Christmas Decor

After helping my grandparents decorate their Christmas tree this past weekend, I was itching to decorate our own space.   I began by assessing what we had from last year and went from there.  Here's what we ended up with:

My grandma bought us a fresh pine garland when we visited The Fresh Market this weekend, so that was hung with the help of some Command hooks over the large opening between our living room and dining room.  The hooks themselves were a bit pricey (around five dollars each), but I bought the five pound ones since I wasn't sure how much the garland would weigh once we uncoiled it and I definitely didn't want the garland to come crashing down.  Once the holidays are over, I plan to use them to hang a curtain rod over the opening with some airy curtains pulled back to divide and define the spaces a bit more.

Growing up, we always had a fresh pine tree for Christmas.  This year, a big real tree just isn't in the cards for us, but I am happy to report that the garland (12.99 or so) leaves a similar piny scent throughout our living room without having to worry about watering the tree or Woods drinking the tree water.  For those of you out there who don't have a real tree and miss the smell, this is a great way to go!

Next, I moved a side table in from the office for our three foot tree.  After fluffing and placing some of our ornaments on the tree, I wrapped the base of it with a tree skirt I picked up at the dollar store last year.  Psst...see that yellow card there?  That is from J for my birthday in a few weeks.  Every time I walk by I have to resist opening it!

I placed our smaller tree on one of the shelves of our entertainment center, near an electrical outlet to light up the tree.  We may not have a tall tree, but we do have two smaller trees!

On the other shelf of our entertainment center, I filled three cylinder vases with silver and gold ornaments I picked up at Walmart for ten dollars.  I even had some left over which I will incorporate into our Holiday table setting in the dining room.

I hung our stockings by the chimney with care.

Then I got a crazy idea.  Our fireplace doesn't work and we have a strand of outdoor white lights that I bought last year before I learned there is no good way to put up lights out there.  I decided to wrap the fake logs in there for some color and light.  Eventually I'd like to remove the fake logs altogether and replace them with something like this or this.  Until then, I think our wrapped logs will work great for the holiday season!

I still have have the dining room to finish (which I will of course share when I'm done) but the living room is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.  In fact, it has become my favorite room in our apartment!

Have you decorated for Christmas yet?  What new items have worked their way in this year?