Holiday decorating ideas

[SeekingJoy]

What are your favorite holiday decorating blog posts or articles? We have pulled out all our holiday decorations and started decorating our house, but I am feeling less than inspired. Nothing looks pulled together or cohesive, probably because it isn't. Our decorations have been collected over decades since I was a kid.

We have a tree up, lit and decorated. We have greenery on the mantle and a wreath on the door. We have an advent calendar. What else fun can we do, either as a craft with the kids or a fun project for me? Any tips for making all the decorations look pulled together (without having to toss everything and start over)?

[newbymom05]

I totally get into Christmas decorating. Every year I buy the Nov and Dec issues of magazines whose covers I like for inspiration. I also like sites like Hooked on Houses (one word .com) or The Nester (also one word .com) who do link parties where people post their mantles/decor/whatever. Those are great b/c they're real people with stuff I can obtain/do myself, not some magazine shoot done by designers.

IMO what helps it to look pulled together is a theme, and/or repetition of items or color(s), and that can be pretty cheap. This year I did a really simple mantle of greenery and red and gold ornaments. I've got the red/gold repeating throughout the house as well as the greenery, which makes it all looked pulled together, even though I have a bunch of kid-related stuff and a mishmash of ornaments on the tree. It's easy to use too much color and too many items--like Santas AND reindeer AND snowmen AND cookie jars AND religious icons --it's too much and your eye can't rest. Much simpler to narrow it to a couple items that repeat. If you already have a lot of "stuff", I'd use color to pull it together.

[*bejeweled*]

I think that white lights pull it all together. I don't get much into all of the knick knacks of Christmas, but I loooove the lights.

[SeekingJoy]

I like the tip to simplify with color and theme. I will think on that and look for inspiration.

We did stencil snowflakes on the windows, and it was a fun, frugal touch.

[mommariffic]

I like lights too at Christmas - not a fan of red/green combination and Santa pillows, but we do a beautiful big tree. DD and I make paper chains, and she does holiday finger painting, glitter trees, glitter pine cones and whatever else I come up with and those go around the house. We do a gingerbread house [got it from Trader Joe's this year, a Hansel and Gretel theme which was cute] and ummm that's it really!

[columbusmomma]

I like the Christmas decorating ideas here:

www.thenester.com

[PatienceAndLove]

Another vote for white lights!

And I concur with the color theme. One or two colors that are carried through the decor will tie everything together.