easy, and beautiful to boot! a simple DIY Christmas mantel…because “hard” and “holidays” don’t mix.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!

I mean REALLY love it. Like Buddy the Elf love 

BUT,

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I don’t like fuss.

I don’t like statuettes, clutter or tchotchkes.

I don’t like collectibles of any sort that collect in my attic, then collect dust on my shelves. SO what’s a girl with BUDDY THE ELF love for the holidays going to do with these kinds of limitations? I’ll tell you what…

 

Not much.

When I got married, I was super excited, friends. Excited to start my married life and celebrate our first Christmas together, in our little condo. Probably a good quarter of the items we put on our wedding registry were Christmas items. Christmas dishes, check.

Christmas napkins and tablecloths, check. “First Christmas together as a couple ornaments”, check. Inflatable Santa and sleigh for the 3×3 stoop in front of our meager condo, check. I was like a bridezilla, only not in the “I need a $15,000 dress” way.

 

 

 

I was a ho-ho-horrible holiday hoarder.

 

When I brought in the collectible Winnie the Pooh Dept 56 set, my husband reached the breaking point. He pulled the plug, and let all the air out of my inflatable-Santa-sails. I could choose him or the bazillion boxes stuffed with boughs of holly.

 

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We purged.

 

We donated, gave away, shipped Santas to my sister and snowmen to my other sister. And after the clutter was gone, I realized that it felt much better to be free of all the noise.

 

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Christmas is really quite simple, and that simple-ness helped to create its amazing majestic beauty. A precious baby born, in a meager manger.

I’ve started to embrace the simple. If I’m being completely honest, I’m not 100% there, yet. We still own an inflatable…and I’m not giving up Santa in the air stream for NOBODY.

 

 

But I’ll tell you, it feels SO GOOD to not spend DAYS of my life “getting ready” for Christmas. Christmas would come whether I had distributed all 37 boxes worth of Christmas trinkets, regardless. It feels much better to do less.

 

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I try to leave just a few hints of the season in each room of our home. Little things, but the little things make me happy. BUDDY THE ELF happy.

 

 

And besides the little hints here and there, I’ve been working on little holiday projects. Like in our foyer, we decided to forgo the traditional tree garland and used something different…winter scarves.

 

 

And we used one of our favorite tricks again to “spruce” up our inexpensive artificial tree. Cut greens from our pine trees. It’s not expensive to do…in fact, it’s FREE! So simple, and the results are gorgeous.

 

 

And we’ve been working on little crafts that make it feel Christmas-y here at home. We made some Christmas trees from PLASTIC SPOONS! Talk about thrifty, right?

 

 

 

 

And made simple DIY ornaments from paint brushes that cost less than $1 each.

 

 

As well as ornaments from crayon shavings. 

 

 

The kids have been working on painting their own DIY Christmas villages, just like mine.

 

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And helping us trim the tree 😉 We always said that kid was the light of our lives.

 

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And there you have it, friends. A simple DIY Christmas mantel, to celebrate a simple holiday. A simple birth that turned into something miraculous. No more bits and bobs, fluff and fancy, trinkets or tchotchkes required, friends. Let’s all embrace a little more simple this holiday.

 

But if you happen to own an inflatable Santa in an air stream…

by all means, display that sucker proudly for the world to see.

 

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Here are the sources for our DIY Christmas mantel and family room:

 

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It is with much excitement that I join this year’s Home for the Holidays blog tour sponsored by Sondra Lyn at Home! This is the 3rd year for her HFTH tour, and we promise to bring some of the most awesome decor, craft and recipe ideas you’ll find anywhere.

It has gotten bigger and better each year and I think you’re going to love what you see! So stay tuned – it’s 30 blogs over the week, with a different topic each day. Be sure you come back here every day to get the links for that day’s featured blogs! Here’s a run-down of the topics and featured blogs:

 

Monday – Holiday Mantels

Country Design Style | Duke Manor Farm | Domestically Speaking

Organize and Decorate Everything | Sondra Lyn at Home | Two Purple Couches

Tuesday – Holiday Recipes

An Alli Event | Not Just Paper and Paint  | Nourish and Nestle

Stone Gable  | Sweet Pea | What Meegan Makes

Wednesday – Holiday Crafts

An Extraordinary Day | Lovely Etc | Lilacs and Longhorns

Lydi Out Loud | Salvage Sister and Mister | Weekend Craft

Thursday – Holiday Decor

Atta Girl Says | Chatfield Court | Create & Babble

Cozy Traditional Home | The Heathered Nest | Worthing Court

Friday – Holiday Tablescapes

Celebrating Everyday Life |Cottage at the Crossroads | Cottage in the Oaks

The Everyday Home | Postcards from the Ridge |  2 Bees in a Pod

Are you ready? Here we go!

 

 

 

Home for the Holidays 2016

Holiday Mantels

Holiday Recipes

Holiday Crafts

Holiday Decor

Holiday Tablescapes

 

 

 

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