Simplifying Christmas 2013

This year we are spending Christmas overseas in Brazil with my side of the family. Because of that, we had a small debate on my house on Christmas decoration. The children settled the impasse by asking when we were getting a tree. We couldn’t have a real tree this year, because the husband thinks it is a fire hazard an unattended dried tree inside the house. You never know… So, when strolling at the dollar store for some last minute gifts for the kids, I saw this baby fake tree for $10 that included the lights. SCORE!

During Thanksgiving holiday after being tired of reading and eating, I grabbed the kids, the Christmas decoration box and we started decorating our symbolic tree. That is exactly what I was looking for. Have something symbolic of Christmas in my house that could get us in the mood and wouldn’t be too much of a hassle to bring it down, when we are back from our long trip.

I could have bought a big fake tree at HomeDepot, to make more of an statement, but I guess the idea I wanted this year was to make things simple and comfy. After we were done, I seated in that black chair with a cup of tea with my daughter who was enchanted with the stories behind each ornament.

This ornament represents our two Saint Bernard dogs, Pancho and Luna. They were siblings and wonderful companions to this family and to our current dog, Lady Abigail.

These ones are probably as older as The Husband. My mother-in-law gave them to me and they mean a lot to us. It is our way to keep passing our family history thru generations.

That is by far my daughter’s favorite ornament. She loves to sing and it is only 4 years-old, so I believe this is a suitable guitar for her size 🙂

To make this tree special, I added a few details. I wrapped the bottom with a fun left over fabric. I stuffed tissue paper inside to give the appearance of the tree’s routes wrapped. I also created fake presents. The tree stands on my IKEA red bench and my baby fake fur rug.

Finally, I added some details around the room with some old things like my yarn tress and new things like these nutcrackers that I painted using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Old White and Rub N’ Buff for the details.

 

This morning, I showed a picture of my Christmas tree to my co-worker and his first words were “Oh, this is not very impressive. You are not blogging about this are you?” when I answered “Of course, I am! It is my blog I can blog about anything I would like.”  he asked “But after all what is your blog about? Is it DIY, Design, Crafts or things about your life?” I have to confess that at that moment I was not able to elaborate a smart answer. After some meditation at the gym’s treadmill and wondering if I should in fact blog about my modest tree and ornaments, I realized what my blog is about. It is about all of those things. It is about DIY, design, crafts and life. You see…? You don’t need an impressive tree to have a great Christmas. Some people can’t afford that. Others can, but choose not to. You don’t need a house full of the greatest ornaments meticulous arranged. Life is not like that so your house should not be like that either. It is the old, the new, the imperfect and the things you make yourself that makes your life and your  home so special.

Xoxo,