Christmas Home Tour Part Two (2014)

Hey guys!

I'm sorry that my posts have been all over the place this past week. I've managed to break my laptop by spilling the tiniest bit of Pepsi on my keyboard. The laptop still works, but the keyboard is completely dead. It could not have happened at a worse time! I had so many Christmas posts planned and half written in my drafts, that I never managed to schedule, too. Wah! I've been getting by by using the 'ease of access' on screen keyboard; have you ever used it? You use the cursor to click each letter, and it takes about half an hour to write one sentence. Ha ha! I can't write fast with it; it's so frustrating it makes me want to chuck the laptop out of the window!

My sister has lent me her laptop for the night, so I'm going to attempt to get a few posts scheduled. I doubt there's little point in me sending my laptop to get fixed or replaced with PC World 'til after Boxing Day, and with New Year's I'm not sure how long it might take to get it back this time. So, if I become AWOL for a while after Christmas, you'll know why! 

So, for now, I've got a Christmas home tour to share with you, which has been a long time coming. I've already shown you how my bedroom is decorated for Christmas, so today I'll be giving you a peek at the main decorations downstairs.

Our main Christmas tree will never win prizes for appearance, theme, or decoration technique;   nothing matches, there's absolutely no order to it, and the tree isn't all that pretty... but it's ours and that's what matters. It's adorned with decorations collected over at least five decades (possibly seven), so it's basically a tree-shaped scrapbook full of ornaments that hold memories and make us sentimental.

This year, I added loads of honeycomb pom poms to the collection; some ended up under the tree for a while until we found places to hang them, and call me mad, but I actually quite liked how they looked underneath it. 

Decorating the fire place has always been my job at Christmas. I like to dress it with fir branches and sprigs of holly, picked fresh from our garden, before adding in pine cones (some natural, some spray-painted gold) that we've collected over the years. I also add gold candles, and a menagerie of woodland animals made from straw and other natural materials, and the newest addition is a faux garland complete with fairy lights.

I think the fox is my favourite.

The owls are the newest animals to the fire place zoo.

I love this glittery squirrel!

Mr hedgehog has sustained a head injury since last Christmas. I've tried to disguise it by hiding him in the foliage.

We have about thirty of these big honeycomb pom poms hanging up in the living room and dotted around our tiny dining room. I don't know why, but I have such a thing for them at the moment; I love mid-century style Christmas decorations. My Mum said they're exactly like the decorations her family had when she was growing up in the late fifties and sixties. We bought them on Amazon (here) for little more than a pound each- a bargain compared to most out there.

We finally mounted our stag trophy* on the wall (which is the most difficult thing to photograph!), and I hung a couple of pom poms from his antlers! They're all from The Christmas Boutique.

My mum's snowman decoration is adorable. I love the little village scene in his stomach.

More pinecones and holly in a bowl.

The wreath on our front door.

My Mum's Christmas cross stitch picture.

We hung some Christmas bunting along the ugly beam in the kitchen. I think it was from Sainsburys.

The Christmas tree yesterday, complete with presents that I spent fifteen painful hours wrapping.

Cute snow scene bauble.

These galaxy orbs are some of my very favourite decorations. They look so beautiful when the fairy lights twinkle against them.

An oldie from when I was really young.

I hate these ugly angel decorations!

And that's my home all set for Christmas! If you'd like to see how my bedroom has been decorated for Christmas, you can take a peek here.

Merry Christmas everyone!

How is your home decorated for Christmas?