What areas of your house do you decorate for the Holidays? (just for fun)

[gatorsmom]

I was digging out our Christmas decorations today- all 7 big boxes of them- and was thinking of how things have changed. I grew up in the 70's and 80's in Wisconsin and the extent of our Christmas decorations were our Christmas tree set up in the living room window in the front of our house, a nativity scene outside in the snow, and a pretty Christmas tablecloth and centerpiece for the kitchen table. Some of our neighbors had a string or 2 of lights on the trees outside but they were in the minority. Unlike my parents, I've somehow amassed a LARGE collection of Christmas stuff and I noticed that friends of ours have it all over their houses too. Pretty much the entire first floor of our house has decorations all over it- kitchen, dining room, living and family rooms all have Xmas decor. I refuse to start putting stuff in the bedrooms too!

How much Holiday stuff do you all have? Where do you decorate?

[DrSally]

Xmas tree in front bay window, stockings on mantle, wreth on door, and I just bought a small kid's Xmas tree for the basement. Oh, and various small decorations on shelves, only a few. Lights on the outside of the house and small, lighted trees on the sides of the front door. I've noticed that people throught our neighborhood have lighted garland on their stairs and one person had a lighted reindeer inside their house.

[kijip]

I am living in the 70s I guess.

A tree
a wreath on the front door with a bow
a string of alternating red and white lights on the front of the house

and I arrange flowers in the dining room with a holiday theme the week of Christmas.

And the tree goes up pretty deep into December- like the 20th or so. Until we had kids, the tree went up on Christmas eve. I do put the wreath on the door the weekend after Thanksgiving.

[sunshine873]

Outside:
Wreath on the door, lighted garland on the stairs/porch railing, a large spotlighted wreath on our garage (large area above the door.)

Inside:
Mostly living & dining room - maybe a little in the kitchen.
Tree, mantle, dining table/buffet, ribbon around pillars, a few things on the wall, shelves, candles, etc. I just love the way it all feels!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Christmas tree and train in the front room (long ago a sunporch but converted to a real room decades ago); lots of things in the living room (stockings, fresh greens garland, cards...); decorative plates on dining room plate rail, more in the TV room (lights, knick-knacks, window decorations); small Christmas tree in ds1's room; novelty soap dispenser and towels in bathroom.

Tree for ds1's room should be up by Sunday but we'll get a real tree next weekend or the one after.

Beth

[gatorsmom]

I am living in the 70s I guess.

A tree
a wreath on the front door with a bow
a string of alternating red and white lights on the front of the house

and I arrange flowers in the dining room with a holiday theme the week of Christmas.

And the tree goes up pretty deep into December- like the 20th or so. Until we had kids, the tree went up on Christmas eve. I do put the wreath on the door the weekend after Thanksgiving.

You know, it might not have anything to do with the time period but it just seems like times were simpler then. My dad still lives in the same house I grew up in but his neighborhood is MUCH more elaborately decorated now. Maybe there are just better holiday decorations available nowadays!

[kijip]

You know, it might not have anything to do with the time period but it just seems like times were simpler then. My dad still lives in the same house I grew up in but his neighborhood is MUCH more elaborately decorated now. Maybe there are just better holiday decorations available nowadays!

More things are marketed to us to buy, many types of consumer products are much cheaper relative to incomes now. I think consumer culture has become much more vast- for example the term Black Friday did not come into existence until the 70s. When my dad was a child, he was surprised to see Christmas stuff up right after Thanksgiving. Now we are lucky if stores wait till after Halloween.

I abhor clutter, thus avoid a lot of extra stuff. Still, some of it is really nice and I enjoy looking at it at other people's houses! :wink2:

Of course, the lights I have from my dad's childhood still work. The lights I have from 4 years ago don't work.

[elektra]

We do a tree (just finished decorating it)
Santa/Elves christmas village
A Christmas Story Christmas village
A nativity set that DH's aunt gives us additional pieces for each year
A few other knick-knacky little decorations
Stockings
Lights on the outside of the house

My DH just loves decorating for Christmas. He begs me every year to get one of those Dept 56 villages that you can add onto until it's like 1000 pieces big. I am dead set against it though! The Ralphie village is as far as he's going to get with that.

[MoJo]

Everywhere, except the bathroom! And my parents' home was decorated everywhere in the 70's too; I didn't know that was unusual! Maybe it's because I grew up in a town that called itself "Christmas City, USA."

We even put lighted garland on the deck in the backyard.

A (small) tree for every room, with a big one for the living room.

Garland on every doorway.

Lighted bells on the front porch, and I'd like to do more, but there's not a good power solution on the front of the house like there is in back.

I'm pretty sure I have more than 7 boxes of Christmas "stuff." I don't put it all up every year, but I expect to do a lot as the kids get older.

[elizabethkott]

Outside:
net lighting on bushes at sidewalk
Wreath on front door
candles in all the windows (last year I found some great ones that are battery-operated and have a built in timer - off for 12 hours, on for 12 hours. And the batteries lasted the whole month of december!!!)
New this year - large shatter-proof ball-type ornaments to hang from our dogwood tree, in red and gold.

Inside:
tree by window in living room
lighted garland on stairs with stockings hung from it (we don't have a fireplace)
misc. snowman/santa themed crap
mini-santas in china closet
lighted garland over huge kitchen window
red ribbon Christmas card holders in kitchen (this is actually my FAVORITE "decoration" - I take wide red ribbon, and make giant loops for each kitchen cabinet door. When we get a holiday card, I staple it to the ribbon and pull so that each door has a row of cards on the front of it. It looks so festive!)

[lchang25000]

Wreath outside on the front door, Wreaths at the very top of our fireplace on both sides (we have very high/vaulted ceilings and the fireplace can be seen from both sides...kinda hard to explain), large centerpiece on both sides of the mantle, garland along the top banister/railing of the stairs. This will be our first X-mas in our new home.

[m448]

I'm in the Katie camp. I put up a tree and this year an advent calendar. Each year the boys attempt a gingerbread house. Nothing else. Our home is small, and I don't do clutter or items to be dusted in addition to what we already have. Plus with two dogs and three kids hauling out new novelties around the holidays just means kid magnet.

[g-mama]

Outside: Two wreaths on our two side-by-side front doors, lighted garland framing the doorway.

Inside: Christmas tree in front living room window, tablecloths or runners and centerpieces on dining room and kitchen table, small tabletop tree on the coffee table in our family room, Christmas stockings hung on fireplace mantel, lighted garlands with red bows and beaded fruit ornaments attached all down our two stairway banisters, and other decorations all over the main floor.

My mom went all out with the Christmas decorating in the 70's though, too, so maybe that's where I got it. She also taught me to put away much of the "regular" decorations so that the Christmas decorations don't make the house look too junked up and cluttered.

[Ceepa]

Tree went up yesterday. Stockings, lights, ad nauseum. :) We decorate the common living areas and the front door. I wouldn't decorate so elaborately if we didn't have kids, but they're just crazy about it all. And we all enjoy discussing the Christmas Story.

[jgenie]

We use less decorations now that DS is here.

Currently:
Christmas tree in the living room - bought and decorated yesterday
LL Bean sled - to hold Christmas books
Stockings on the mantle
Nativity set under the tree
Large nutcracker on the mantle - we won this at a production of the Nutcracker the year before DS was born
about 50 Christmas cds - I :heartbeat: Christmas music and stock up after Christmas

Will be adding:
FP little people nativity for DS
advent calendar


I'm hoping to score artificial trees for outside our door this year at the after Christmas sale.

[carolinamama]

Christmas tree in family room
Stockings above fireplace
Garland above fireplace with a few Christmas knick-knacks
Poinsettias around house on high shelves
Nativity scene on bar console
Wreaths on frontdoors (double doors)
lighted garland on front porch
Lots of white lights on outside trees
Hand towels in the bathroom
Christmas mugs
Christmas village pieces in dining room
Very small lighted tree for DS1's bedroom

DH and I both enjoy decorating for the holidays and he is a big help with putting them up and taking them down.

[MelissaTC]

It looks like Christmas has exploded in and out of our home and we are not quite done yet. The entire outside is decorated- LED lights over the garage, window, front door, frame of the front of the home. More lights on the bushes, snowflake lights and Santa near the front door. We put a big inflatable Santa and sleigh on the lawn, a 3-D train and frolicking penguin display. Inside, it is everywhere. We do several trees, put out all kinds of Santas, snowmen and Christmas knick-knacks, garland on the banister, a wreath over the closet door, decorate the fireplace, add decorations to the powder room, etc... It is over the top but it is the only time of the year I decorate. I don't do much for anything else and I have to say, I love Christmas and all this junk we have. It feels so festive in here and we enjoy it to the last drop.

[jent]

More things are marketed to us to buy...

ITA. I was thinking the same thing as I was flipping through the Pottery Barn catalog & saw holiday-themed bedding. Do people really change their bedding for the holidays?

As for what we do around here, we used to just do a wreath on the door. Now it's that + a tree + the knickknacks we've accumulated as gifts over the years (from the relatives who feel they have to get us SOMEthing at Xmas but don't know what to get).

[lizzywednesday]

We do a tree, but not in the window - DH objected to that. IDK why.

We get a real wreath for the front door; DH's responsibility is to acquire said wreath. He doesn't want to get it too early because the darn things shed.

For outside, last year I wanted icicle lights, but DH vetoed that in favor of a large pre-lit wreath with an all-weather bow that we hang from heavy-duty fishing line in front of our largest window on the ground floor.

I want to get a plaster Kneeling Santa figure for our dining room table now that we have a LO on the way ... I always had one and think it's a lovely thing to have, especially when you have children in your household. I've toyed with the idea of an Advent wreath, but DH doesn't quite get it. (My family is a lot more religious than his family is.)

We looked at electric or battery-operated candles for the other windows last year, but couldn't find ones we liked. We'll keep looking; they would look nice in our nursery windows!

[DrSally]

I forgot a few things: Battery operated LED candles in the windows. We started this when we lived in New England and kept them up all year long (they were plug in). Xmas theme hand towels, advent calendar, wreath above fireplace. I like the idea of having a mini Xmas tree in DS's room. I may look for one on clearance this year.

[Melbel]

We are in the middle of putting up our decorations (about 6 large storage bins here) so the house is a disaster! Our collection has gradually grown over the years, typically one "nice" thing per year, and a few carefully selected items picked up at 75% clearance after Christmas.

Inside:
We have two Christmas trees, a live one in the living room for my nicer ornaments (straight ahead from the front door entry) and an artificial kids tree (6 foot) on the upstairs loft visible through the palandian windows.
Stockings/garland above fireplace
Nativity scene on console
Garland/candles/decorations on china cabinet
Garland wrapped around stair railing and upstairs loft railing
Hand towels in the bathroom and kitchen
wreath on a large mirror in living room
A few random candles/decorations in guest 1/2 bath near kitchen
Some wood decorations from Germany in family room (pretty wood carvings with a fan that circulates due to the heated air from candles; I cannot remember the name of this decoration that came from my German MIL)

Outside:
Poinsettias on front porch (large ones from Costco)
Wreath on frontdoor
lighted garland framing door
Net white lights on outside bushes

It is definitely quite a bit of work to get the house in order, but it really is nice when we are done. Now if we could only convince 17 month DD2 that the ornaments aren't "balls" to play with!