I know what you’re going to say – “Christmas before Thanksgiving? NO!” And you’re right. I wouldn’t normally start my Christmas holiday decorating before Thanksgiving, but this year Thanksgiving is so late and I wanted to do a post before the Thanksgiving holiday since many of you will be decorating over the weekend. SO, I bring you the step-by step-creation of my holiday mantle.
My mantle. I am obsessed with the mantle in our new home. It’s big and all white and so fabulous. So it was obviously the thing I was most excited about adorning with pine and pretty holiday things. I cleared it all off to start my decorating.
I started with a clean slate except for my stag from Near and Deer. Oh, and I’m taking name suggestions for him.
Then I added my California string art piece from Ramble and Roost. It is usually on my mantle, but I like to keep some favorites on and this is definitely a favorite.
Next, add a garland. Because we have a fake tree (which I’m ashamed of but after I had a baby it was just so much easier) I like to use a real pine garland so I can still smell the fresh pine.
Next, I added a fresh boxwood wreath to the hearth, since ours is a non-working fireplace.
Next, I added my DIY mason jar snow globes. You can see the full DIY that I did for those here.
Then I added pink poinsettia, which I placed in a piece of white pottery and a holiday tin that I already owned (the pottery was an antique shop find and the tin is from ikea).
And last, but not least, I hung our stockings. My grandmother, who passed away just before Thanksgiving last year at 91, handmade a stocking for all of her 8 children, their spouses, and her 19 grandchildren. Then she made them for her great-grandchildren – Charlie got the last one she ever made. They are needlepoint and I treasure them so much, so I’m thinking of using different stockings for stuffing (these are in the running) and keeping my heirlooms for decoration, but so far we’ve used them each year. Such a special tradition that I love looking at each year.
I added a couple other pieces: my grandmother’s candlesticks, my giant mason jar, a pretty gold star my mom found in an estate sale, and my favorite holiday candle (I buy these hot buttered rum candles each year and they always sell out because they are the best smell ever! Go get some and thank me later.)
I’m sure I’ll mess with it more once I get our tree up and decorated, and I plan to add a little holiday artwork in place of the mirror, but it’s mostly finished.
What are you most excited about decorating for the holidays? When do you plan to get started? And one last thing before I sign off for the holiday weekend – I’m really excited to share that I’m a new contributing blogger for Momtastic. Please go see my first post, 7 Tips For Taking Your Toddler To The Movies, and give it some love. I’m really excited to be sharing more momma posts and DIY over there. And I’ve also been writing for Lover.ly’s blog, Read. You can see all of those posts here, including my most recent post: 5 Ways to Support Small Businesses With Your Wedding, in honor of Small Business Saturday coming up this weekend.
And finally, because it is Thanksgiving, I wanted to share some of my favorite pins from my Thanksgiving Pinterest board, for all of you last-minute planners looking for a little Thanksgiving inspiration:
Thanksgiving secret weapons from Mrs. Lillien
Free ‘Thankful…” calligraphy printables from Oh So Beautiful Paper
Pumpkin Pie Brulé from (who else) Martha Stewart
Pumpkin Pie Bar Cart (with the same bar cart I have) from Waiting On Martha
Fun printables for the kiddos from Handmade Charlotte
And don’t forget to enter our current giveaway, which ends Friday!
I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving holiday! xo
