Holiday Home Tour 2014

Welcome! I’m so excited about today.  Do you love getting to peek into the homes of fabulous bloggers as much as I do?  Today I’ll be sharing our 2014 Christmas Home with you as part of the Holiday Home Tours hosted by Chris from Just A Girl. There are 25 blogs participating, and I hope you’ll get a chance to hop around and see all the other beautifully decorated homes.  If you are visiting from Hi Sugarplum welcome and come on in!!

After living in the same home for 16 years, we moved to our current home a year and a half ago.  The family room was the first room we painted and decorated earlier this year, so it’s the first year I’ve gotten to decorate the new space and to celebrate we got a new Christmas tree!  I’ve always loved the look of flocked trees, they’re just so beautiful, snowy and feel magical.  This year the awesome people at Treetopia sent me a 7 foot Frosty Flocked pre-lit flocked tree along with a stand up straight tree storage bag — and the good news is, at the end of my tour here, one lucky TidyMom reader will get to win a tree of their choice from Treetopia! 

This year I got the flu right before Thanksgiving, so Allison put the tree together and decorated it all by herself while I watched from my comfy chair, and Steve put up the outside lights.  Setting up the tree was a little messy, since it’s flocked, but it was so easy to put together, Allison had it up in no time, and spent time fluffing each branch and hooking up the lights.  This is our first time with a pre-lit tree and I have to say, it was SO much nicer than dealing with all those strands of lights, and bulbs that don’t work.   My pre-strung tree came with a on/off foot pedal and extra bulbs and fuses.  The wires for lights match the snowy green branches so well you don’t see the wires at all, just the radiant glow of the lights.

I added a few picks and a glittery garland to the tree that I found at a few of my favorite local shops.  They really added sparkle and elegance to the tree along with our ornament collection we’ve been growing for years.

After Allison got the tree up and decorated, I spent the next few weeks putting up other decorations as I started to feel better.

Luckily I had picked up some new Christmas decor at Hobby Lobby and Target several weeks before, and I was anxious to get it all out.  I did a few VERY simple Christmas crafts last year that I used again this year.  If you read many blogs or get on Pinterest at all, it kind of blows my mind with how creative and crafty some people are with their Christmas decor.  I’m always so stressed just getting thru December, I never have time for anything except for a few real simple ideas……I’ll be sharing in the next few days.

I found most of the the red and turquoise Christmas decor for one of my bookcases at Hobby Lobby.

Did you know  H&M has a home line?  That’s right, not only do they sell the latest fashion trends, but you can also pick up some great home interior fashion trends from H&M Home online.  They have great prices too!  I ordered holiday pillow covers (in the picture above) kitchen towels and a few other items including a red “Happy Holidays” tree mat that I bought to hang on the wall.  It’s 39″ in diameter and was only $13!! the pillow covers were only $6 and $10.  You can’t beat that!!

The fur pillow I borrowed from our guest room that recently had a makeover (will share in a few weeks) came from Wayfair.

I made the waterless snow globes a few years ago.  They are super easy to make, you can find the tutorial to make your own snow globes here.

The gold and silver jars on the mantle are from Target.  I picked up the felt pre-lit wreath at IKEA earlier this year when I visited Kristen in Kansas City.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with the big chalkboard I made over the summer.  It’s hung over an antique jelly cabinet that I use as a tall buffet.  I’ve been debating about painting it, but after seeing it with my new holiday dishes (Target) and the fresh pine garland, I’m kind of liking the stain color again…..for now, anyway 😉

The kitchen just has pops of red here and there.  I love filling jars with Christmas candy for a simple festive look.

The Santa paper plates and napkins, JOY marquee sign and paper stars are from Target.

So there you have it,  our 2014 Christmas tour! I have a few more pictures and ideas to share with you later this week and next…….I spent 3-4 hours home alone taking pictures of the house on Sunday! lol   When the house is clean and decorated for the holiday…….and no one is home to mess it up, it’s easy to get a little carried away with the camera.  I hope you’ll find time to pop back soon. Thanks so much for coming over! (don’t miss the Treetopia giveaway at the end of the post!)

Now is the time to head over and visit the other houses on the tour! The tours will be going on all week Monday through Friday. I’m completely honored to be a part of the tour with these amazingly talented women. Let me tell you, this is my first year participating in a holiday home tour and as fun, as it is, it’s a LOT of work, much like having a real party.   There’s the decorating and cleaning, but also all the photo taking and post writing!  It’s currently 2 am, just 4 hours before my post goes live……and if you know me, I’m not a night time person, but between being sick which delayed my decorating a bit, then we lost all our sunshine.  It’s hard to take pictures of your home when it’s dark and cloudy out every single day for a week.  I know many of us had similar issues with illness and light…… but we’ve all managed to pull it off and I’m so grateful to be a part of this group tour that makes this time of year so fun for all of us! When you’re visiting all the others, be sure to leave a comment and let them know how much you enjoyed all their hard work 😉

Your next stop on the Holiday Home Tour is Beneath My Heart. To see all of the home’s starting at the beginning click the button below.

WIN IT:  GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED – winner announced in the widget below

One lucky TidyMom reader will win a Christmas Tree of your choice (up to $500 value) from Treetopia.com

1. Leave a comment at the end of this post telling what is your favorite kind of Christmas tree?
2. Then simply complete the steps in the giveaway widget below.

Personal information will not be shared or used for any kind of mailing list, it’s simply used by me to select and contact the winner.

If you don’t see the widget, be patient because it might take a minute to load (especially with Internet Explorer 9).  Or you can click here to for the entry form if you have any questions, you can contact me via email

Disclaimer:  I have a working relationship with Treetopia and was given a tree and storage bag of my own, and one to giveaway.  As always, all views and opinions are my own.