The Holiday Series 2018, Holiday Home Tours (Part One).

It is late afternoon and I finally finished editing the photos from today's post. I am getting around to posting the Holiday Home Tour (finally). But in my defense these posts are very much time-consuming. As a matter of fact, today I am sharing only part one of my Holiday Home Tour. This is part of The Holiday Series 2018 Collaborations I am doing with my blogging friends. There were supposed to be 9 of us total today, but life happens and some of the ladies either hadn't decorated or hadn't had a chance to take their photos. I snapped all these photos on Sunday, Today, for part one, I am sharing the main and most decorated area of our home - our living room or family room. This is also the area where our Christmas Tree stands and where we have our mantle. I will go in details below about how I have decorated this year.

Meanwhile, here is a sneak peak into all of our homes and how we all decorated this year. =) I love how different everyone's homes look, yet all so cute and festive. Linda's Christmas Wonderland Home however, takes the cake so I definitely saved the best for last. Take a look, below and make sure you hop around these blogs to see these ladies decorated abodes!

Amber's Home

Avec Amber "We have a small space, but we like to dedicate one corner of our living room to a Christmas tree and festive decor! My husband picked the theme, it is so much fun to set up, and it really makes our home feel like the holidays have arrived."

Laura's Home

I Do deClaire "It’s our first Christmas in our new home and we’ve been having lots of fun for putting up decorations and buying new ones! I seem to add a few more decorations each year and already have plans for things I want to decorate next year. Happy holidays from our family to yours!"

Ada's Home

Elegance and Mommyhood: "I love decorating for Christmas but I have been so busy this year, even the decor I did was done in the course of three days. The last 3 years I have been putting up 2 trees downstairs (living room and dining room) as well as a tiny tree for Vivian in her room. This year we stuck to our evergreen 7 feet faux tree and I did it all in red and white with rustic touches like the burlap "Happy Holidays" ribbon and all the burlap and felt ornaments. I added lots of sprigs, picks and decorative branches to the tree this year and I love the 3D effect they created. There are a variety of ornaments but many red+white poinsettia flowers throughout. I love how it looks!"

Roxanne's Home

Glass of Glam: "I decorate for Hanukkah with blue and white decorations and love to display my menorahs!"

Chrissy's Home

Granola and Grace: "If you told me last Christmas that the next Christmas our family would be living near the Gulf of Mexico, I’d have laughed and said, “you’re crazy.”  Well, as of July we are now residents of Florida and I am excited to decorate our new home. However, this will not be the home tour I originally planned for.  Come on over to see our typical Family Adventures!"

Linda's Home 

A Labour of Life: "I am a Christmas Crazy Lady.  Decorating happens all through the house leaving not a room untouched. It is not a quick process but it is a fun one.  I usually start on November 12th.  Mt Pink living room tree is always first.  This year we have four tress throughout the house.  Two theme tress and two fun traditional trees.  Come take a look and see how we do Christmas in Canada."

Today I am sharing how we decorated the living room and our casual dining room.

THE  CHRISTMAS  TREE  2018.

Once again I put my 7-feet Faux Christmas Tree which has mixed evergreen branches, on the right side of the mantle, in the living room. This year the "theme" of the tree is red and white with rustic touches as I wanted a glamorous, elegant tree in classic colors with country touches. To add the 'country appeal' I added sprigs and branches such as white pearls, white glittery feathers, red cranberry picks, and branches with burlap and pine-cones. I also added pinecones as ornaments through the tree and some of the new more rustic ornaments this year (all purchased at Target) such as the felt coffee and cappuccino cups and the little plaid flannel sacks that have little snowy trees peaking from the top. I added two ribbons to the tree this year - both by Target. One is a red, white and black plaid ribbon and the other is a neutral burlap ribbon that says "Happy Holiday's all across in cursive red metallic letters. There are more red plaid cloth ornaments throughout the tree, all mixed in with all the balls - some are glass, some plastic, some acrylic. Besides the balls, the ribbons, the pine cones and the cloth ornaments there are many red and white poinsettia flowers clipped through the branches of the tree. There are also glass Santas, bears, feathery birds, bird cages, fur ice-skate booties, crystals, busses carrying Christmas trees, present-shaped ornaments, bow ornaments, red engines, ballerinas, Noel sign, etc. Besides Target, the ornaments come from a variety of places like Wal Mart, Lord and Taylor, Kroger, Meijer's, etc. I love that I mixed classic more 'typical' ornaments with fun ones and some rustic ones. I didn't even do a star or an angel on top of the tree but rather some rustic branches with a big flannel red plaid bow. On the bottom of the tree, like usual, I added some of our little decoration accessories like 3 reindeer, the Vintage Santa in his classic red+green velvet coat, etc. More Christmas accessories are on the bottom of the mantle, including an oval bowl filled with gold and bronze glass balls and pine-cones. I added a big sparkly gold poinsettia and a neutral Noel sign to the black+white vase. It matched the neutral woodsy branches perfectly. That little gray stuffed penguin is new, from this year. I purchased it for Vivian when she took her photo with Santa. You can see her Santa picture on the "Merry Christmas" frame on top of the fireplace.

THE  MANTLE  2018.

It all brings me to the fireplace area which is mainly decorated with my collection of Nutcrackers on top. But we also added that vintage Mr. + Mrs. Claus. In the middle there is a rustic Noel sign with a burlap bow on top. That is new and purchased this year at Kroger. The evergreen Christmas branch decorated with the red balls, red poinsettias and pinecones is also new, from At Home. The Noel sign and mini branch look so beautiful and in sync, together. Next year, I plan on adding to my nutctracker collection and decorating with a lot of them. As you see there are no stockings hung this year and I hope by next year we invest on some nice embroidered or monogrammed stockings, too. I'd also like to use more candles for the mantle area. But I do still like how it came out. Our Ivory-Coated Vintage Santa Klaus sits in the middle, on the bottom of the fireplace. Of course just picture the fire lit, but since we use gas that would have been too much of a hassle, sorry. LOL

OTHER  AREAS  OF  OUR  LIVING  ROOM.

All of our Christmas pillows are in full display as you can see. They all match without being identical. There is a smaller "Joy" pillow in the little circle-patterned armchair. I purchased 2 of these Joy pillows last year in the dollar aisle at Target. All of the tables downstairs have decorative table-cloths and table runners. The circle coffee table in the middle is covered with a gorgeous red silk tablecloth embroidered in gold. It is so beautiful and I have brought it over from Albania. I filled the ombre Gold/Cognac Bowl in the middle with blush pink, gold, clear and off-white ball ornaments. It is such a clean yet festive and elegant look. The side coffee table has a little shimmery snowman, a white bird (with a gold snowflake over it), a little Christmas-tree-shaped vase filled with tiny red glass balls and an older photo of Vivian's with Santa, from 2 years ago. The TV stand got sprinkled with some Holiday cheer too: two little houses, candles, glittery gold mini-tree, a vase filled with baby pinecones, etc.

OUR  CASUAL  DINING  ROOM  AREA.

I kept this area simple with the festive center-piece in the middle which has a Santa candle inside the candle holder. I love the table-runner embroidered with nutcrackers. We happened upon it two years ago at Home Goods while my mom and I were shopping and we had to have it. One of these days, hopefully next year, I can do a festive, fancy tablescape on the dining room table but this year is not the year lol.

So, how did you enjoy this little Holiday Home Tour today?! I hope to get part two up by this upcoming Sunday (fingers crossed)!! Have you decked your halls yet?! How did you decorate this year?! I would love to see your Holiday Homes.