Christmas Decor in Pictures

Images from West Elm

In the past I have resisted the holiday ramp up that starts in late November.  I didn't want to be all Christmas'ed out before the 25th arrived.  This year though I decided to go with it.  One of my favorite parts about the holiday season is decorating my house.. and enjoying those decorations.  I love watching TV with the Christmas tree lite up or enjoying my window display while driving away.   I am pleased to say that I can kick back and enjoy these decorations now for a solid 3 weeks. This year birch branches are a real feature in much of my decor.  Koda and Kevin were hiking one day and came across a downed birch tree.  We went back the next day with saw in hand to grab as many branches as we could.  Combine that with the fact that Kevin loves to use power tools and cut wood, I have a lot of birch bark candles and branches. 

I have two of these urns that flank my front door.  The greenery is from my Christmas tree and a pine tree they were cutting down where I work. If you keep your eyes open, these materials are everywhere

This was created at the annual door design workshop held at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton.  A militant senior outfitted with a wireless mic guides you through it's creation piece by piece.

I used a mason jar and filled it with tiny spruce branches that needed to by trimmed off the Christmas tree.  I then added some red berry twigs for colour.  You could really put anything in that matched your Christmas decor scheme.

I have birch bark candles, the mason jar with twigs and some pine cone shaped candles as a vignette on a tray that sits on my coffee table.

From my crafty days where I was OBSESSED with painting little ornaments.  I still have them all and they make their way onto my tree each year.  This little bear and placard sit on a small shelf in my kitchen

Gotta have Santa.  The nice thing about most of these decorations is that they can last past Christmas as they aren't super Christmasy...just wintery

On my mantle.  Again the birch bark candles and a mason jar filled with wood berries and cinnamon sticks wrapped up in a festive ribbon.

My favorite this year for sure.  Kevin found this metal bin at a barn and it was perfect for what I had in mind.  I wanted something in my living/dining room that was substantial and that I could light but didn't want another tree.  We started by securing the large birch branches in the bottom of the bin with 2x4's.  We crossed over to construction from crafty a little bit on this one.  Once the braanches were in and secure I filled the bin with pine cones,ornaments, and red berry twigs.  The final touch were Martha Stewart gold leaf branches that you can plug in and light up.