2021 Christmas Decor Ideas, Tips, Questions, Sharing

[TechWife]

I'm pretty sure I'm finished unless I get some sudden inspiration about the wall over the fireplace. Here are some highlights (I just love decorating for Christmas).

Front:

Tree:

staircase & breakfast nook:

Second floor landing tree w/staircase in background:

 

[mommyoffive]

WOW!!!

Your house is STUNNING!

I Adore the outside. 

[MEmama]

Your house is beautiful, @TechWife! 

[theelfqueen]

I am completely unmotivated...at this point, this is the only Christmas decoration in my house.

[TechWife]

1 hour ago, theelfqueen said:

I am completely unmotivated...at this point, this is the only Christmas decoration in my house.

Mickey is a very important part of Christmas! 

[Faith-manor]

2 hours ago, TechWife said:

I'm pretty sure I'm finished unless I get some sudden inspiration about the wall over the fireplace. Here are some highlights (I just love decorating for Christmas).

Front:

Tree:

staircase & breakfast nook:

Second floor landing tree w/staircase in background:

 

Absolutely gorgeous!!!!

[fraidycat]

7 hours ago, theelfqueen said:

I am completely unmotivated...at this point, this is the only Christmas decoration in my house.

I'm unmotivated, too! I painted that snowman in the window, then DH and DS set up the tree on Monday and that is it. The tree has been set up, but there is no fluffing of the branches, no tree skirt, no decorations, nothing. LOL If they wait for me to do it, we may just end up with a naked tree this year. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[fraidycat]

@TechWifeyour house is gorgeous!

[MEmama]

10 hours ago, fraidycat said:

I'm unmotivated, too! I painted that snowman in the window, then DH and DS set up the tree on Monday and that is it. The tree has been set up, but there is no fluffing of the branches, no tree skirt, no decorations, nothing. LOL If they wait for me to do it, we may just end up with a naked tree this year. 🤷🏻‍♀️

If it makes you feel any better, ours only has lights on it. The tree skirt immediately became a favorite kitty toy, and alternates between being bunched in the corner, scattered across the room, and otherwise in complete disarray. Apparently it makes an ideal place for them to hide toys and pounce on them. 😻 Ornaments feel like a bad idea this year. 🤣

Do you have pets you can blame for your lack of motivation? 😎

[Hannah]

We decorated the windows with crafted items.

[MEmama]

1 minute ago, Hannah said:

We decorated the windows with crafted items.

Everything is so pretty!
Love your homemade decorations and your (green!) yard is beautiful. Those felted(?)/ knitted(?) trees are adorable!

[fraidycat]

1 hour ago, MEmama said:

If it makes you feel any better, ours only has lights on it. The tree skirt immediately became a favorite kitty toy, and alternates between being bunched in the corner, scattered across the room, and otherwise in complete disarray. Apparently it makes an ideal place for them to hide toys and pounce on them. 😻 Ornaments feel like a bad idea this year. 🤣

Do you have pets you can blame for your lack of motivation? 😎

I can't blame them for the lack of motivation, but I do have 5 cats, 3 of them are 6 month old kittens. If I do get ornaments on the tree, it will be kitty safe, non-breakable ones. 😁

[Hannah]

8 minutes ago, MEmama said:

Everything is so pretty!
Love your homemade decorations and your (green!) yard is beautiful. Those felted(?)/ knitted(?) trees are adorable!

Thank you MeMama!  We've had wonderful summer rains and the garden responds immediately - three months ago the grass was dead from the winter frost!

[lmrich]

66078161193__62DFAE72-7427-4337-91FC-380902238847.HEIC

just wish it was snowing outside, too! 

[Stacia]

I like lights.

Outside in the front yard, we wrap the trunks of 4 big trees with lights. I learned quite a few years ago that using icicle lights make the wrapping go way faster. And one tree is small enough in diameter that a net light works on it. Perfect? No. But festive & fun? Yes, imo. (I actually wrap them with orange lights at the beginning of October for Halloween. I leave the orange lights up through Thanksgiving. Then, as I remove the orange lights, I put up the multi-color lights since I already have the cords in place.)

Often I also put lights on trees in the backyard so we can enjoy them too. (Easier to see our backyard at night from the rooms we use than the front yard.)

I hang a strand of lights at my kitchen window over the sink. I have cup hooks screwed behind the valence, as well as under the cabinets on each side of the sink so they will hang/stay in place. I keep lights around the window year-round, changing them out by season (with seasonal light strands).

This year, my personal life is crazy and stressful. (My mom has been in the hospital with stage 4 cancer for the past month.) At this point, we have a tree up (prelit) with no ornaments on it & I think it will stay that way. I also have a prelit tree in my bedroom (that I always use just with the lights, no ornaments). We also have quite a few freestanding lighted decorations (stuff similar to this) that my sister bought us a few years ago. So those are out & are plugged in throughout the house. I will say it made for fairly easy decorating during a crazy time. I have cords with the step-on button that I use for them so it's easy to turn them on & off. My outside lights are on remotes that I can easily control through an app on my phone. Because of all the stuff going on this year, I haven't pulled out other stuff for decorating this year (other than stockings hanging on the mantel) & I am fine w/ it as it is.

Another thing I normally do (but haven't done this year) is put lights on the roof rack on my car. I use battery pack strands for those, put the battery pack inside a ziploc, & use electrical tape to tape the strand to the rack (making sure the "on/off" switch is facing up for easy access to turn them on/off).

One thing I like & used to do when we had some outdoor lighted reindeer was to put down a few sets of green net lights on the ground under them (so it looks like they are standing on grass). Our reindeer eventually bit the dust, but I really liked doing that when I had them. I got the idea at a drive-through light display years ago.

[bibiche]

So sorry to read that about your mother, @Stacia. Big hugs to you. 💗 

[TechWife]

On 12/9/2021 at 7:49 AM, MEmama said:

If it makes you feel any better, ours only has lights on it. The tree skirt immediately became a favorite kitty toy, and alternates between being bunched in the corner, scattered across the room, and otherwise in complete disarray. Apparently it makes an ideal place for them to hide toys and pounce on them. 😻 Ornaments feel like a bad idea this year. 🤣

Do you have pets you can blame for your lack of motivation? 😎

Cats are so much fun at Christmas! 

[TechWife]

23 hours ago, Hannah said:

We decorated the windows with crafted items.

These are absolutely beautiful. I’m in awe of your creativity. 

[TechWife]

23 hours ago, fraidycat said:

I can't blame them for the lack of motivation, but I do have 5 cats, 3 of them are 6 month old kittens. If I do get ornaments on the tree, it will be kitty safe, non-breakable ones. 😁

Target, Lowes & others have big tubs of plastic ornaments. I say go for it!

[TechWife]

12 hours ago, Stacia said:

I like lights.

Outside in the front yard, we wrap the trunks of 4 big trees with lights. I learned quite a few years ago that using icicle lights make the wrapping go way faster. And one tree is small enough in diameter that a net light works on it. Perfect? No. But festive & fun? Yes, imo. (I actually wrap them with orange lights at the beginning of October for Halloween. I leave the orange lights up through Thanksgiving. Then, as I remove the orange lights, I put up the multi-color lights since I already have the cords in place.)

Often I also put lights on trees in the backyard so we can enjoy them too. (Easier to see our backyard at night from the rooms we use than the front yard.)

I hang a strand of lights at my kitchen window over the sink. I have cup hooks screwed behind the valence, as well as under the cabinets on each side of the sink so they will hang/stay in place. I keep lights around the window year-round, changing them out by season (with seasonal light strands).

This year, my personal life is crazy and stressful. (My mom has been in the hospital with stage 4 cancer for the past month.) At this point, we have a tree up (prelit) with no ornaments on it & I think it will stay that way. I also have a prelit tree in my bedroom (that I always use just with the lights, no ornaments). We also have quite a few freestanding lighted decorations (stuff similar to this) that my sister bought us a few years ago. So those are out & are plugged in throughout the house. I will say it made for fairly easy decorating during a crazy time. I have cords with the step-on button that I use for them so it's easy to turn them on & off. My outside lights are on remotes that I can easily control through an app on my phone. Because of all the stuff going on this year, I haven't pulled out other stuff for decorating this year (other than stockings hanging on the mantel) & I am fine w/ it as it is.

Another thing I normally do (but haven't done this year) is put lights on the roof rack on my car. I use battery pack strands for those, put the battery pack inside a ziploc, & use electrical tape to tape the strand to the rack (making sure the "on/off" switch is facing up for easy access to turn them on/off).

One thing I like & used to do when we had some outdoor lighted reindeer was to put down a few sets of green net lights on the ground under them (so it looks like they are standing on grass). Our reindeer eventually bit the dust, but I really liked doing that when I had them. I got the idea at a drive-through light display years ago.

I think Christmas lights are the best thing! I’m sorry to hear about your mom - being with her is the most important thing you can do right now. 

[Jenny in Florida]

My son came over and climbed up on the roof to put lights up on the house for me (something we haven't done for the last few years). My husband built me a new set of risers for my growing collection of light-up critters. And I now feel like I have "enough" outside lights for the first time in ages.

Clearly, I'm not terribly concerned with anything sophisticated. I'm just going for cheerful.

(I also included a gratuitous picture of the dog posing with the critters while decorating was still in progress.)

Inside, we put up the tree this week, and my husband surprised me with the electric fireplace unit I've been wanting since we bought the house. 

I feel done decorating at this point.

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by Jenny in Florida

[Hannah]

13 minutes ago, Jenny in Florida said:

My son came over and climbed up on the roof to put lights up on the house for me (something we haven't done for the last few years). My husband built me a new set of risers for my growing collection of light-up critters. And I now feel like I have "enough" outside lights for the first time in ages.

(I also included a gratuitous picture of the dog posing with the critters while decorating was still in progress.)

Inside, we put up the tree this week, and my husband surprised me with the electric fireplace unit I've been wanting since we bought the house. 

I feel done decorating at this point.

 

Your light display and the critters are magical!

 

[KSera]

41 minutes ago, Jenny in Florida said:

My son came over and climbed up on the roof to put lights up on the house for me (something we haven't done for the last few years). My husband built me a new set of risers for my growing collection of light-up critters. And I now feel like I have "enough" outside lights for the first time in ages.

Clearly, I'm not terribly concerned with anything sophisticated. I'm just going for cheerful.

(I also included a gratuitous picture of the dog posing with the critters while decorating was still in progress.)

Inside, we put up the tree this week, and my husband surprised me with the electric fireplace unit I've been wanting since we bought the house. 

I feel done decorating at this point.

 

I LOVE your critter display. If we lived close enough, your house would definitely make our “must drive by” list for light drives 😊. 

[happi duck]

I know it's a little late for tips but wanted to share two things.

I continued a tradition from my childhood to have the tree up on a box.  Gives more room around the tree and also let's a six foot tree reach the ceiling and be visible through the window.  

Also, what started as a way to keep the cat from jumping up and nibbling and climbing has become one of my favorite tree "skirts".

[Murphy101]

About 16 years ago we started a tradition of buying 1 ornament each at Thanksgiving. (As the kids move out, they can take the ornaments with them.)    I wish we had started our marriage with this tradition. We all go together and everyone can pick their own ornament.

We always get artificial trees bc 1) allergies and 2) pets and 3) better environmentally imo.

This is our mantle and 10ft narrow trees. I’m super happy with it.  Opposite this wall is the upstairs hallway rail that overlooks the living room. It has some garland and bows across the top of it  and we have some very small stockings that hang at the bottom.  We have small stockings on purpose bc we need space for a lot of them, because we don’t want to feel pressure to stuff large stockings full, and bc we celebrate St Nicholas day on Dec 6.  These will only have a few bits of candy and a small toy from Santa on Xmas morning next to their Santa gift if they are under 13.  After this Christmas, I’ll only have 2 kids left young enough for Santa. 🥺 (And no none of my kids so far are upset that Santa doesn’t come when they turn 13.  That’s when they get to become Santa like the big kids.  They are usually super excited.) 

I don’t think you can tell in the picture but Joseph and Mary start on the right or the mantle the first Sunday of advent, 2nd Sunday they are in the middle and 3rd Sunday they are on the left.  This Sunday they will move to the actual crèche on my dining room rail/bookcase that is to the left of the fireplace and the wisemen will start traveling.

There’s a long bar table behind one of the sofa’s and it has a seasonal decorative runner with gnomes on it.  My Dh has a thing for gnomes and squirrels and the runner has both.  That’s where we have our prayer book, advent candles and a bowl with gnomes in it filled with candy canes and a pretty poinsettia candy dish that his grandmother made years ago.  

We do not usually put lights up outside.  Some years the kids will do it after promising to also take it down by Easter.     Some years they actually did do that. Lol

Other than a wreath on the front door, that’s it for our holiday decor. We will take it all down the 9th or 10th of January, when the Christmas season ends in the RCC.  

Edited December 15, 2021 by Murphy101

[Faith-manor]

The homeschool area of the dining room is decorated. Poor dd just didn't have time prior to our arrival, and she reacted hard to her Moderna booster, so she was also down several days with little ones who had ENERGY to burn. So we are making the house bright for them while she and son in law sit with their feet up and have a breather.