I remember you posting pictures from your Christmas house tour a million years ago!

When we took our kids to Disney when they were little we stopped at the hotel first and they thought that was Disney World. The children will be thrilled with whatever you do! And they'll have plenty of other Christmas cheer at school, church, etc.

This too, shall pass. Hope DD and sweet baby are doing well.

texasjana, same. Two years ago we bought a really full decirative light up wreath for the mantle. Since the tree was always positioned right next to the fireplace, a wreath there would look too cluttered.

Last year we skipped the outside windows and just did a front door one.

I haven't decorated in years. I never went crazy when the kids were still home, but had things indoors, a tree and did lights outdoors. DH made a comment the first year I stopped ... I pointed to the closet with the Christmas boxes and said he was welcome to take them out, decorate and then put it all away. It seems he wasn't interested in doing it himself!

For a minute this year I was tempted to put up the big outdoor lighted wreath, but I would need to put a large screw in the stucco over the dining room window and I couldn't get the courage to put a hole in our "new" stucco ... house is less than 4 years old!

Some of our neighbors have paid companies to put lights all around their exterior and wrapped on their palm tree trunks.

People at my home is why I decorate!

Aww, Kswl, I'll miss your decorations! Boo. But your family all together, multigenerational, helping one another--that's it's own special kind of magic. Enjoy the blessed chaos.

I'm going to start decorating this weekend. Nothing crazy. The usual. I'm debating whether to do my outdoor planters, but since they are winter themed, I'll probably regret Jan-March looking at empty ones.

I'm also taking the year off. I may put out my zillions of byers carolers, but no tree as we'll be in NC and I'll be working a ton at Longwood during the Christmas season.

Some great suggestions here, thanks to everyone who replied! I love the idea of putting tiny twinkle lights around for a festive look, and especially love the designation as honorary child of Abraham! I can't wait to tell our priest about this (he will actually LOVE it) and as a way to dip out of coffee hour responsibilities for the holiday season. Don't worry Kendrah, I won't tell the other ladies about your generous designation or you might be innundated with requests!

Sounds like many here have found themselves in similar situations and understand the need to pull back occasionally from some of our most loved traditions. Next year I'll be back!

We will miss your decorations, KWSL! But definately understand. I know you are going to have a glorious Christmas anyway. With three grands in residence who needs a tree!

When we took our kids to Disney when they were little we stopped at the hotel first and they thought that was Disney World.

LOL!

But your family all together, multigenerational, helping one another--that's it's own special kind of magic.

This!

I'm looking forward to decorating - our first Christmas in Maine! Last year was the fire, and the year before we went to Europe.

Some of our neighbors have paid companies to put lights all around their exterior and wrapped on their palm tree trunks.

That always looks so pretty!

Our gardeners have done this kind of stuff for us in the past, but I don't anticipate much outdoor decorating this year.

I have hired a florist to decorate one or two years when we had big holiday parties, and they did a great job, but the kids actually like decorating so I will put them to work - for free.

Kswl, you are about to have a ‘December to Remember’, after going through a November I’m quite sure you will always remember as well. I am really happy to read you are scaling back the decor part of your Christmas celebration. It must be exhausting just having your young family members there under their awful circumstances, but aren’t they the lucky ones to have a warm and loving home to go to?! For your own peace of mind, I think it’s wonderful that you’ll make it a happy and memorable Christmas for the little ones and take some of the burden off the parents.

If you have a 3 very small trees, you could designate one for each ’grand’ and let them put a few decorations on it as ’their’ tree, displayed in a table in your family room or somewhere for Santa to find. If they could make some paper decorations, even better. I’m talking about a 12-15” tree. Of course the boys would need to collaborate with Mom or you on their baby sister’s tree. Our grands loved having their own little tree at our house. They might not have been the prettiest trees but boy were they special.

We’ve lived on our private road so long I’m accustomed to not having much outside decor since only 3 other neighbors and the service people see it. DH would go all-out if he could and he has added some lighting a few times. My outdoor efforts are easy and include mailbox wreath, faux greenery swags and bows on the fence by the driveway entry (I have not done this for the last few years), a lighted wreath on the front door (and sometimes at the garage entry door), and a couple of pots with some greenery (mostly magnolia and cedar) from our property. I’ll usually stick some sparkly faux stuff in with the greenery that I can remove after the holidays and the greenery remains. Which reminds me I should go buy this filler soon or the pretty stuff will be gone.

I just ordered a new mailbox wreath to replace the old one which was looking a bit tired and the online offerings were rather slim. Maybe people don’t do this much anymore. DH said probably because things get stolen! Unfortunately he’s probably right.

I'm considering going that route too. I'm not much of a holiday decorator, but I do love a Christmas tree...once it's up. However, last year a number of lights went out--it's all about the lights for me--and I bought a pack of replacement bulbs, having marked each dud bulb with some blue tape. Ugh, don't look forward to that job, and what if it doesn't work?

I did buy a fake and ornamented wreath from the church bazaar dubbed "Noah's Ark" because all the ornaments are animals. So cute. I may just hang it on the wall inside and call it Christmas.

BB has a good idea. Minimal decorations. I also like the idea of 3 small trees for the kiddies. They need a tree! lol

Kswl, what a full plate you have this year, but so much great stuff going on! I don't blame you for foregoing the decorations, but have always loved seeing how lovely your home looks during the season.

No tree for us, either, due to Baby (cat).

That would be us this year, though I still have some work to do convincing my husband that the tree is not a great idea at this time. Our two little monsters are 1 now, and chewing and overturning everything in their wake. I'm reading the alternate decorating suggestions here with interest.

When my European nephew was much younger, I promised if he ever visited at Xmas again* I would not only put up a tree (👎🏼), I would put up a live tree. He’ll be in the States for Xmas this year. 😬 I thought oh no, but a promise is a promise, and to quote/paraphrase Olychick he knows I live to ensure his happiness, so I was going to follow through. Luckily for me, it turns out he’ll be visiting another Auntie over Xmas. I’ll see him for Thanksgiving, and he has no decor expectations for that. 😄

I’ll stick to my usual Xmas decor of candles in the windows, a live wreath on both sides of the front door (so I can enjoy the fragrance inside), and maybe the fireplace wall of stockings.

*Last time he was here at Xmas he was preschool age. That year, the theme of the tree decor was ”unbreakable”. I only used ornaments that wouldn’t break should little, curious hands remove items from the tree. He was disappointed the tree wasn’t real, hence my promise for any future visit.

When our German Shepard was 8 months old, she took ornaments off the tree and chewed the plastic icicles that replaced the tinsel ones you could not have with cats. She is long gone, but I still have an angel with a hole in one wing, and a glued back together birch bark canoe.

One year the cat climbed the fake tree and it fell over. She also batted the round ornaments all over the house.

We switched from a real tree to a fake one several years ago after we heard a crash in the middle of the night. Went downstairs to find the tree toppled over, every ornament shattered, and water flooding our wood floor. And our cat sat next to it, unmoved, washing himself.

Sas, you made sure I will never have a real tree ,lol. And it was the other cat, of course, or the dog. You do not have two cats or a dog? You must be mistaken!

When I was a kid, our cat ate tinsel and it ended up as a decoration for her behind, if you get my drift. My Mom was not happy about having to fix that issue!

We used to have very tall real trees. I would string popcorn and cranberries to drape as garlands. We had a black cat named Sparky who loved to eat the popcorn. I would save the strung popcorn from previous years (the cranberries didn't make it) and reuse them. Years old popcorn? Sparky loved that too. Trying to foil him, we move the garlands further up the tree out of Sparky's reach. He'd still manage to reach up and grab the popcorn. Eventually the popcorn hovered near the top of the tree, like clouds around a mountain peak.

Just saw this video and thought of this thread:

https://youtube.com/shorts/gGXJsvRa1YE?si=swhdsmViMwBxNzTU

It's a short, so it won't embed, I guess.

She's been showing up a lot in my feed lately - I like her 🙂

P.S. OMG deegw - for her first Christmas with us, our cat ate tinsel from our tree - guess how I found out? She objected loudly when I had to pull it out 😱

This will be the first year I haven't put up a tree. Always a live one. When my husband was alive we would go with a group of people far up into the forest and cut our own. If the snow cooperated, we would go up to an elevation where the Noble firs would grow (they only grow at higher elevations). We would caravan as far as we could go until the snow stopped us (most years). We would all fan out and cut our trees, build a big bonfire and drink hot toddies from our thermoses and eat potluck food we all brought. We were young and stupid to drink and drive down mountain roads in the snow....but we did. My husband was a forester with the state and some of the others were his coworkers. We all got permits to cut our trees. They were beautiful and so fresh!

After he died, I started cutting Noble firs from the tree farms in our area. They also have Fraser firs...gorgeous! Every year, my son and grandson and I would cut our trees, I'd bring cookies and hot cocoa, rain or shine. My grandson spent sevaral days/nights a week at my house in those years and he loved to help decorate the tree and setting up his special decorations. But he's a teen now, busy with school and swims every day for swim team practice, so no longer comes as often. I go to others' homes for parties and Xmas Eve and Day, tho my son and grandson come over Christmas morning to collect their loot. But putting up a tree for those couple of hours is just too much work for me these days. So, I will go with them to cut their tree, bring the refreshments and skip a tree for me.

I have a dear friend who owns an abandoned Christmas tree farm. He has dozens of acres of overgrown trees, all the beautiful and exotic species. He's harvested boughs for commercial wreath companies for years, but now he's just growing nursery stock on the rest of the land and has retired from bough cutting. However, he makes BEAUTIFUL garlands and brings me one every year that I use on my front porch. He just called to see if I wanted one this year and how long. I decided to hang it inside this year, around the frame of my exterior French doors where I usually place my tree. I'll add some lights and a few ornaments and it will have to do. I'll miss the reminiscing over all my ornaments as I decorate the tree, but if I miss it too much, I can put up a tree next year.

Going w/o a tree or garlands or wreaths would not be a hardship but no creche would be unthinkable. Priorities! There no way I won't always be able to find a small corner of my world for the reason for the season.

I haven't decorated on the inside at all due to being gone the week before. We had our outdoor lights puts up about three weeks ago. I will put our tree up probably Friday.

The tree is easy-it's the mantel that is the hard work! The garland has to be just right and tied together and just the right length to hang over one side of the end of the mantel-then tie in the big "bells" to hang off the side. Not to mention the five heavy ceramic houses with candles inside etc. Then the stockings. The tree is nothing compared to our mantel! LOL

I would glady give up the tree…it used to be more fun when kids were around and they liked to help (okay, and maybe I would rearrange the ornaments later!). Now it just feels like a pain — our rooms are small so it entails rearranging furniture, setting up the tree, putting ornaments on by myself unless I can convince DH to get involved, then reminding our 2 yo ”puppy” that this is not a toy…

But our outdoor lights are up, and I love that. They went up on Sunday and will stay up through at least early Feb.! They are pretty simple, just icicle lights around the front porch. And I like decorating the mantel, and having wreaths, etc. I have two different wreath-making events this week so I am thinking the house will be fully decked out by Sunday, minus the tree, which will go up maybe the following week.

@Sueb20

As an Xmas heretic, I encourage you to skip the tree. Your house will be plenty festive without it. And if others complain, show them where the ornaments and lights are stored so next year they can get them out, put them on a tree they set up, and, most importantly, put them back after they dismantle the tree.

I still enjoy Christmas decorations but we have downsized the tree. We always have a tree in our bedroom - it sits in a vintage basket. It is decorated. In other rooms i concentrated on greenery. Garland on mantle, huge wreath on front of armoire and a large size tabletop tree in a paper mache bowl. That tree gets white lights and a star on top only. I have various small trees in different ironstone containers, kitchen, master bath, sunroom. Another of the wreaths on dresser mirror. Snaller wreath on the glass doors of our secretary and one on the mirror in guest bathroom, etc. Concentrating on the greenery, white lights and velvet ribbon has made our home festive but less work. I do have a collected over the years nativity and a 3 piece wooden one (painted) one. @arcy_gw you should put your nativity in a more prominent place since it is special to you!

Outside only fresh greenery (we have magnolia and holly in our yard) wreaths and candles in the windows.

The mr. hangs all the things and is in charge of lights 😊

Over the years we've had houses decorated over the top inside and out and more modestly decorated. When we moved cross country, I gave away boxes & boxes of Christmas decorations to my DD, friends and neighbors. At least 15 ceramic houses for under the tree. Tons of inside and outside decorations.

I try to keep my decorations very simple. We did put up our tree and decorate it. I kept a big fp mantel garland. Last year some of the lights went, this year I donated it. It's too fussy. I'm using candlesticks and vases I already have and tying velvet ribbons around them. I do have family coming this weekend, so I'm going to get a bunch of live branches so it smells Christmassy!

@deegw That story about Disney made me laugh. My dd did the same thing the first time we went. She was about 5. We arrived too late the first day to go to the park, so we hung out in the pool at the disney hotel which has huge plastic characters everywhere. She looked around and said, "This is Disney World?" Clearly disappointed!

A good woman’s eye for beauty and warmth cannot be held down for long. I’m having a hard time letting go of autumn and moving into winter / christmas

It all looks so beautiful, Ks. Festive elegance.

I put out my plaid pillows yesterday, too, on my two living room chairs (they flank the table my beaded snowflake tree is on). I finished my mantel, sofa table, dining hutch, etc decor and DH got the house lights up. My wagon scene is done in the yard and I’m debating stringing lights on the shrubs.

Lisa, so lovely … and I totally get how you feel.

Kswl you decorated your home so beautifully. Thanks for sharing your home with us.

We no longer put up a tree since I got the kitten three years ago. I still may have one again some day if I think she has settled down to the point she won't bother it. My older cats never did. On the other hand it's so much easier not to have one. As long as I have a few lights/garland (on the mantel in the living room and above the cabinetry in our TV room) I'm pretty satisfied but I must have some colored lights somewhere. I also have some on the patio railing outside that I can see from the kitchen. I put a few other things around - enough to look Christmasy - but it's all pretty easy to put out and put away.

@Kswl your home looks lovely, very Christmasy. The perfect compromise.

I am also decorating Christmas lite this year. Been sick with a nasty sinus infection since early November, back to the doctor today. Although my energy level is low I love my house decorated for Christmas. I am behind schedule but moving forward over the next couple of days, giving myself permission to stop at any point.

Kswl - your home is beautiful and festive. I love your collection of Dutch houses. Did your Girl with the Pearl come from the Mauritshuis? We lived in the Netherlands for several years. I collected some of the blue and white canal houses whenever we visited Delft and treasure them, but they aren't the KLM houses. We even have a cheeky one that depicts the red light district in Amsterdam, but I keep that one in DH's office and not with the others :^)

Perfection, ks! I have loved your rug every time you’ve posted a pic. And the houses, swoon. I have 5 from when we went, hmm, somewhere on KLM. They would be the perfect size for my mantel; could you send me about 10 of yours? 😆

I am getting closer to saying no tree. We are going away on the 28th so we’d have to take it down on the 27th, and we aren’t likely to put it up until late next week. So that’s about two weeks? I think the only one who’ll care is DD…

Long ago with certain cats or with a toddler we tied the top of the Christmas tree to a curtain rod. And with another cat, not putting lights on the bottom quarter of the tree. Zzzzap otherwise. (she was a wire-chewer) The only time a tree fell of its own free will, one of the young adult relatives had brought a surprise guest. We had all sat down to dinner, suddenly he jumped up and bounded over to the tree and grabbed it just before it hit the floor. The mystery guest turned out to be an angel! We never saw him again.

I haven’t done much decorating yet. I was so tired the day after Thanksgiving that, even though we knew snow was coming, I just didn’t feel like getting the lights up outside. On Saturday we got 10” of snow. Now I regret not doing it, because the glow of lights through snow is so pretty. I’m not sure when we will get lights up now.

Inside though, we do have the battery-operated candles that come with timers. So pretty, just as it gets dark, to have the glow appear in a corner or in the non-operating fireplace. Or the little strings in the little glass-front cupboards with little festive things, this year I put silver bells in them. (And realized they need polishing)

I love seeing outdoor decorations! The wrapped branches though…can be a little…bright. But a tall evergreen with colored lights, seen through the woods, warms the cockles of my heart.

When Thanksgiving falls later in November, I tend to do less decorating for Christmas. I never put up a tree in the past because we were always out of town for the weeks around the holiday. I don't plan to start that tradition in this stage of my life.

@Kswl, your house looks lovely and cosy and welcoming.

Beautiful, Kswl. I hope your kids’ plumbing repairs are coming along.

For those with kitty-tree issues, I saw this over at Between Naps on the Porch.

The mystery guest turned out to be an angel! We never saw him again.

😆

Too stressful at your house, having to be on high alert for decor mishaps.

OMG I love that cat tree! I am getting it for my nephew!

Jana, thank you for asking about them, their plumbing was repaired but they decided to wait until after Christmas to do all the floors, so they could be home for awhile. The kids really needed that; the drive to their daycare was almost an hour each way. It’s six minutes from their own house, so they had to get up and out an hour earlier than they were used to. Also limited playdates with friends and a variety of other issues. They will be back for Christmas (actually we have the

boys this weekend) and will stay with us a couple of weeks afterwards while the floors and painting are finished.

My kids have “given me permission” to skip the tree! I feel equal parts relieved…and, elderly.

Your home is so festive, Kswl! Thanks for sharing photos.

I enjoy decorating for the holidays, and used to use a lot of live greenery. The timing of it was precarious--wanting to have it up long enough to enjoy, but too early, and it's a big mess. I used to insist on live trees. But in the past years, the live trees around here have been hit or miss. I now have an artificial tree that looks "live" enough for me. I put it up before Thanksgiving, as well as other indoor decor and outdoor lights. I'm glad I did--we had snow the weekend after Thanksgiving, and it's continuing.

Kswl, it must be a relief for your DD and family to be waiting on the floors, especially with a newborn. Convenience is important for them at this stage.

Jill302, I hope you're feeling better!

Seagrass, that museum banner was from an exhibit at the de Young in SFO. I spent a great deal of time in the Netherlands as a teenager and love it to this day. DH and I agree that if we were ever to live abroad it would be in The Hague. I have been collecting the KLM houses for decades but just got the complete set over a year ago as a birthday present from DH.

Kswl, your home always looks so warm and inviting. Your decorations dress it up perfectly for the holidays and it all looks so lovely. I first learned about the KLM houses from you. I just love them and they are so pretty lit up!

This was in the New Yorker's newsletter today... 😁

😂