It’s the most wonderful time of the year and our house has never felt cozier. I’m not sure how many of our friends and family members we will actually get to see for Christmas this year, so I am fully embracing all things warm, inviting, and holiday-related. We play Christmas songs on our vintage-esque Bluetooth radio every day, light a fire in the fireplace after the kids are in bed almost every night, and enjoy every joyful moment that we can in this space while it’s decorated. Come on in and I’ll show you around!
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I love every simple detail of our living room, but I’m so proud of the fact that the only item I purchased new for the room this season was the garland. Our tree is fake, but I always buy fresh hand-tied garland to hang around the windows. It sheds and makes a bit of a mess, but it smells great and always feels so festive. All the other details in our living room were slowly purchased over the past few years and added to the decor when we had a little extra room in our budget.
Even though it isn’t specific Christmas decor, the most dramatic change to our living room this holiday season came from the updated sofa, chair, and ottoman that we purchased this past spring. You may recall the dark brown furniture that we owned previously and the fact that I complained once or twice that the room felt like we were living in a sea of brown (check out how our living room looked when we first moved in and you’ll see what I mean). Our new slip-covered furniture from the Ektorp line at Ikea was one of the most budget-friendly purchases we’ve ever made and the new furniture truly transformed our living room. I love that the pieces have a cozy, wintry feel that invites everyone to come sit and curl up with a warm blanket.
I used command hooks to attach the wreaths to the inside of our windows and added a string of battery-powered LED lights to each wreath, as well as a third string of lights to the greenery on our mantle. These little lights are great because they automatically cycle through a 24-hour cycle of 6 hours on, then 18 hours off. Our lights turn on at 5pm each night and I’m always thrilled to see the extra glow in our living room.
And then there’s our mantle. I made the personalized “Believe in the Magic of Christmas” sign with some friends at a local AR Workshop last winter. It was a great mommy’s night out and I came home with a fantastic piece of holiday decor. The glass bottles, faux succulent, and box of white flowers grace our mantle year-round, but still fit perfectly into the cozy Christmas theme.
I purchased three of the ivory stockings a few years ago at Pottery Barn and had to scramble to find a fourth stocking when Harvey came along. Thankfully, I was able to find one on Ebay for a (mostly) reasonable price.
By now you’ve probably noticed a distinct lack of typical Christmas decor. Initially, I had plans to dip into our home furnishings savings and splurge on some cute Christmas pillows, along with a festive sign to replace the botanical print above our dresser, but a funny thing happened once I set up the tree and hung the garland around our windows. I loved the room so much just the way it was, I realized that I didn’t actually want to change a thing. There’s so much craziness happening in the world around us, I just wanted to slow down and enjoy the tranquility of our living room.
Aside from the sign on our mantle, the Santa figurine and framed photos of my kids sitting on Santa’s lap are the only items in the room that are distinctly “Christmas” rather than wintry. I’m glad that I added a little pop of Christmas, even if I’m not quite ready to go all-out with my Christmas decor.
We had to forgo our usual visit with Santa this year and I pray that we can resume the tradition next Christmas so I can add another framed photo to the dresser.
Even our Christmas tree is missing ornaments right now. I initially kept all of the ornaments and garland off the tree in the hopes of keeping Harvey’s attention elsewhere. He has actually done a great job with leaving the tree alone most of the time, and I have enjoyed the past few weeks of seeing a simple Christmas tree.
And there you have it – a little tour of our cozy living room all decked out for Christmas. This coming weekend marks the Third Sunday of Advent – which is the day we finally get to light the pink candle on our Advent wreath. One of our Instagram followers shared that her family has a tradition of waiting for the third Sunday of Advent to set up the Christmas tree. I think Sunday might be the perfect time to add ornaments to our family tree and adorn our house with the rest of our Christmas decorations. It might also be the accidental creation of an annual family tradition.
Until then, you know where to find me!
