It's Time to Deck the Halls!

I have to apologize for my lack of posts and reading the past few weeks. It seems that time of year is upon is when every waking moment is taken up with something. Last weekend, the few "free" hours we had were spent decorating the inside of the  house for Christmas. Far earlier than I normally like to, but it was a "now or never" type of a thing, as plans this weekend and travel over Thanksgiving left no other time to do it.

Last year, we put up two trees--one in our formal living/music room, and a 12 footer in the great room. I LOVE decorating for the holidays, but HATE the take-down afterward. I vowed NOT to do two trees again. I should have been more specific, because we ended up with THREE.

 The tree in the formal living room/music room is covered with nearly 1,000 lights, ornaments in black, silver, blue, and mirror. The topper is done out of white poinsettia and silver ting ting, and the ribbon has a sheet music pattern. Lighting a tree is the most important part, and I wind the strings from the trunk to the tip, working my way from the bottom to the top.

 On top of the piano, and again on the sofa table in our great room, we took the limbs from an old artificial Christmas tree to make sprays. Sprinkled with lights, ribbon, and smaller ornaments, the sprays turned out beautifully considering they were made from "leftovers".

The small pencil tree in the dining room is done up with damask ribbon that picks up on the fabric of the host chairs, black and silver ornaments. An ornate mask and a few plumes of feathers top this one out. 

We got the dining room table ready for the season by swapping out the usual salad plates with something a bit more festive, created a great centerpiece with mercury glass trees and a silver snow globe, and hung a few ornaments from the chandelier. A few red accents give the table a little life.

And finally, the great room 12-footer. This tree is predominantly done in reds and bright greens, but also has a good many brown and orange ornaments. The hearth becomes home to our Christmas village, and more branches of the old Christmas tree found their way to the mantel.

Click HERE for a panoramic shot of the great room (kindly excuse the mess!)

I'm linking to the Metamorphosis Monday party at one of my favorite blogs, Between Naps on the Porch! Each week, they serve up lots of before and afters that are sure to inspire!

This post is also linking to the Holiday House Tours Party at Hooked on Houses! 

Be sure to join us on Facebook!