Our Simple, Cozy Christmas Decor

I’ve said it before, but Christmas decorations are one of my favorite parts of the holiday season.  Putting up our decorations marked the beginning of Christmas, and I loved sitting in front of the twinkling lights of the tree with a good book and a cozy blanket.

Now that we have a little one, I am excited to create those same traditions.  I follow so many wonderful bloggers whose homes are stunning visions of neutral Christmas decor, and my creative heart love loves loves seeing all that.  But if I’m being honest, it just didn’t really happen in our home this year.  I put up a lot of our decorations we had last year and had fun shopping the house to find things I could transform to be more Christmassy, but this year our house just feels cozy.

The longer we live in our home, the more I’m learning to enjoy decorating as a fun creative outlet without comparing our house to the amazing homes I see all over Pinterest.  Because ultimately, my heart for decorating our home is to create a beautiful, warm space that makes my family feel safe and loved and makes anyone who enters feel safe and loved too.

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling and share a few quick pics I snapped with my phone while walking around our house this week.  A lot of our decorations are similar to our Christmas home tour I shared last year (because who has the money/time to get new decorations every year?!), but I did have fun switching up the shelf in our front room to have a little Christmas cheer.  Those shutters were on our mantle for the last month (you might remember them from my fall home tour!) but I was tired of the brown so I put on my paintin’ clothes and did a little painting and distressing to make them white.  I love how they turned out!

We actually bought that deer art for Caleb’s nursery but didn’t end up liking it for that space.  I meant to return it to Hobby Lobby but one newborn baby and many months later, it was still sitting in our basement.  Whoops! Luckily it works perfectly to change things up for the winter! This hutch is one of my favorite pieces I’ve redone and I used my tried and true furniture distressing technique from this bad boy on the shutters in this room too.

As always, our little entryway nook got a mini makeover with a fun sign from the Target dollar spot and some new pops of red.  Can anyone guess my favorite pop of red here? It was also in the front room if you paid close enough attention!

This shelf got a little love too with some vintage books from my grandparents house.  I love that these books are a piece of my family’s story (and they’re just plain beautiful).

Finally, our living room is feeling oh so cozy.  We’ve said many times that we need to analyze what it is about our home at Christmas that we love so much so we can recreate it the rest of the year, but I don’t even know if that’s possible.  It must be the magic of a tree, you know? And with that sock monkey sitting on the top protecting us like he has since our first Christmas together, who couldn’t feel a bit joyful? 😉

This chair was a recent Ikea As-Is section find and it fits perfectly right here.  Jordan has officially claimed it as his man chair and currently uses Caleb’s play cube as a footrest until we can pick up an actual ottoman.

Our home may not be perfect, but it it ours, and I feel so lucky for every day I get to spend with my hubby, my handsome baby boy, and our snuggly pup.  Here’s to many more Christmases spent savoring the sweet life we are so lucky to share.