Traditional Christmas {Our Living Room}

Growing up during the holidays was a magical time for me. I have so many wonderful memories of coming home from school and seeing my mom decorating one room after another. It never all happened in one day, and each year she always added something new and exciting to our Christmas decorations, yet the traditions always remained the same....

I have come to realize that my way of decorating for the holidays has evolved to be the exact same way. I think this is why I really don't like to start decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Maybe it's also because I feel time really went by much slower growing up. There was no "mad rush" into the holidays, but more of something to look forward to. I want that for my children, especially in this fast paced world we live in now a days. I want this time of year to be as special and magical for my children as it was for me....

Today I am sharing our traditional Christmas living room.

There's really nothing fancy in the space. It's the room we are in most often and must remain functional for our family....

 

Every year we always get a real tree. Growing up my mother would put a real tree in our play room and a more formal "themed" artificial tree in the formal living room. We would refer to that tree as "Mommy's tree".  The playroom was very large with twelve foot ceilings so as you can image the tree was always huge!! That was the family tree with all home made ornaments and each year my mom would add a fun theme. I remember one year, some how she added a working train that went around the tree!! Our tree in our living room reflects our family and has mostly handmade ornaments dating back to when I was a child up until today with ornaments I make each year for my children and nieces and nephews.

This is one of my favorite spots in our entire home. I can see into my kitchen and dining room from this cozy corner. I went with a black and red theme in this space and I'm loving it! I like to décor in this space to be cheerful. I love neutrals, but I want it to be as festive as possible for the little ones! I've collected a ton of pillows over the years. The cute little black and white polka dot pillow I found in the clearance section of Home Goods! It was in perfect condition, the only thing was it had purple strings on it along with the red. I just cut off the purple ones and tied the red ones into little bows! So perfect and for only $3.00 a pillow it was a perfect score!!



I am so happy with how this antique mantle turned out! I was really in rough shape when I found it. I gave it a good cleaning, painted it a bright white and distressed only the top and bottom. It is absolutely perfect on this wall! And of course I has to jump on the Target ski bandwagon! A good friend of mine that lives in North Carolina actually picked up two pares and mailed them up to me since my local Target was sold out!! I found the adorable mittens on Etsy and the glitter letter in from Pottery Kids.

I adore this little angle. It sits on the antique mantle I found and made over. I made this cute little countdown ornament from a piece of pre-cut wood I found in the lumber sections at Home Depot. I love that it can stand on it's own or you can hang it!

 

Here is another view of the mantle with my mitten garland. The greens are from our boxwood bush in the front yard! I was so excited when I found that adorable quote from Elf at Home Goods! It was hidden away in the clearance section!! Not sure why because it's perfect!! The Santa clause lane sign was custom made by HelloShoppe on Etsy.





Another countdown ornament.... I made this one for us.
Yes, I have a secret obsession with chalkboards. Ok, it's not a secret but it's for sure an obsession!

 

And there you have it! Our cozy, traditional Christmas living room!

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Be sure to stop by again next week, I'll be sharing photos of my country Christmas kitchen!!

Have a great rest of the week!!

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Meadow Lake Road