Christmas Decorations

What do you have?

What do you want?

How do you decorate?

Do you do outside or just inside?

Share all of your decorating tips & links to photos in here :D

you want links to pics of all my stuff??? you're insane Sarah lol

i think i'll have to set up a FB album for Christmas!


What do you have?bit of everything

What do you want?some Thomas Kinkade stuff i've seen this year

How do you decorate?i sit down and plan from about Sept - what furniture is going to be where, what tree deco's i'll use etc
then i recruit help - and i start early! probably start clearing benches this week if i can... want the tree to be the last thing to go up and i'll put it up late november

Do you do outside or just inside?usually just inside, but we have stuff for outside and DH is home this year (which he hasn't been in the past) so it can go up - woot!

I'm pretty slack with our outside stuff.

You already know what I really really drool after.... The Disney tree. If only I had some spare moolah *sigh*

Everything we have is pretty eclectic, no real theme except we have very limited snowmen because I figure it's warm here we don't need them LOL! Though I do looove my snow globes :)

I do try to stick to a colour theme every year, but thats about it. I would love to do the big lights out the front thing, but only ever get one or 2 lots up, then some of the little trees & stars in the windows. Have a better house for it this year though ;) Wait...in a month or so I'll have a FB status saying poor DH fell off the roof trying to keep me & my chrissy light obsession happy (since he doesn't see the point...)

we've decided to take the couch out of the lounge room and put the tree in that bay window - faces out onto our carport, so it won't be seen from the street, but it means DH and I can still sit in the same spots and not be crowded. the formal dining room is opposite where the tree will be - so that will kinda be Christmas central. the plan is to put the table in the bay window in there (cos we dont' use it) and put a village on the table (i think!) and then the couch will sit in front of that with all the soft teddies - if DD is mobile, she cant' get hurt there... each section of the lounge/dining/entry hall gets sort of themed each year - and i change it each time!

What do you have - we went with Red & Silver theme last year and got a bauble with DD's name on it, then just tinsel, some star, snowflake etc etc deco's

What do you want - would love a dancing santa or something for DD to watch, she loves the lights and everything. Would like some NICER deco's instead of the normal Target ones, eventually once the kids are older will get glass deco's!
Would also like lights for DD for outside!

How do you decorate - We put the tree up on the 1st December every year, i also put lights and some x-mas statues etc on the bar, i use the left over deco's and put them in 5 glasses vases i have
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Do you do outside or just inside - at the moment just inside but as the kids get older and once we are in our own place will put lights outside as DD loves them... i can't wait.. i LOVE x-mas!

It doesn't look the greatest but i try with what we can afford, will be interesting this yr as we normally put the pressies for nieces etc under the tree but DD will stop that, might need a fire guard around the tree!

I think we're going to need something aorund our tree as well this year. Zander was always fine with it but I think Juliette would pull at it.

Love your vases, they look great :)

Yep, I'm tossing up between putting the tree in the bay window in the lounge or next to the fireplace here.

We have an eclectic mix of things. I favour old fashioned looking items which can be hard to find. My favourite decorations are the beaded velvet items i have (a photo in my gallery, also my tree) especially the ones I bought at the London bridge gift shop... wish i had bought more!

We put our tree up on December 1st.

we're keeping the tree in an open space this year - next year we might need to use baby gates seeing i only have glass deco's (apart from a few spesh ones).

Sarah - i managed to end up with two of those Disney trees...

just realised i can't have my village on the table as half the stuff is candles so i'd need it close so i can reach... hmmmm. thinking thinking thinking

Ava's mum - you'll have to bring Ava to visit us - we go all out for Christmas - it's awesome! lots of lights and musical stuff - and there will be a couch full of soft toys she can play with... teddies that are just teddies, some that tell stories, animals that sing and dance, santas.. the whole shebang

no theme here really - just eclectic and fun all the way!

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Sarah - i managed to end up with two of those Disney trees...

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bwahahah

you still coming down next month? maybe we can work out some sort of way for you to pay it off and you can take it home...

*cries* Turned out we have a wedding on the weekend we were supposed to come down :( Looks like it won't be until next year before we make it :(

bugger! that's no good. i wondered why there was no commenting on your trip being soon, but i'm a tad bit vague so thought i may have missed something

i can arrange to get it posted up if you're really wanting it though (or i can use it this year and see how you feel when you're down next year...)

I live with the Grinch so we don't have any decorations im surprised he even agreed on a tree but it will just be one those little ones that you plug in and it lights up (having a total mind blank cant think of the name) but we have agreed that when we have kids that we will go all out but until then hes not willing to do anything.

I go with a colour theme each year, I like to keep it simple & elegant. Not too much or over the top. It's usually just the lounge & kitchen areas that get decorated & we put lights outside.

This year we actually got a decent size tree that I can't wait to put up, with all matching deco's & we have the train to go around the base.

I love my silver letters that spell JOY & I always put a massive vase on the centre of the table full of coloured balls. This year its green, red & silver. I've found an awesome site with some very nice decorations on it.

I would love more stuff for outside.

our table centrepiece/s (depending on how we set up the table) is/are candle holders - two candles in each, and the heat from the flame makes the top turn - which sends angels flying through Christmas trees. set it up to trial last yesterday - was gorgeous!

That's very sweet of you BG offering one of your trees to Sarah :thumbsup: I know she has wanted one ever since have known her LOL

We're phasing out the glass decos. I just wish i could find more embellished fabrics ones... (if anyone sees any around please give the heads up!)... my beaded ones are very kid friendly.

Some large painted wooden ones would also be nice...

HERE is a photo of one of my beaded tree decos on our velvet tree skirt.

Bath, my MIL makes tree decorations using a foam ball and then she pins folded tartan ribbon all over it, working in quadrants - she draws lines down the ball and follows them down then glues a small bit of holly or pinecone to the top. They look really effective.

We don't do decorations around here because DH loathes Christmas and I've given up tring to convert him. So we only have a tree that goes up on the last day of school (the less time the better so he doesn't have to spend the entire month whinging about it being Christmas again :rolleyes: ) But this year I am working on cross stitching the Bucilla tiny stockings for the tree - there are 30 of them and I am getting through one a night.

oooh trillian they sound lovely! yes! some cross-stitched tree decos would be great to do... I've got too many unfinished projects to do it this year though.

Oh BG...... How much would you want for it? Oh actually, will PM.

We a different coloured theme each year we get inspired inthe myers stores lol( i love going in when they have all the xmas trees up :) im still a kid at heart lol
and we have lighthearted comps between friends at who has the best xmas tree :lol:

My mums verry fanatical about having it pretty perfect lol
i cant wait to go on a myers xmas decoration spree :)
We dont really do much outside maby some lights on the verander

Bath, I'd actually brought them to do last year LOL but there was just too much other stuff going on and I didn't get motivated enough to do them.

OMG im so excited about christmas, i love it!!! :)

This is only my second christmas where we are living so i only have one years worth or christmas decorations so not much of a colection going yet. We had a real tree last year and it was a disaster, apparently you cant get good trees in QLD. so we bought a fake tree...never had one before. we bought it last week cause i wanted to make sure i got the one i wanted,....and i actually put it up in the garage already cause i didnt want to to looklike it had just come out the box in december.
I have mostly silver stuff from last year and this year i think we will buy red. each year getting a new colour so that instead of having lots of cheap tacky stuff we have lovely things.
At home in the uk when i was a child we always put the tree up on the first saturday of december, unless thats a week in to dec then its the last weekend in nov.
I normally put lights in the windows but not on the outside of the house. I used to love walking around the streets in the cold in the uk and looking in the windows at the warm homes with lights and family christmas stuff...little bit different here, but il get used to it!
We used to have an advent bowl with four candle sthat you light on every sunday leading up to christmas and a nativity scean. I made a nativity last year out of little figures my grandpa made.

so exciting!!

Eclectic here with decorations at the moment, but I am slowly improving on that. I keep an eye out for decorations now that fit. Decided to go again having a colour theme, so there will be lots of colours, it will be more the styling that is themed.

Hoping that this year DH does not go overboard with the tree again, let him go off to pick the live one to be cut as I had a hungry bub. They don't look that big amongst the rest of the trees, but are suddenly huge when you put them in the living area.

Astrid we did that once as kids - it was our 'thing' to go and get the tree and we found The Perfect Tree one year but when we got it home it was bending over 2ft at the top :rofl:

We have a plastic tree that isn't too bad... especially as it's already given us 15 Christmas's. But this year I'm thinking of buying a real one... so that the house fills up with the lovely smell of pine. I bought some essential pine oil last year but that didn't "cut it". We always had real trees when i was a kid. We also have high ceilings because this is an older home (I think 12 ft) so a nice big real tree would look lovely.... we also have mainly floorboards and I'm not that precious about the carpet so the pine needles won't bother me too much.

We do the outdoor light thing big time.....I love my sparkles at christmas time. maybe about 20,000 lights go up all told once you add up all the diff things....we also have an inflatable merry go round thing with reindeers and animals riding them, all sorts of stuff that decorate the front yard...we are one of those houses all the cars cruise past in the weeks before chrissy.

Inside my theme is red,green and gold. very traditional colours, no other coloured baubles or decos allowed.....lol. the tree also has a few thousand lights on it what with flashing ones and the candle lights as well....Nothing is more christmasy than sitting under the tree with just the tree lights on, on christmas eve, watching the Carols and wrapping presents (no egg nog for me this year!)....love love love christmas!!

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I don't have anything like a lot of you ladies, we have a tree decorated in red & silver, i use the left over baubles in little vases to 'decorate' and i have a few little santa deco's.
This year i bought the girls some cheapo leadlight things to hang for their windows and a WELCOME sign with a santa (quite cute).
We have some fairy lights for the tree and some star lights for inside (wherever they will fit now we've moved).

DD1 has a bauble with her name on it and i will TRY and get the same for DD2.
DD1 also has some gorgeous my 1st baubles etc from her 1st x-mas and a really cute x-mas carousel music snow ball.

HERE is my attempt at the tree last year
HERE is my left-over deco's.

At the moment am just using the plastic baubles etc as i don't want the girls breaking anything :)

Will update once the tree and any new deco's are done this year :)

Well THIS is going to be a different Christmas here in our house... or very possibly another one interstate if by some miracle we move before the 25th!

DH has had a verbal confirmation that he has been accepted for a new role... but still no paper work so essentially we don't really know where we'll be spending this Christmas. My guess is that we'll still be here... BUT.... I packed away all the Chrissy decorations last Easter (when DH was almost accepted into another role interstate... that fell through).

I refuse to unpack anything... not even the decos. So I've pre-warned DH and the kids that we'll buy a small but real tree and MAKE all the decorations this year. My teenage DD should love the challenge (she hasn't been told yet... she gets back from boarding school this Wednesday).

Fortunately we just so happen to have stacks of coloured A4 paper. The first plan is to make lots of loop chains. All the kids should be able to help with that. DD (15) can cut the strips, and my 7yo can form the loops. My 4yo will probably get bored but might get him decorating some cut out circles by sticking on some glitter to make "balls".

I think in the olden days they also used to thread popped corn?

Any other home-made deco tips?

Make your own hanging angels decorated with glitter
Do your hand prints on paper, cut them out and hang them on your tree with the date etc.

Make your own Santa using cotton balls for beards etc :)

Ahhhh! Yes! I have stacks of cotton balls that need using up! Thanks for the reminder ZF! :)

Smiles (Lorelle) also sent me down a pressie last year that had a clear plastic cone inside that i haven't thrown away yet... it will be perfect for the basis of a big star or angle for the top!

plastic cut from ice-cream containers in angel shape with cotton wool to soften it ...
wreathes made from twisted ivy & native trees

Collect pine-cones and decorate them with glitter glue as tinsel, and little paper balls as baubles, hang with fishing line.

Thanks Kaz :) Yes! We have a pine tree out the back with small cones... i'll send DD out to gather a heap up when she gets home. We've also got lots of clear thread. So far i don't need to buy a thing!!!

Toilet roll holders wrapped as bon-bons using cloth or paper
Small boxes wrapped or made with paper and hanging as little "gifts"

We're going to cut out clear contact in the shape of trees, bells & candy canes then the kids will stick on coloured cellophane & glitter. Lastly you stick on another piece of contact to seal it all in & you have a stained glass window :D

argh! i'm gonna go into meltdown mode! i have run out of "E friendly" room to put things! she's just at THAT age - i want it to be magical everywhere for her, and i just can't do it cos anything below chest height on DH and I is open slather for her little fingers to go searching - especially seeing she has learned how to climb on EVERYTHING this past week or so!