decorate the house for Christmas? At first, I thought only one tree would go up and be decorated. Hmmm, what fun would that be? Bottom line, I love to decorate especially at Christmas. I love the magic of all of the lights twinkling in the house. I decorate the house as much for me as for the family. It instantly lifts the spirits. It makes the house looks so warm and cozy.

The first room in the house that was decorated for Christmas was the mudroom. An easy change out of the sign over the bench. I added a Merry Christmas banner, vintage looking Santa and Snowman to the top shelf of the bench. A winter weather, striped apron and toss pillows are all items that can stay for the winter months.

For this new home, I had envisioned the rails with fresh garland and bows. However at a local nursery, I came across these swags and loved the look of them. I decided to buy four of them for the staircase. I added bows and tied each swag with gold rope. I love how they turned out.

In the dining, I decorated the top of my cabinet with greenery that could be left on during the winter months. There is nothing that screams Christmas.

Inside the cabinet, I added my collection of Glitter Santas. For the centerpiece on my table consists of a large glass dome over wooden serving plate to create a cloche. Inside the cloche, a Santa was placed on top of a wooden spool of ribbon with bells, added some faux greens, miniature ornaments and another spool of ribbon. Items that I had on hand to create this centerpiece.

Here is a close up of the cloche along with the two bottle brush trees. What I love about a cloche, it can be decorated through out the seasons with different decor elements in your home. You can watch my Youtube video at here on How to Create a Cloche.

I love these bottle brush trees purchased several years ago. Currently, I have four of them and would love to either make some myself or purchase a few more.

My home has an open concept design. You can see into the family room, kitchen and study. It’s great for family gatherings. The only down side, I do not have as many walls for placement of the Christmas trees or furniture. It was a little challenging to figure out where exactly to place the trees.

The smaller tree 7.5 ft. is in the dining room / entry way. It was filled with vintage glass ornaments as well as new glass ornaments. Using the same ribbon from the large tree, I cut the ribbon into strips to make smaller bows. It coordinates both trees together even though the ornaments are different colors schemes.

The larger tree this year has glass dark green, silver, gold, clear and gold, clear and white, and white with black and gold glass ornaments. Ribbons woven into the tree and large bows of green, white and silver completes the top of the 9 ft. tree.

I love unique tree stands. This wooden crate, I found about 5 years ago online. It one of my absolute favorites containers for a tree.

The kitchen was kept simple. Only a few things were placed to give it a vintage inspired Christmas.

I created this sweet vintage inspired vignette with a few of my antiques mix with new items. I love adding the timed tea lights to these little white houses. Some of the houses have open backs others have have an on off switch. What I love about the white houses, they can be kept out through out the seasons.

One of my favorite spots in the house, the family room. Both my husband and I enjoy sitting on the sofa next to the fireplace. It was so much fun decorating the mantel and the hearth for Christmas. The pops of reds, greens and blacks gave the room such a warm and cozy feeling. We spend many of an evening next to this fireplace sitting and talking.

Thank you friend for stopping over to see our home decorated for the holidays. Happy holidays from our family to yours! Let’s hope 2021 brings a better year for all.