I really get into the holiday season between baking, decorating and finding the perfect gifts for my loved ones. I also look for ideas from what others share that they either bought for themselves or gifted to someone to give me ideas so I thought I would share some of my favorite finds for this past holiday season. Links are provided for anything I was able to find, if a link is not working let me know and I’ll try to find an alternative option.
Holiday Decorations and Decor
I planned to do a forest green, black, white and gold theme for my Christmas tree and holiday table setting so I did have to pick up a few items to incorporate into what I already had, mostly the forest green since I had the other colors from previous years holiday decor. I also picked up a few pieces that I thought were cute or were going to make for some fun photos.
If you know me then you know I like to setup a little photo session for my kiddos. It a fun way to get them in the spirit but also I can get some really cute photos from it. I envisioned having holiday photos in front of some big pine trees but we did get holiday photos taken with some birch trees on a little path so that worked out but I saw this photography backdrop with the trees and snow and wanted to do a fun little photo session with the kiddos in their Christmas pajamas. Plus it was under $10 and I taped it up to my French doors in the living room so simple setup. To see how it turned out, check out my holiday recap blog post.
Gold star for the Christmas Tree
This was so weird but when I was looking for a topper for our Christmas tree I couldn’t find one besides a bright red star, I could have sworn we had a gold or silver one even but I could not find it so I went and purchased a gold star for the top of our tree. It is not huge and it doesn’t weigh a lot so it doesn’t pull down on the top of the tree like some of the heavier ones do. I might even pick up another one or two for the kiddos’ Christmas trees.
We have a tradition that we give the kiddos an ornament to symbolize the year and this year I decided to get them each their own little Christmas tree. This one is just 3 feet tall so it can either sit on the floor or be put up on a table or dresser. I can just see them having fun with having a tree in their room with all their special ornaments on it. Obviously I have to wait until the twins are a little older to let them have a tree in their room with ornaments but my oldest loved the idea of having his own tree and getting to decorate it however he wanted. Along with the ornament we got him, I also let him pick out a color theme/ornaments for his tree. He went with pink and silver which was very pretty on his white tree. If you want a little white tree, this one was easy to assemble and stores back in the box it came in for sticking in our storage room.
Ok, so this has been a game changer for me for decorating my house and I don’t know why I didn’t realize this before but you can just purchase pillow covers to change your decor for seasons or for the holidays. So when I see a good size pillow but I don’t love the color of it, if it is a good price I buy it and then purchase a pillow cover to put over the top (please if you come to visit, don’t unzip my pillow covers to see the awful pillow designs I have purchased). The other benefit is after the holiday I don’t have to store pillows, I can just switch the color back and have to store a small pillow cover until next holiday season. I got the dark green velvet ones to cover the pillows for the holiday season and since they are throw pillows you can literally throw them anywhere you want a pop of color. There are a variety of sizes and colors for this one.
Black and White Tree Patterned Pillow Cases
If you do want to have a pattern or something that is winter theme/holiday season, again you can purchase a pillow cover that you like and utilize the throw pillows you already have instead of buying new seasonal pillows. I picked up these cute black and white tree patterned pillow cases to add to my fireplace bench for some fun. To see how it all turned out, make sure to check my Christmas recap blog post.
Extra Large Fleece Throw Blanket
Nothing better than on a cold winter night to curl up on the couch, watch a holiday movie, eat some Christmas cookies and drink hot chocolate. I didn’t have a forest green throw blanket, I did have a black one but since I need more than one for everyone in the family to be able to use I went ahead and got a forest green one to again add a pop of color to the space and be functional. It comes in a variety of colors and it is very soft. Perfect for snuggling under or taking a little catnap on the couch.
Dark green Christmas Ornaments
Since I haven’t done the forest green color for a holiday yet I didn’t have any Christmas ornaments in the color so I picked up one package of 24 ornaments to add in with the black, white and gold ornaments I already had. These ones are shatterproof, have two different sizes and a couple of different colors if you are looking for some new basic ornaments to add to your Christmas tree.
Gift Giving
Here are some ideas I picked up for wrapping gifts. The color theme I did for this year was forest green, black, white and gold so I try to incorporate that into my wrapping paper, bows and ribbons as well so it is coordinated under the Christmas tree. I know not everyone picks a theme for the year or matches their wrappings to it but if you like this color palette for the holidays feel free to check out some of these links.
Black kraft paper gift tags with twine
I used these to attach to the gifts for the gift tags, you could write on them with white chalk marker or I attached the sticker tags to them and wrote with pen.
Merry Little Christmas Gift Tags
I also picked up these Merry Little Christmas gift tags to have another option plus I know I will use them again for future Christmas gifts. They do not come with string or ribbon so I picked up some in the forest green color to attach them to my gifts.
This is the forest green ribbon that I purchased to attach the gift tags but also to use for miscellaneous items around for decorating. I went with the 5/8″ size but there are a variety of sizes. This link is just for the forest green ribbon so if you are looking for a different color for your holiday wrapping, search for ribbon or check Michaels or JoAnn stores near you for the color you are needing.
We have a tradition of doing the regular advent calendar for counting down to Christmas but we also do the tradition of wrapping up holiday, winter themed books and having the kiddos open one book each morning. I have collected books at various sales or if I see a deal on a book but I do try to buy one or two new books so there is something new in the mix. I pack away the books that I use for the advent tradition so they don’t see them all year long but get to have them around the holidays. I pick a special wrapping paper or style for the advent books so I can keep them a part from the other gifts under the tree but I found these cute stickers that you can put on each book for them to know what order to open them in. I have a separate blog post all about this tradition that includes the titles of the books I have used if you are interested in starting this tradition for your family.
If you are wanting to do this every year you might want to have something that can be used over and over again. I picked up these wood advent numbers as well. I painted mine white because I am not a fan of the natural wood color but you could leave it plain or paint it whatever color you are thinking for your theme. It was time consuming but now I have them for every year as well. I used a black twine to add mine to the gifts.
I saw this and thought the kiddos would have fun playing with this during the holidays but I decided to paint it for them and surprise them with it. I also liked the idea of using it with the tree backdrop I shared earlier in this post for a fun little photo shoot. The kiddos loved it. You can definitely let your kids color their own but I loved seeing the look on the kiddos faces when they saw the playhouse in the living room for them. It was a great gift and made some fun memories. To see the painted playhouse, check out my Christmas recap post.
Holiday Organization
This year I also wanted to get my holiday decor more in order, I used to have it just thrown into various storage bins, boxes and tree bags. I figured if I was going to be getting new stuff I could also make it all match so I purchased some items for storing everything as well. If you are in need of some holiday organization, I would recommend these items.
I got the 30″ sized wreath bag but there are multiple sizes and colors of this wreath bag. I went with the grey color because I have wreaths for various seasons so I didn’t want it to be too Christmas with the red or green. I like how it has a card on the front so you can label what color, season or style of wreath is inside.
Wrapping Paper Storage Container
I had one of the old plastic tub ones but I found that the holiday rolls were either too tall for it or they took up a lot of the space so I decided to get one just for my holiday wrapping paper. I like to buy the wrapping paper after the holiday season when it is on sale or clearance and stock it for the next year. This works if you keep with the same colors every year but I like to change it up so I either find one that I know I will use or decide on my colors the year before. I still keep my plastic rub for my other celebrations wrapping (birthday, baby, wedding, etc.), I just use this new storage container for just holiday wrapping. I got it in the grey color as well.
I hope this blog post gave you some fun ideas of what you might want to do for the holiday season. If you purchase one of the items I would love to see how you used it, you can tag me on social @aneventcalledlife. Happy Holidays!
Links are for items I have personally purchased and used, I may receive commission on items if you purchase them from this blog post but I would still recommend them even if I didn’t.