Flocked Christmas Tree

A snowy flocked Christmas tree decorated in red, green and gold gives a big dose of nostalgia to this modern farmhouse living room. 

 

Now that all of the Thanksgiving festivities are over we can officially begin my favorite season of all…..CHRISTMAS!

Our tree has been up for several weeks and to keep you from thinking I had completely lost my mind for putting our tree up while there was still Halloween candy left in the bowl I just kept things to myself minus a few Instagram sneak peeks until I thought my mental health would no longer be in question.

 

To be honest I could try to blame my early decorating on the fact that I had a brand spanking new flocked tree sitting all alone in the box for nearly a year or these gorgeous stockings that clearly needed a home but I was just ready to decorate and having this extra time right now to relax and spend with my little family makes it all work perfectly and I think I’ll do it again next year.

 

All of the items used will be added at the end of this post. This post may contain affiliate links for your shopping convenience, this is at no extra cost to you. For information see my disclosures here. 

 

Last year was my very first Christmas here at P.A.D and for some reason, I changed things up and I went all rogue with a simple gold and white Christmas theme and although it was fun, I am a traditional Christmas kind of person… I love the nostalgic feel of the red and green and although I can’t explain why it just doesn’t feel like Christmas to me without it.

So as I was packing last years decor I vowed to take it back to my country Christmas loving roots next time because there is nothing like red and green to get you in the Christmas spirit.

 

 

When I was growing up Christmas was always such a huge thing, my grandparents had an annual Christmas party on the Saturday before Christmas and everyone and their momma would be there, I’m talking pretty much the entire county, distant cousins, neighbors, and anyone else you could think of. People filled nearly every square inch of their home.

The farmhouse my grandparents built was always decked out in the same gorgeous red lights they had left up from the year before and the inside always looked so magical with my grandmother’s favorite bubbling lights on the tree and tons of singing knick knacks all over the place.

Honestly its no wonder that Christmas has always been my favorite holiday and creating a special experience for my kiddos has become very important to me. So if that means using red and green throughout to really give our home that nostalgic Christmas feel then so be it.

To make things a little bit easier this year I started with a huge pack of 80 woodland inspired ornaments, it had a nice collection of green, bronze and gold, then once I was finished with those I added some of my trusty red sparkle and matte red ornaments to give it that traditional feel.  It was so nice having different sizes, shapes, and colors to choose from and it took all of the guesswork out of decorating the tree.

Christmas Tree Bows

 

Once I had the ornaments the way I wanted them I went back to something I’ve used time and time again on my tree’s and that is bows!! I love taking the ribbon and making these cute little bows and then sticking them all over the tree.

To make the bows I just roll out some ribbon and wrap it around my finger and then make a knot, leaving the part thats wrapped around my finger which will leave a finger sized loop to use later when its time to stick it on the branch, then I make the actual bow, just like I’m are tying my shoes, fluff the bow then cut and add it to the tree.

Once you have the desired size of bow you’d like to use you can unravel it and precut the ribbon into pieces so that all of the bows will be the same size. When it is time to add them to the tree I just like to start placing them throughout different areas of the tree and move them around until things look good.

Using bows is also a great way to fill a tree because the bow will cover a greater area than say an ornament would. Plus you can literally throw them into a tub at the end of the year and they just need a little bit of fluffing the next year.

You can use any color or style ribbon but I like to use at least 2.5″ wired ribbon for this project because I like the finished bows to be bigger than my ornaments and altogether I used approximately 3 small rolls of ribbon.

For our gifts I this year I reused these gift boxes from last season (yes, I’m that crazy person yelling for your present box back once you’ve unwrapped it) but this time I added a little something extra to them with this gold and red glitter ribbon, obviously my skills need some work and this ribbon probably wasn’t the best choice because I didn’t notice until I started working with it that its some form of plastic and hard to tie but I love the added pop of color underneath the tree.

The rest of the gifts will be wrapped with brown butcher paper that you can buy almost anywhere and adding twine or ribbon to give it an added pop of color.

On our built-ins, I had been wanting to change things up for a while because the shelves had started to seem cluttered and it truly is good to clear things off and start fresh every once in a while.

 

So I began by removing all of the pieces on the shelves and when I started adding things back I loved the simpler look of only one or two items on most of the shelves. For the most part, I kept things to a minimum and only added in a few things like these reindeer accent pieces and this little cedar tree above from the Target dollar spot.

I also picked up the Hearth and Hand antler print that I am obsessed with and will 100% be leaving up long after the holidays are over and this cast iron twine holder not only looks amazing as an accessory but it is perfect to keep in reach for a quick gift wrapping session.

Christmas Mantel

 

 

When it came time to spruce up the mantel I knew I wanted to use real cedar garland again, we love the woodsy smell and I really love the organic way it looks vs faux options. You can find real cedar garland at places like Home Depot, Lowes and even your local nursery.

Since we completed our fireplace makeover earlier this year this is our first time having it decorated for Christmas and I couldn’t be happier with the way our Christmas decor looks on this bright white beauty.

 

To top things off on the mantel I used these tiny houses I found in the Target dollar section, they were $3.00 a piece and such an easy way to add that Christmas feel without spending a ton. They even have an opening in the back for a little tealight candle but If you use these with the garland be sure to use battery operated tea light candles like these to be sure not to start a fire.

For the rest of the fireplace, I added this huge vase with a large package of shims from Home Depot (in the wood department) to mimic the look of fire starters, this vegan leather pillow and one of the small flocked trees from last season give it a wintery feel.

To add a little holiday cheer to the other side of the room I used these gorgeous vases I found on clearance and popped in a few faux cedar stems and another flocked tree then I added some real cedar garland around the mirror.

 

Overall I was able to save a ton by reusing things in a different way and by buying most of the items we used this year once the holiday season ended last year and I would totally do it again because I was able to get a ton of stuff up to 75% off and now I can just pick up a few things here and there to change the look up a bit.

 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend with your family and friends! I’ll be back next week with some fun Christmas projects and a huge kitchen surprise that I think you’re going to go crazy for so if you haven’t already be sure and sign up for our email list at the top of this page to stay updated when new posts roll out.

 

 

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