Holiday Decorations … Christmas Tree & Mantel Work-In-Progress

Now that the Thanksgiving Holiday is over, it’s time to start thinking about Christmas … I know some folks started their holiday shopping and decorating before Thanksgiving.

We put up our Christmas tree this past Tuesday, and I can’t believe I had it up before December … a first for me!  Over the past several years, I have accumulated so many Christmas decorations; and I have tons of bins and boxes.  When I was working, I never bothered to go through each container.  I grabbed what was at hand and just bought what I needed. 

Now that I’m retired, I decided to take ALL the boxes down and go through each and every one of them!  I’m keeping things simpler this year and have decided to downsize my collection of decorations. 

The family room is where I started and you can see that my tree is up and I may still add some finishing touches.  My mantel is also a work-in-progress, but I do want to share my most recent Christmas décor thrifty finds.

I found this pair of hurricane candle holders at the GW at $5.99 for the pair.  I just added a $1 candle to each … voila!  I also found the pair of moss-covered reindeer at the GW …  I just love them!  The brass stocking hangers were a GW find several years ago.

I took a picture with the lights out because I love how the tree looks with all the pretty lights and now I have the two lighted candles.  I wish it would get COLD so I can light the fireplace … how pretty would that be?

The good, the bad … and now the ugly!  I was working on the mantel and just about to put my collection of Santa's on the hearth, when I discovered a very dirty fireplace.   Grrrr!  Now I have to clean that out before I can continue …  I’ll post more pictures once I’m finished.

Here’s a picture of the tree in my family room.  It’s very simple with all red glass ornaments, but it is decorated with many special trims that the kids made and my collection of Hallmark ornaments.  That’s a media niche where I’ll eventually put my Nativity scene.

A parade of some of my favorite ornaments ~ BTW, most all of my Hallmark ornaments are from either the thrift store or garage sales:

Animated Bambi Musical Ornament

Patriotic World Peace Ornament

Raggedy Ann and Andy

Mr. Monopoly ~ We love to play!

I love Maxine!  Push the cash register drawer and you’ll hear one of several Maxine-isms

I Love Lucy ~  Yes, we do!  We watch reruns everyday!

I love coffee!  My daughter and I have shared special moments over cups of Starbucks.  She gifted me this Starbucks ornament.

A Jim Shore Santa from BFF Brenda

The Lion King is one of my all-time favorites

Coca Cola Santa ~ 1 of 3

A trio of Santas

The lovable Mickey Mouse

I’ve started working on the Christmas tree in the living room, and I’ll also be putting up a small tabletop tree in the upstairs family room. I haven’t even started with the outside!  It’ll be Christmas by the time I finish!  Did I say I was keeping things simpler this year?

Be sure to come back because I’ll be posting about the quilty treasures I found at the Salvation Army yesterday at unbelievable prices!