Last weekend, I took down and packed away all the autumn decor and got the Christmas things out. The house has been transformed into a red and green wonderland, with my Santa Claus collection, Christmas dishes, festive wall hangings and holiday table runners. It makes a pleasurable day to piddle around unpacking treasured keepsakes and fun thrift store finds, remembering the people and places they came from, and placing them here and there, while watching Christmas movies. Every year, things go in different spots. This little guy is my favorite of the Santa collection, he is so whimsical dancing with his garland. His robe is beautifully painted with a snowy scene.
I put most of the Santa Clauses on the Victorian corner shelf, along with the little music boxes and the little birdhouse ornaments.
This year, the Santa wall hanging will take the spot where I have quilt hangers. This little wall hanging has four Santa motifs stitched out on my embroidery machine. The tutorial is on my Christmas In July posts, click on Part 1 for the fabric requirements and stitchery, and Part 2 for the finishing. On the top of the cabinet are two more of my favorite Santa figures. They are a bit sparkly and I like their cute faces.
Over the past few years I’ve been donating much of my Christmas decor collection to reducing the amount of boxes to store. On the flip side of that, I somehow keep adding to the Vintage Christmas dish collection. Go figure. Well, it would help if I could stay off ebay. But when I saw the sandwich platter, I just couldn’t pass it up, it was a great price. It was added to the big bowl I bought last year. I am hoping to use these with some potlucks this year.
I now have two more tiny reindeer on the way that I couldn’t resist last week. They will join the others here. These are Enesco North Pole Village collectibles. They are tiny, and don’t take up a lot of storage space. I really do need to stop surfing ebay.
My Sweet Babboo was busy this week, decorating the front of our home with faux evergreen garland and bells.
There are two sets of red ones.
And two sets of green ones. You can see the east mountain ridge behind them now, a winter view only when the leaves are off the trees.
The holiday wreath goes on the hanger next to the front door.
The deer was not impressed.
The bluebirds are back. I saw a female on the feeder, and shortly after this male stopped in for a bite. I hope they will use our birdhouse this coming spring.
The red-bellied woodpecker is a frequent visitor now.
I know you are all eager to know how the quilt auction went at our MINI car club’s Christmas Party and Silent Auction. I’ll have a full report later in the week, but I’ll tell you now that it sold for $250 to a wonderful blog reader, Christine J. She bid by proxy, and was part of the auction excitement via text and phone call. Thank you so much!!
Back to the house, next was to relight the tree. We have an artificial tree, and last year three of the light strings went out over the course of the season. When we took the tree down and packed away the ornaments, we stripped all the light strings off the tree and threw them away. We thought it would be safer to just replace all of them with new ones. This year, My Sweet Babboo got five new strings, and I turned on the football games to work on it. I wrap the lights around the branches from base to tip then back again to hide the wires. I began with the bottom which is the widest part of the tree to see how far the lights would go.
With this method, the lights seem to float on the branches, and the wires are not noticeable. Do know that it will take a lot more lights to do it this way. More lights are are wonderful, dontcha think?
Next I did the very top. Then I knew how I would have to space out the remaining three strands to cover the remainder of the branches. So, the tree was lit in about 2 hours (while watching football, of course), and I’ll leave the lights on when I pack the tree away at the end of the season. Since I only have to do this once to last several years, it is worth the extra time now. The lights plug into a multi-outlet extension cord with an on-off switch that I hang on the shelf next to the tree.
I decorated it with our collection of ornaments and gold tinsel garland. All I have to do now is enjoy the celebrations. Oh, and figure out what My Sweet Babboo would like under that tree.
There are a bunch of Snoopy ornaments on the tree that I collected in the 1980s and 90s. Snoopy is forever cool.
So, of course I had to change my phone wallpaper again, and the ringtone too. It now plays Vince Guaraldi’s Linus and Lucy when it rings. It is a free download from Zedge – hear it HERE.
Are your decorations up for the holidays? Do you change your ringtone on your phone for the holidays?
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From My Carolina Home 
Out came Christmas & Winter. A quilted log cabin wreath went on a wall & up went a runner that fits nicely on the inside of my door. I dusted off the wire wreath frame that’s covered with Christmas fabric strips (do you know the kind I mean?) for the fireplace. I ‘wrapped’ the outside front door with a Christmas cover & hung a live balsam wreath – it’s so fragrant. At this year’s Christmas market I bought a hand painted Santa – it was crafted by my kid’s 4th grade teacher. It was nice seeing each other again after many years. Each year we hang the hand painted ornaments he gave the kids when they were in his class. That’s it for now, the rest go up closer to the 25th. Holidays are all about memories & making new ones.
Hi Carole! It is indeed beginning to look like Christmas at our house, both inside and out. Last Tuesday, I changed out all our autumn decorations for Christmas ones. It is amazing to me how many handmade items I have…quilts, pillows, table runners, felt stockings… During the week, we also put up our 3 trees. One 6 ft tree with an eclectic mix of old and new ornaments; one 4 ft. tree with all handmade ornaments, many from my late mother-in-law, and now with some made by my husband and myself; and finally an antique aluminum tree with all vintage ornaments from 1950s and 1960s. My husband decorates the outside of the house and it is very festive at night. Mother Nature has added to the decor…it snowed last Sunday morning and is snowing again now (this Sunday morning). So, we will have a fresh blanket of white to show off the lights tonight.
Yes! We are all decorated for Christmas….
We use several decorations that have been in my husband’s family since he was a child (he turned 77 in November)… there is a lighted snowman that sits in our den, and a little village made from cardboard, and painted, then topped with some glitter…the village used to go under our tree, but now, because it is so old, and very fragile, it goes in an old cabinet that belonged to my grandmother. We also have ornaments from Mike’s childhood that are put in a bowl that is in that same old cabinet.
Besides those items, we have three Christmas trees….one 7 foot tree with multi colored lights and lots of ornaments, many of them received over the fifty one years we have been married. We have a little four foot tree, with only white lights and no ornaments, that sits on a window seat that you see when you walk in our front door. Our third tree is only two feet tall, with white lights and little red bows that sits on our dining room buffet. Next to that tree is a Santa and a photo of Mike at about four years old visiting Santa Claus at a local department store. This is such a magical time of year and I love it when we bring out all the wreaths, a nativity scene bought about thirty years ago, and a collection of miniature nutcrackers made by the husband of a long ago co-worker. New this year, we put up garden lights strung from posts around our back deck, and accompanied by a lighted reindeer. The bushes that border the front of our house are lighted with white lights.
There are other items as well, but I will stop there….
I really love hearing what others do to decorate for the holidays…like I said, it is magical!
Thank you so much for sharing with us how you have decorated your home!!
Merry Christmas!!
Carole, I forgot to mention how lovely your decorations are! And to say…What???Stop shopping on eBay??? What fun would that be??? Merry Christmas to YOU!
Your Christmas home looks lovely! I like how your DH strung the porch with garlands, too! We put everything up here on Sunday evening after Thanksgiving and are enjoying the lights!
I still need to decorate the house, I got the wreaths out but that is it, I really need to get busy all of your collections look fun
You are so together and so fast! I’m impressed. I have some decorating done — enough to share part of it next week, I hope. But far from done. I love the outside of your home, too. And that Santa — I can see why he is a favorite, so cheerful and joyful. You have wonderful collections and your own beautiful quilting so adds to the decor. I have yet to get out the big tree — hopefully today if Rick (who is sick) can help put the “top” part on! Then lighting it. Mine isn’t pre-lit (which was intentional, given the problem I’ve had in the past with pre-lit strings fading out at different times. You were smart to do all new lights. I have to get on the stick and max out today! You have inspired! (And I’m so glad the auction went well and that your gorgeous quilt has a new home!)
So fun to see your decorations and beautiful tree! I really like that dancing Santa and the fun reindeer you’ve collected. I’ve been doing the same thing here – got the tree up yesterday. This time of year, the lights on the tree are my favorite thing! Have a wonderful Sunday, Carole!
Carole, you are all decorated and it looks magical! I am not quite finished, but I will get it done. I have way too many collections! Merry Sunday!
I do think I can “see” Lucy dancing to your phone ring.
Thank you for sharing some of your wonderful collections with us. The little reindeer are simply adorable. I have a little snowman collection myself. I love your little Santa wall-hanging and your tree is absolutely beautiful. Congratulations on the success of your auction quilt. That must be so gratifying.
Why do they call the Red bellied woodpecker- Red Belly?? It doesn’t have a red belly?
It actually does, but it is very subtle. Look at this link, see the picture in the middle. Around the legs is a light red patch.
https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/475441
Thanks, I look at it’s breast and am thinking belly which is actually below that which has a tinge of red.
Love your decorations and your method of madness, Carole. Your Santa quilt hanging and the auctioned quilt are fabulous. Textiles store so easily, right?? The new items from eBay are great additions. And changing the lights was smart, and you’re right, now you’re good for another several years. I seem to have accumulated more things this year than I purged (thanks to estate sales and my never-ending reasoning of “oh, I can sell it”. I’m enjoying a few things before I make the cut, lol.
I like to bring out my Chrismas quilts and wall hangings, and we have just retrieved a couple of crates of Christmas stuff from the loft. Although I do like to decorate, we are usually away somewhere in our caravan for several weeks over Christmas and New Year. My collection of embroidered Santa cushions makes the caravan look festive for a few weeks.
Things are looking festive in your house… It will be another few days before I start, but I will soon.
Your decorations are beautiful! I’m glad the quilt sold to a blog reader. You know it will be going to a home that will truly love it!
Thanks for sharing your decorations! I haven’t been home much to decorate – just some wreaths from the Scouts. Company office party was yesterday which means I need to get a move on!
Some of my grandkids came over today and helped me put up my tree and put out a lot of my decorations. They love to look at all the ornaments that I’ve collected in the past 50 years. I also put The Little Drummer Boy as my wallpaper on my phone and changed my ringtone to the song Little Drummer Boy. One of my sons told me about Zedge several years ago, and I’ve used it quite often. I also have to dig out my red phone case and change it for the season. Getting into the Spirit❣️
Carole, You are so talented and have beautiful decorations. Whatever decorations I have are in storage. Except for the top I made in the quilt along we did. I used Christmas fabric and even though it isn’t finished, I have it draped over the round table by my recliner. The rest of the house is decorated by my daughter and her hubby. Their grandies came over and decorated the tree. Maybe I’ll see if I can find something to hang on my rolling walker. I love Christmas decor. Peace and good will to all.
I bought a tree with lights built into the branches, much easier.
You make me feel like decorating!