Welcome to My Holiday Open House ... part one

Welcome to my Holiday open house. "Nesting Place" is hosting a Holiday open house party. I'm taking part in the Holiday Open house. So come on in and see what I've been up to. I don't know where the year has gone, and I got a late start with the Christmas decorating and now we can just sit back and enjoy all the lights. Come on in and let me show you what I've been up to for the past few weeks.
 

I love having a staircase so I can decorate it for the holidays. It takes quite a few hours to complete it, but once it's done I really enjoy it. I told my family I was cutting back on the decorating this year. My youngest son who is 16, said to me a few weeks before Christmas, "You're still going to do that THING that you do on the stairs, aren't you?" What he meant was the staircase garland. He said it was his favorite decoration. Well it's one of my favorite things and I enjoy it each time I walk up and down the stairs.

I love red and gold for Christmas and lots and lots of lights.

In the evening it has a wonderful glow.

Follow me into the main part of the house. I did cut back. We have two trees this year. The third tree is still in the box and that is where it will remain. I'm not going to put it up. Remember, I said I was cutting back! Well here are my two trees. One in the living room and one in the kitchen.

Here's the view from the foyer into the living room and kitchen....

Now you can see the mantel all lit up.

 

My kitchen tree has a snowman theme. With a topper that says, "Let it Snow". I like snowmen. They are so cheery.

 

I love to use larger Christmas accessories in my tree. Lots of ribbon and red bulbs top it off.

Lots more snowmen. You can never have enough!

 

Here's a snowman I made years ago. He is about 3' tall. He stands at the base of the tree every year!

 

Now for the mantel. I used my favorite colors again, red and gold. It works out well with the colors I have already in the room, and nothing says Christmas more than the color RED!!!

  

I added lots of items in the garland. Pine cones, gold ornaments, red and gold ribbon, glittered feathers and berry picks.

I always add my angel candle sticks to my mantel at Christmas. Angels are such a big part of Christmas and the Christmas story.

I have combined three different types of beaded garland to hang from the mantel.

Now for my big tree. It's been the same for years. I had some red and gold silk fabric that I just wrap around the base of the tree.
I always have a star on the top. It reminds me of the star that led the three wise men to baby Jesus.   This year I changed the top of it a bit.  I kept the star but added some gold fern behind the star.   Here's the top of the tree last year.
 

Here's the new look....

I have four large photos of our family in the tree. I have always used the same photos. You can see how young the boys were in the photo. My oldest was five when the photo was taken, now he is nineteen.

Here's the rest of the photos of the boys....

Yards and yards of ribbon and lots of gold bulbs and poinsettias cover the tree.

Eventhough I don't like winter, I do Love Christmas time. It''s such a wonderful time to enjoy family and friends. Thanks for visiting and stop by this week to see part II of my Christmas tour.  It's also Metamorphosis Monday  stop by to see more Christmas ideas...

 
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold,

everything is softer and more beautiful.