It’s beginning to look more like Christmas at our house. Home-decorating is not something I spend a lot of time on in general, but it’s fun to get out some special things in December. I try to keep it simple by using handmade and gifted items. Our tree is decorated with the ornaments we’ve grown up with and some inexpensive silver balls. Last year, I cut some scrap fabric into strips and tied them together to create a simple garland.

Next to the tree, I hung some ribbons on the wall with mini clothespins to display the pictures we get. I covered a storage bin with some Christmas fabric I had lying around to make a Hannah-sized table. We put the Christmas cards in a basket and laid out the Christmas books.

For our mantle, I splurged a bit on Hannah’s monogrammed stocking from Pottery Barn Kids. But I figured it’s something special for her to have for a long time. And yes, even though we don’t “do Santa,” we plan to fill the stocking with special snacks for her to open on Christmas morning (and be honest and tell her they’re from us).

The piano displays my Willowtree nativity set – love! There is also a little fake greenery to go behind the candles.

New this year, I was trying to think of a way to display ornaments besides putting them on the tree. I came up with this randomness for under $5, and it can all be reused. It seems to look better in person than in the picture.

Outside we have the deer made by Brett’s dad. We have a string of white lights on the house and a lighted wreath on the front windows. This is Hannah last year with the deer.

On my list for next year, I want to try a simple window decoration of ornaments hanging from ribbon that my sister-in-law did.

And I just realized our pumpkins are still displayed on our porch from October, so I guess our house is caught in holiday schizophrenia.