Hi friends, welcome back and come on in for a holiday home tour! Nothing puts me more into the spirit of Christmas than decorating the home and having the Christmas tree and garland lit at night. Before we begin, you should know that this post is best viewed listening to “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” alongside a hot Christmas beverage and a balsam pine scented candle. This is our fourth Christmas in our current apartment (I couldn’t believe it either!), and it’s my favorite setup yet. I went back and reread my 2018, 2019, and 2020 tours and it makes me so happy seeing the tree fill up with ornaments and memories year after year.
We will start the tour with my favorite spot to decorate, the entrance table. At night the lanterns and trees glow and it’s so pretty and cozy! We got these crystal trees as a wedding gift, and I have patiently waited since April to put them out ha. Such a special gift!
Our stockings not quite hung by the chimney with care, but that’s NYC high-rise living 😉
I’ve always wanted a Santa collection of my own, and last year I bought these two Santas to add my collection. I had to get one with dogs and I loved this Letters to Santa mailbox. Maybe once I have a house I’ll add one every year, but this is a good start for now. In between the Santas I have a special crystal bowl from Jon’s Situ that I filled with pinecones.
Moving onto my tree… I finally have a tree skirt but still have NYE headbands at the top ha! I love my tree skirt because it’s the one I grew up with on my tree and my grandma made it. Hopefully I can pass it on one day 🙂
This year I decided to start decorating around noon one day, and I always save the tree for last because it’s my least favorite part of decorating. I put the pieces together and plugged it in (it’s a pre-lit tree) and only 20% of the lights worked. I felt a bit like Clark Griswold ha! I had to run back to target and buy lights and try and salvage my tree. Anyone else’s pre-lit tree give out on them? My conclusion is that the next tree I buy will not be pre-lit.
Our new ornaments for the year.
My garland also gave out on me this year. I thought something was wrong with my outlets, but sadly the garland had given up after three years of non-stop use. Luckily, I had a spare for our bedroom I could use instead or I wouldn’t have felt so holly jolly.
Behind the tree on the window ledge I have a letters to Santa mailbox, sled, and vase filled with pinecones. I was hoping TJs had some nice evergreen branches, maybe one day when I go back for my holiday haul 🙂
This window I keep simple with a metal tree with nostalgic ornaments.
This window I have a tree and gingerbread train that I brought with me when I moved from Michigan ha! My mom let me have the gingerbread train and it’s one of my favorite decorations.
Dog pillows to add some fun to the couch.
This JOY light up sign is one of my favorite additions this year. I got it at target, and it’s not the best quality (I had to tinker with the switch), but I love it!
My little coffee bar area. I have so many Christmas mugs, but this stack is fun to have out.
Onto my favorite window to decorate and the hardest one to photograph. I have my Christmas countdown and more Santas. I also keep our Trader Joe’s chocolate advent calendars here. Grab one while you can, they’re only 99 cents!
My candy bowls and snowman spoon rest.
My little vase filled with peppermints and a Merry Christmas sign.
Lastly, some fun wine glasses I got from Etsy and my Santa plates. The larger ones I got last year so I was excited to put them out.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the holiday home tour!! Make sure to check out my Christmas Bucket List and play along 🙂 Do you like to decorate your house too?
LOVE IT! looks great! We just put our tree up last night – about a month late – I usually like it up in late October. LOL. Our pre-lit tree broke about 3 years a go – so we had to add strings of lights to it. I got sick of that so we gave our old tree to a friend and bought a new pre-lit tree last year. Where on earth do you store all of your stuff??
Thank you!!! Haha I thought I put my tree up early, but it is a lot of work so might as well enjoy it as long as you can. Our tree is four years old, I think I’ll just keep it until we move and string my own lights and try to remember it will need more lights so it doesn’t get thrown out my window in rage ha! I bet your friend was happy, I’ve heard it’s hard to find trees this year. I store my things all over the apartment haha. My tree goes in a hallway closet, above the fridge is all decorations, and then the bedroom closets have some too. We actually have a lot of storage relatively, we have 3.5 full size closets. It’s really my pumpkins that are the hardest to store because they’re so bulky.
oh wow! 3 closets??? unheard of in NYC!! lol
We got lucky!! We also are good at purging anything we don’t need or else it would feel cluttered fast
Sean is good at that, me, not so much, but I’m trying. Our place in Oregon is much smaller than where we currently live. It’ll be interesting to see how we adjust!
It’s hard to downsize! But it can feel sort of freeing to get rid of stuff. I moved to nyc by shipping boxes and bringing two suitcases and jon relocated to nyc from la so we were forced to not have a lot
Very festive and totally charming Lyssy
Thank you! 🎄🎅🏻
I love your decorations and the set up! It looks beautiful!
Thank you!! 🎅🏻🎄
Looking good. Our kids have their place decorated to the nines already as well. Not that we are bah humbug people here, but we will likely not decorate inside the bouse until about 2 weeks before the big day. Probably no visitors to show it off to, again this year any way. I will turn on my outside Christmas lights on Dec. 1 though. They always give a brighter look to those cold winter nights. Enjoy the holiday glow. Allan
Thank you!! It is a lot of work to decorate, my space is pretty small so it’s easier. Lights always look nice outside, especially with snow. Where my parents live in Michigan some leaves are still on the trees so it’s kind of interesting to see with the lights. Have a great holiday season Allan 🙂
It’s beautiful to see! I keep wondering where you store all those shifting decorations, from Valentine’s Day to Christmas, plus Halloween, there must be a magic cupboard with unlimited capacity.
Thank you!! Haha I wish I had a magic cupboard! We have 3.5 closets which is great for NYC, so I get very creative with the organization. The pumpkins are the hardest to store and I got two big ones this year. It was very tricky when we started getting all the gifts from our registry, especially larger appliances.
Aw it’s lovely, looks so cosy and festive. I really like your Joy sign too, and lots of great new tree baubles from all over again this year 🙂 Roll on Christmas!
Thank you!! All the lights make it so cozy, you’ll have to come at Christmas time and I’ll give you a tour 🙂 Baubles is another word of yours, we say ornaments over here haha
For sureee, I’d love that. I actually got told last week by work I will be travelling in Feb/March to NYC (I work for News Corp so head office is there), so I’ll be saying hi 🙂 Hahahahaha baubles is such an English word isn’t it…an ornament to us is like a porcelain figure of a person or a dog that sits on a mantlepiece lol!
Yay!!!! That is so exciting!! Baubles reminds em of the brand bauble bar they have some cute earrings haha. That’s definitely not what I thought an ornament would be to you haha
Love all of your Christmas decorations..I started putting up some of ours now.
Thank you!! 🎄🎅🏻
Those decorations really get the Christmas spirit flowing! I also wondered about where you kept all of them. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you! I have decorations in every closet and a few kitchen cabinets, I get very creative 😂 but now I’ll have to be more selective with new things. Happy Thanksgiving!
I always enjoy your holiday decor posts! I started putting up my Christmas stuff in mid-November. 😛 We also have an artificial tree but not pre-lit. I think I will continue to avoid those based on your experience with the lights!
Thank you!! It’s a lot of work to decorate so might as well enjoy it for longer 😁artificial trees are looking so much more real lately. My next one I’m getting a better quality and no prelit haha
I had a pre-lit tree for about 4 years and had the same issue where the lights stopped working. I ended up just buying a new tree that wasn’t pre-lit and I try to remind myself it’s better when Im annoyed putting the lights on the tree each year.
Our tree is 4 years too, must be how long the lights last 😂 they’re so nice when they work, but when they don’t it’s so frustrating! My tree is small so it’s not so bad, but I can imagine an 8 foot or taller tree would be a pain moving the ladder around the tree to reach!