Christmas Home Tour: A Gilded Woodlands Holiday

Come on in and check it out!

I decided to go for a kind of woodlands look this year with a healthy dose of shiny, glittery gold thrown in. I felt like I needed a bit more color though, so I ended up adding in some green (from pine branches) and pops of pink and red.

This Merry & Bright “mantel”scape idea has been in my head for months now. It went through a bit of an evolution, but I just really love where it ended up. What do you think, can I keep it up all year? (You can see how I made the lighted “bright” canvas here.)

Our tree is an inexpensive artificial tree that we have had for years. This year I softened the color a bit by giving it a light spray of white spray paint.

Lots of the ornaments were old ones from previous years that I updated to fit in with this year’s colors. I also made lots of white pom-pom garlands and hung them everywhere. I think they are so cute and remind me of little snowballs.

I’m crazy about the little deer pillow I whipped up, and I’m super excited that he’s not too Christmas-y so he can hang out long past New Year’s.

Every day, the kids have been taking turns adding an ornament to the tree advent calendar, and I can’t believe how fast it has filled up! The Ho Ho Ho art was a super quick project, and you can download the free printables here.

In our little dining area, I made a wreath out of pine branches to hang above the table and threw a pom-pom garland up on the hutch.


Once upon a time I spent fall semester in London, and the Christmas crackers were one of my favorite traditions there, so when I saw these guys I had to pick them up. So far my kids haven’t figured out how to pop them (crack them?). We will see how long that lasts.

The only other part of our home that is decorated for Christmas is the kids’ room. On the way upstairs to check it out, we will pass by some of the kids’ artwork and a cross-stitch that my grandmother (the Lou of Persia Lou) made for our family. We quickly framed it out with some pallet wood.

This year, I picked up an inexpensive little tree for the kids to decorate however they want. It has been a big hit, and they definitely weren’t shy with the ornaments.

My son’s little misspelled chalkboard art is maybe my favorite decoration in the whole house. (And totally on trend too, right?)

Thanks so much for coming to check our little Christmas home. Now it’s your turn to link up all your homey holiday goodness! Yay!