It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I love Christmas. I have so many happy memories from my childhood regarding Christmas, the bakes, the tree, the gifts, us enjoying a wonderful time together. When I moved away from my childhood home I wanted to recreate this with my family and Christmas is important for us. Because we don’t have snow here and the temperatures are quite high for winter (today we’ll have around 10 degrees), I need something else to put me in the Christmas mood. I’ve joined 2 Secret Santa for bloggers and that was delightful. I got gifts I think my bloggers will love and I received gifts that now are sitting underneath the tree, gifts I can’t wait to open on Christmas day. I bought gifts and I sent a lot of cards and we’ve decorated the home together while listening to carols. Now I can say it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

We have the same tree from the last few years. I talked about my thoughts on the Christmas tree last month. We also have the same baubles and white lights. I like them too much to change them. We both want to keep the tree as minimalist decorated as possible, so we don’t get new baubles every year.

This year I got this Merry Christmas sign from a discount shop. I can’t remember which one, as I looked at the Christmas range from a few shops. It’s easy to get it onto the wall. I placed it too high and, after moving it, there wasn’t any marks on the wall. I’m really happy with it. I think I can use it next year too, depends on how well the glue on its back will be.

I like how it looks in the evening too.

We have lots of gifts under the tree, but one is deceiving. The Santa’s bag is used for storage. I had a chat with my husband and we both agreed the gifts should be under the tree and not in the bag. But I love that bag, so I tried to put it without anything in it and it looked sad. So I put a wicker basket with handles. I got that basket from Festive Gift Fair, it’s not big, but it has handles, so it takes a little bit of space. For now, it’s undercover, I have to find a place for it after Christmas.

When we did our shopping in Sainsbury’s, I discovered this lovely Christmas card for “the Best DOG ever”. There were with best cat too.

Funnily enough, the lady from the till thought we are mad to get the card for Festus, because he can’t read. It was hilarious considering that we were buying it from the shop she is working in. I also thought she wouldn’t have said anything if I would have bought a pregnancy test and 5 packs of condoms or 10 bottles of spirit. Anyway, if you are looking for a card for your best dog or best cat, try Sainsbury’s and, if you might be bothered by a judgy cashier, use the self check-out.

I love cards and this year we received quite a few, one more in the night picture as we got one after this picture was taken. As you can see I’m a wonderful wife, the dog has his card and the one with the penguins is made by me.
I hope this tradition will not die out as I love getting them. Every year, after Christmas, I put them in a big envelope and I write the year. I keep them in the loft, along with the tree and decorations.

Some lights make the fireplace really festive, isn’t it? Sadly, the Poinsettia I recently bought is dying and I don’t know what to do with it. Anyway, I tried. Next year I will get another one.

From the gift fair I mentioned earlier, we got a couple of garlands for the staircase. It looks very similar to the tree and it has pine cones in it too. It was amazing to find one so similar, 4 years after getting the tree. It looks sturdy and it’s very likely it will last a long time. As it has cones, I didn’t want to add a lot of decorations on it, just this nice icicles lights, that look gorgeous at night time.

We had our stockings up on the stairs as last year. As on the fireplace I display our cards, to see them every day, the stockings had to hung somewhere else. I think they look nice and I see them every time I get out of the kitchen, as they are opposite the door.
The stockings have “Dog”, “Mum”, and “Dad” on a side and our names on the other side. So I flip them from time to time.

The last piece of decoration is this hanger with penguins. Penguins are important for us, an old joke, hence the hanging thingy and the card I’ve made. It’s on the bedroom door, so we see it daily.

How do you decorate you home for Christmas?