This weekend it hit 50 degrees in Miami and it couldn’t have been more perfect timing, considering we got our Christmas tree! I know, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, BUT we are having our annual holiday party this week and I can’t imagine hosting this party WITHOUT a Christmas tree. Check back next week to see all my holiday party planning tips! By the way, finding a Christmas tree before Thanksgiving was more challenging than I thought, especially in Miami.
If you’ve been following along, you’ll see some decor hasn’t changed, like the pumpkins. I love all the pumpkins we added this year!
When Joel and I had Christmas together in our first home we invested in some ornaments, tree topper and holiday decor that were timeless, the rest of our ornaments I crafted or we’ve gotten along the way. My favorite ornament we added this year was from our trip our Beaver Creek in March when we got engaged! But if you look close at our tree, you’ll see how we’ve been able to personalize and make our tree true to us.
To make these ornaments, I purchased wood chips on Amazon (holes for hooks already on them!) and I painted half the wood chips with chalkboard paint and the others I ordered our favorite pictures from throughout the years and sized them small enough to put on the ornaments! Below I’ll share with you how I created each.
Name Ornaments
- Paint wood chip with black chalkboard paint (I didn’t paint the entire chip, I left a ring around the edges)
- Using a chalkboard pen (I used white) write/draw what works best for you!
Our ornaments feature all of our family members on both sides.
Photo Ornaments
- Using a photo editing software, size your selected pictures so that they’ll fit on your wood chips (I sized my pictures at about 1.75″x 1.75″)
- Have photos printed
- Cut photos so that they fit on your wood chips (you’ll have to do this one by one since all wood chips are sized differently and not perfectly round
- Using a clear mod podge, place your photo on wood chip and use a paintbrush to paint a layer of mod podge over photo. This will act as an adhesive for your photos!
You don’t have to go crazy, or spend tons of money to cozy up your home for the holidays. I have gone accumulating our decorations over the years and Michael’s (with coupons), Bullseye’s playground @ Target, and the Dollar Store have been my best friends when it comes to holiday decorating!
- Tree Topper @ Target
- Stocking (version one) @ Michael’s
- Stocking (version two) @ Michael’s
- Tree Skirt @ Michael’s
- Staircase Garland @ Michael’s
- Gold Ornaments @ Michael’s
- Wood Chips @ Amazon
- Staircase Pumpkins @ Amazon (these are similar to mine as mine are sold out)
- Fabric Pumpkins @ Target
- Felt Board @ Amazon
Share with me your holiday decor!
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