The Annual Christmas Decorating Post {2020 Edition}

| Allison

Hello, dears!

If you’ve been following my blog for a couple of years, you probably know what we’re doing today. 🙂 My family gets a live Christmas tree every year and most years we also decorate our farmhouse with festive greenery and other fun stuff. So I, being a photographer, take lots of pictures so that you guys, being amazing, can read about our adventures. 🙂

Ready for this year’s house tour? Let’s go!

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First, getting the Christmas tree. Good news, guys! It went better than last year! Hehe, but if you remember this post, you’ll know that’s not saying much. :’D But yeah, we redeemed last year’s small disasters with a tree that we all agree is pretty much perfect! ❤ Anyway. Starting off with a car photo after stopping at Wendy’s for lunch on the way. 😉

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The hardest part was finding a Christmas tree farm. The one we went to last year was closed, but probably just as well since we had probably a 5% chance of finding a nice, tall one like we really wanted this time. We were about to go to Lowe’s (*GASP*), when Mom looked it up and found a new tree farm! And thankfully, they had waaay nicer and taller trees.

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Like THIS tall! (Hehe.) But unfortunately, waaaaay higher prices as well. Why on earth do Christmas trees cost so much? I think they went up this year, because they were about as high at Lowe’s too. Crazy.

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Anyway, we decided to go ahead and get this tree which was (*gasp again*) seriously the FIRST tree we came up to inspect. We wandered around just a bit because it wasn’t possible for our family to make a decision that fast… right? Apparently it was. No one complained that it wasn’t a good tree, and no one was getting over being sick like last year. It was wonderful!

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Now for the other best part – decorating the tree! 🙂 It took a while to get home because we had a couple of other stops to make, but eventually we made it. I believe this is the first year we’ve had to use a ladder to decorate it because 1) we’re all tall and 2) we don’t usually get a 10 foot tree. 😛

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Decorating the Christmas tree is one of my favorite Christmas traditions – ahh, it’s just so special and cozy and yields such a beautiful result! We had to rush a bit since friends were coming over in an hour or two, but it was still quite fun. 🙂

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And here’s the finished product! I still can’t get over how lovely it is. ❤ (Please ignore the unphotogenic iPad which I should have moved but didn’t notice.) (And now that I said something you won’t be able to ignore it, oops…)

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Alright! Now for the rest of the Christmas decorations. Carmen and I spent a LONG time trying to figure out the perfect placement for the nativity figurines. :’D

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Ta-daa! This is what we decided on. 🙂

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Mom, meanwhile, was finishing the beautiful garland she had made and we’d helped her hang in the hall. And yes I should definitely have waited ’til we swept the floor to take a picture but I didn’t. OOPS AGAIN.

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Didn’t it turn out so nice?? *heart eyes* It makes walking up and down the stairs to my room and studio so much more fun. Hehe.

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Instead of attaching the garland with wire this year, we tied burlap bows at intervals to both hold it up and decorate it. Definitely the way to go.

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This dresser thing holds a bowl of pinecones year round, but we freshened up the decor with more greenery. (Guys, we probably collected enough cedar branches to reconstruct two whole trees. :’D )

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While we’re in the hall, we might as well take a peek at the porch outside. Mom made more wreaths for the two doors, which Maggie is guarding. 😉

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I love how the front porch turned out! Mom and I struggled with the garland over the door, but (mostly) got it to stay up. I love the simple colors and contrast of black, white, red, and green. ❤ Also as you can sort of see on the top right, WE GOT SNOW. Only flurries, though. It didn’t stick. *sigh*

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Okay, back inside to the warmth and the great room. Another decoration we made this year was paper bag snowflakes! I saw it on Instagram here (check out her “Christmas” highlight for a longer tutorial) and it worked suprisingly well! It’s super simple.

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I hung one in each window. So cute! (This was before we got the Christmas tree, which now stands where the Norfolk Island Pine plant was.)

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We also put up the Advent calendars since Carmen likes to fill them up, and… shocking! Added more greenery, to the top of the secretary desk. Hehe.

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Okay, almost done. I still have the dining room and library to show you. (We got really excited about decorating this year. 😉 ) Since the dining room is a more formal room, Mom kept things simple with mainly more greenery.

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Wow, I’m really happy with how my editing turned out for these photos if I do say so myself. Maybe I can finally settle on a preset and use it uniformly. :[]

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Anway, on the other side we have more greenery + candles on the mantel. The cute red pillow from my great grandma was already there.

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A rare non-greenery decoration! This cute little deer looks so proud of himself. XD

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That’s it for the dining room. We’ll end with the library, where Mom mainly just added greenery and candles again. Check out this post for more library photography, back when we still hadn’t painted the bookshelves.

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And that, my friends, is at least a partial tour of our very Christmas-ified house! I hope you enjoyed walking around with me and getting in a festive mood. 😛 It’s always a fun post to make.

Do you usually decorate for Christmas? Which room’s decorations were your favorite?

Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

P. S. Photos taken with my Nikon D3400 and a 35mm lens. Edited with Lightroom.

89 thoughts on “The Annual Christmas Decorating Post {2020 Edition}”

  2. Eeeeeep! I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. First of all, I LOVE decorating for Christmas and second, YOUR HOUSE LOOKS SO PRETTY! Thanks for sharing all these photos. *whispers* remind me to tell you a funny story about getting our tree this year and last year. xD hehe! Thanks again! HUGS!

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  6. Your house is so beautiful! And the GREENERY! *dies* We don’t really decorate our house (except the tree, which we put up on Christmas Eve), mainly because of all my little siblings, but this post makes me wish we did. Now I’m dreaming about my own house someday and all the greenery I can get… until I have little children to tear it down XD

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    1. AHHH THANKS. I knooow, right? Hehe yeah, I can understand that. Well I guess we did decorate some when we were younger – just with decorations we kids made. 😉 Haha, that made me smile. Thanks for reading, dear!

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  10. Using a ladder to decorate a Christmas tree reminds me of the Victorian era and early 20th century where estate families used ladders to reach the Christmas trees standing in their grand entrance halls. It feels very sophisticated and old fashioned.

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  11. This is beautiful! I love how old-fashioned-ish your house is, and the decorations fit it perfectly!

    (And hi, I’m a new follower! I’m Samantha, and I blog about books on Blogger. I LOVE all of your beautiful photography!)

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    1. Thank you so much, Samantha! I love that about our house too. ❤
      Also HIIII, it's lovely to meet you! Thanks for following along! I shall check out your blog right now. 🙂

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  12. Oh my goodness!! Beautiful!! I wish we had the space to decorate that much.

    What kind of dog is Maggie? She’s really pretty, and she looks a lot like a dog we used to have named Maggie. Actually, she looks exactly like what our Maggie used to look like, all the way down to the black collar…..🤔 Where did you get her? It’s kind of creepy how alike they look…..

    I looooove live trees! My family has gotten one every year, and it’s so much fun to be able to do that! What’s your favorite ornament?

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    1. Ahh, thank youuu!
      Haha whoa, really? That’s crazy. She’s a yellow labrador retriever, and I sadly don’t remember where we got her… she’s a purebred lab, though.

      ME TOO! I quite agree. Hmm, well one of my favorite ornaments is a tiny teddy bear I got when I was a baby or something. I used to want to keep it in my room as a stuffed animal when I was young. XD What is yours?

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      1. Our Maggie was a Yellow Lab as well!! That’s crazy XD

        Aw, that ornament sounds really cool! My favorite is probably the very first ornament I got. It’s a pink stocking with a little teddy bear peeking out of it.

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        1. That’s so fun, haha!
          Aww, how cute! I have SO many teddy bear ornaments because I absolutely loved stuffed animals when I was little. :’D Does your family usually get a live Christmas tree or a fake one?

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          1. We usually get a live tree. My brother would be so mad if we ever got a fake one XD Last year, we thought they’d stop selling the trees, and we were all worried that we’d have to get a fake tree, but they continued selling, and we were so happy! We always have to get small trees, though, because our house has seven foot ceilings XD What do you do with you tree after Christmas is over? We usually make a really big bonfire with ours, and my grandparents used to throw theirs in their pond for the fish to play in.

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            1. Haha, I would be quite sad if we got a fake tree too. XD YAYYY! Ha, yeah, our old house had fairly low ceilings too. Oh that’s so fun! I don’t know… we probably put it in the furnace to help heat the house. Or just put it in the woods. XD We don’t really have a certain tradition, but I love the ones you mentioned!

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  13. WOW! What a beautiful tree. We put our live tree up the other day. The lights are on the tree and we will be decorating it soon. Our tree is 7 feet. Isn’t the fresh smell of live trees heavenly? Your house looks beautiful and so festive. The Manger is lovely. You and your mother did a great job decorating the outside,too. Wishing you and your family a Blessed and Merry Christmas. Have a Happy and Healthy 2021.
    Joan,Marion and Marilyn.

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    1. Thank you so much! Ahh, your tree sounds lovely. Have fun decorating it! You’re absolutely right – I love the smell of fresh Christmas trees. ❤ Thanks so much for the Christmas wishes and lovely comment! Same to you guys. ❤

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  15. Ahhh you all did such a good job! The tree. The garland. All the greenery and candles. So gorgeous, cozy, and inviting! Ooh, and Wendy’s. Reminds me that I need a snack. 😛 😀

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          1. (Is that how it’s spelled?! I always forget XD) Really?? That’s too bad! We live about 45 minutes away from our state capital, and the one there used to be our closest one. So we didn’t go very often. Then a Chik-fil-a came to a city much closer to us, and right next to the Costco we go to, so it’s much more convenient. We don’t go a ton, but much more often than we used to. 🙂

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            1. (I’m not really sure how I spelled it even… I typed that very quickly and I always forget too. :’D)
              Why how nice! Yeah, the nearest ones I know of are about 50 minutes away (also close to our state capital 🙂 ). That’s great, though!

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    1. I’m so glad you like them! Honestly, same. XD Except if I lived by myself I obviously wouldn’t need as big of a one. The original house was built in the late 1700s, but it burned down and was rebuilt in the 1850s; then added on to (with care and authentic details) later in the 20th century. So it’s a mix! But it’s old. 🙂

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    1. THANK YOUU! I love it. ❤ Hehe, that would be how ours would look if we got one from our property, but at the same time I think that's SUCH a fun and lovely thing – to pick out a tree on your own land.

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  24. Haha! I love decorating the Christmas tree!

    Also, I nominated you for an award! Can’t remember if your blog is award free, but oh well. My post will be up on 19th/20th

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  29. Agh, your house is so traditional and I love your tree so much! Also, woah! You have nearly 10,000 followers! (I mean, over 9,000 is pretty close) I don’t know why I’m so shocked though, I mean, you definitely deserve it!

    Your photos inspired me to do a photo dump on my blog this week. We’ll see how that goes. hehe.

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    1. Thank youuu! I love it too. Also awww, that is so kind. I KNOOWWW, I’m honestly shocked too! Not quite sure why lots of people want to read my random posts, but I’m so grateful.

      YAY! Drop a link when you do because I want to see it!

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  32. I loved seeing this so much! You have such a gorgeous home and your decorations are so lovely! 😀 I love Christmas, it’s my favorite time of year! ❤

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  33. Pingback: The Annual Christmas Decorating Post {2020 Edition} – Lifecoach

  36. “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

    Have a wonderful Christmas and joyous days ahead with warm laughter. Take care.

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  37. Pingback: Christmas Tree Day {2021} – A Farm Girl's Life

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