It was a fun challenge to decorate my new place for the holidays. It's the smallest place I've lived in since 2006 when we moved out of our little two-bedroom, one-bath condo in New Jersey to a four-bedroom Dutch colonial in Connecticut. And the next two houses only got bigger after that. Those were the years (decades, really) when it was so fun to shop for decorations, and that's when I accumulated most of the collection that I have now.
Now I'm in a townhouse and while it's not tiny, there's a lot less surface space for decorating than what I've had for the last seventeen years, so it presented a new decorating challenge. I had to get rid of some things, and I put some other things away in storage that I hope to be able to use in the future, but I was pleasantly surprised that I was still able to use a lot of the decorations throughout the main floor of the house. It all turned out rather nicely, I must say!
I wrote about the tree already and how Balsam Hill shortchanged me on its height, which was supposed to be six-and-a-half feet tall but definitely wasn't! Next year, I'll put it up on a box to make it taller. This time, I tried (and failed) to enjoy the satisfaction of being almost as tall as my Christmas tree.
It's a pretty, well-shaped tree, and pre-lit is definitely the way to go!
Because I no longer have a big tree, I couldn't use at least a third of my ornaments, so I picked my favorites, which consisted mostly of owls, sentimental or commemorative ones, Christ-centered ones, and travel and sea-related ones.
This was a new owl ornament that a friend got for me. Look at its cute little pinecone ears! And I've had the Strawberry Shortcake one below it ever since I was a little girl in the 80s.
This was a good spot for the tree, in front of one of the back windows.
This was our first Christmas without Bentwood, who passed away on Easter. 😔 He always liked to curl up under the tree on the tree skirt. Violet took up the mantle of doing that, which she had never really done before, and it was very sweet and helped me feel like Bent was still there, in a way.
The view from my desk:
The dining area was where most of the decorations were concentrated—on the buffet, the kitchen sill (from which the stockings hang, because no more fireplace mantel), the table, and even the chandelier.
Side note: When I moved in and was setting things up I would have put another tree on the other side of the buffet for symmetry and balance, but that's where Violet's water bowl is. Sometimes it bugs me, but I'd rather have Violet than perfect symmetry!
This owl-topped nutcracker is one of my favorite decorations!
The kitchen sill has proven to be very useful for holiday and seasonal decorations!
Here's another thing from my childhood—I was lucky enough to inherit the cardinal-decked mistletoe. 😘
