Christmas Home Tour 2012

It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees, putting up reindeer, and singing songs of joy and peace...

but I don't wish I had a river I could skate away on.

I love this time of year and I don't think that will ever change.

I physically pushed myself to help decorate the living room, even though I've not been able to sit downstairs since Boxing Day (December 26th) last year! That statistic actually shocks me. An entire year. (Well, almost). I can't believe how fast the year has passed. It doesn't feel like it's been an entire year since the decorations were last up.

I've seen many bloggers sharing their Christmas decorations on their blogs, and I've chosen to do the same as I'm such a Christmas junkie. I'm probably more enthusiast for the festive season than many children!

Obviously this is our Christmas tree. It's an artificial one with pine cones and berries on it. I prefer real trees but we've not had a real tree since I was about ten. We have multi coloured lights with lots of different settings from still to fading and twinkling. None of our decorations match. I don't remember us ever sticking to a colour scheme. There are decorations from my Mum's childhood, and decorations collected from when my parents got together in the seventies right up to today. A lot of them mean something to different members of my family. We currently have a snowflake tree topper, but growing up we usually finished it with an angel.

If I had my own place, I would have a real tree with white lights and decorate it differently. I'm not sure if I'd have a colour scheme, exactly, but it would probably be a little less tacky.

My Sister and her German Shepherd, Holly, are currently staying with us on and off. Her husband is away on a detachment until May, and she's studying at university closer to us. They were based in our town until last Summer, but then they were posted a hundred miles away, which was beyond their control. It's a hell of a commute for her, and would be unfair on the dog to be alone for so long, so here they are.

Holly is basically a Marley in German Shepherd clothing, although she's not as mental as she used to be. She very patiently allowed me to dress her up in tinsel, but I didn't manage to get a photo. We've just found out she's got cancer, but I won't go in to that now.

Every year, I decorate the fire place. I usually use fir branches and holly branches as a base, but poisonous greenery and a very active dog don't mix. This year, I've had to leave out the greenery, and just decorated it with the pine cones, candles, and animals I also use. I'm not as keen on the display without the branches and I miss the pine needle smell. Not that it really matters since I'm not able to lounge down stairs to enjoy it.

We have so many decorations that I filled every available vase with baubles. There is also tinsel draped over frames and on cabinets down stairs.

We've had the two Mickey Mouse and drum decorations since I was four or five. I can actually remember buying them. My Mum had to take me to hospital after my best friend at the time, a boy called Dominic, burst my ear drum with a cotton bud in year one of primary school! I guess my Mum took me in to the shop to make me feel better or something like that. She bought me these three, and also a hobby horse decoration, although I've not been able to find that one in a few years. There's usually a scramble between my younger Sister and I of who can grab them first to hang on the tree. Sad but true!

We've had these ugly robin decorations as long as I can remember. They look rather sorry for themselves. I think these may have been bought back in the seventies before I was born.

I bought these two Rockefeller Center metal decorations at Top of the Rock in New York in Summer 2011.

I chose these not only for my love of New York, but because they remind me of some decorations we've had on our trees all my life.

I purchased a couple of these glass orbs at work a couple of years ago. They're a cloudy white, and when the light hits them all these colours come alive. Definitely some of my favourite baubles.

I couldn't resist this crystal angel snowman, and adopted him a few years back. Isn't he lovely?

I bought the glittery snowflake topper at work a couple of years ago, too. I love it because it's a little different to the uniform star or angel. And, it's glittery!

And my fireplace is home to lots of woodland creatures made from pine cones, coconuts, and straw (I think), which were all adopted over the last half a decade. Some of the pine cones were picked up from the wild, and some were bought. Some are natural, and some were later sprayed gold. The fire place is usually my favourite area to decorate. The visual merchandiser in me always comes out when I dress it.

There are other parts decorated.  Some parts which are normally decorated but can't be because of the dog and my Sister turning the dining room in to a make shift bedroom. I also want to add some Christmas spirit to my bedroom, but I need to buy myself a little tree. If I get round to it, I'll post photos of that later.

Is your house all decorated for Christmas yet?

Do you colour-coordinate all your decorations, or are you like me and prefer to collect sentimental pieces, regardless of colour, instead?

Do you prefer real trees or the artificial kind?

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas.