Christmas Decorating…With Kids

A Colorful Christmas Starts with the Right Stocking

Having kids has probably been the single biggest thing that has changed my personal “style” when it comes to Christmas.  Before having children, I loved a beautiful Christmas.  I loved for the tree to be perfect.  I loved for the presents to be monochromatic.  I loved having a color scheme that did not revolve around red and green.  I loved white and lights and ONLY white lights.  I have a degree in Interior Design, for heavens sake!

Then I had kids.  Three of them.  First, I learned that if it’s fragile, it will get smashed.  If it’s beautiful it will get ruined.  If it has small pieces we will stick them up our noses.  These realizations made me really sad for awhile, but slowly (OK, sometimes very slowly) I have learned to embrace Christmas with the kids at home.

No decoration is as beautiful or well lit as my children’s faces when they see strands of multi-colored lights or an ornament they made themselves hanging proudly on the tree.  After all, isn’t that what it’s really all about?  Spending joyous moments with the ones we love the most.  Having our children delight in the magic.  Loving them as Jesus loves us.

With that in mind, I thought I would show off some of my children’s favorite Christmas decorations.

Our Favorite Nativity

I think this is my favorite decoration in the whole house.  Erica did most of the set up.  The star was “borrowed” from the chicken coop.  She says the gold ribbon represents magic.  Even a pig trophy from a BBQ competition decided to show up!

My stairwell from the kitchen leading down to the living room

My son, Lucas, picked out these lights at the thrift store.  The look on his face when he realized I had used “his” lights in my kitchen was absolutely priceless.  There is a built in planter at the end, so we stuck some poinsettias in for a little color.  Please note the busy wallpaper.  It came with the house, and I certainly hope it will soon be leaving us!

 

The Foyer Table

The foyer table sports our cookie plate for Santa,  some candles, (I actually got to pick the color of something!!)  a cute snowman lamp that we received as a gift last Christmas, a runner (purchased years ago on clearance) and our super-awkward Santa picture from last year.  Above the picture I hung some branches we had to cut from our tree, tied together with a bow.  I have no idea if they will last until Christmas with no water, but so far, so good!  

Like Rudolph, this one will certainly go down in history…

Yeah, it makes me uncomfortable too.  Let’s all forget we ever saw that and talk about stockings instead.  

 

 

I knitted a stocking for each family member a few years ago.  The fun part was that I took the kids to the yarn store and let them pick out which color they wanted for their stocking.  There are no names on them, but everyone knows their color.  The children insist that they hang from left to right by age, youngest to oldest, which works perfectly, giving us pink (Savannah), green (Lucas), dark pink (Erica), blue (Eric) and purple (me.)  We hang them using 3M hooks and I find that to be much more sturdy than the hangers that are made to sit on the mantle.  I made the stockings using this knitting pattern.  I love that they look complicated, but they were really quite easy!  If you can knit a hat, you can knit these.  If you can’t knit a hat, why not go on over to Knitting Help and learn how?  That’s how I learned!

 

The Stockings Were Hung By the Chimney With Care

I will leave you with a question, has having children (or grandchildren) affected your personal style?  How?

Shared on The Backyard Farming Connection Blog Hop and Throwback Thursday!