Christmas Mantle Decor 2016

The Christmas season is finally here, and I'm so excited to be spending our first Christmas together in our new house. It's been infinitely more fun getting ready for the holidays in a home that we'll be in for a while, and to be able to invest in pieces that fit the space, that we'll use for years, and years to come. 

One of my very favorite things about our mantle decor are our stockings. We ordered ours a few years ago from merrystockings.com. They were a bit of an investment at the time, but I remember specifically saving money for a couple months to get them, and they were totally worth it. They're super thick, durable, and will last for 20 years of Christmases. 

We didn't have a fireplace in our last house, so we hung our stockings on our bookshelf instead. Because of that, we bought these stocking holders at Target on clearance after Christmas 2014, and they've been a staple in our decor ever since. We're grateful to have them now, because the idea nailing holes into our fireplace seemed like a crime, so I'm glad we're able to avoid that idea all together. I do worry about Jay climbing up and pulling a stocking down and really hurting himself. But he seems to understand that he doesn't touch, and I'm hoping it stays that way.

This year when I was picking some things up at Target I saw that they had these white yarn wrapped trees for only $10. The wooden star on the top of one of them was broken off, so they gave me 10% off, and when I got home, I hot glued the star back on, and no one was any wiser. It makes me more willing to buy broken things in the future. 

I love adding green and floral touches to our decor all year long, so I decided to buy these glass bottles at Hobby Lobby on black Friday when everything was 1/2 off. I just painted them with silver metallic acrylic paint, baked them in the oven at 350 for one hour, stuck some holly in them, and I was good to go. 

I'm not very creative with replacing our mirror from season to season, so I try and just make all the decor work around it. I found this long green holly and pine cone garland at Hobby Lobby (also 1/2 off), draped  it across the top, and called our mantle complete. 

The rest of the items we need to decorate our house are coming this week, and I can't wait to share with you our entire living room when it's all done. We have a massive window in our living room, and last weekend I half kidding asked Derek if we could put a nine foot tree in front of it, and he said yes... so I'm real excited for that to come in the mail in just a few days.