decking the halls.

Like it or not, the Christmas holiday shows its glowing face earlier and earlier every year.  Even I was shocked that businesses were slinging up decorations as they were pulling down the ones from Halloween.  This year I'm choosing to embrace it as a good thing. It shows how much people hunger for the joy, excitement and "good will towards men" that the Christmas spirit encourages.  If people want to start thinking that way sooner - wonderful. Sure, it also marks the beginning of an insane shopping frenzy but I'm choosing to ignore that part of it, avoid the mall, and stay positive.

One of my favorite aspects of the season is coming home to a Christmas tree and a house strewn with twinkling lights, pine cones, and hues of red and green. It's amazing the feelings of comfort, anticipation and happiness those things can stir up inside me, not to mention the warm memories they evoke. Of course, nothing's more dismal than seeing the sad carcass of a dried out evergreen laying roadside the day after New Year's. Like the shopping, I'm choosing to ignore this unhappy thought and focus my attention on how I'll make the most of this holiday season, starting with those lovely decorations.

Last year I invested in a few things like garland and a pretty table runner and this year I have some new ideas but would like to take a more DIY approach.  I'd like to say it's to save money, but as I've learned, DIY can quickly turn into "just as expensive as buying it pre-made, except that you can say you made it yourself." So I'm doing it more out of the desire to try something unique. Here are a few inspired ideas that I've collected from the old blogosphere:

click image to enlarge

1. Decorating with food {popcorn garland, a box of clementines & two bags of coffee}

2. Orange Slice Garland {still researching the best method for drying out the oranges}

3. Advent Wreath {using a Bundt cake pan, which I don't have...}

4. Mason Jar Candles {with epson salt "snow"}

5. Felt Wreath {this seems a bit ambitious for me. that's a lot of felt}

As you can see, I'm mostly inspired by the idea of using food in creative ways to create a classic yet cozy Christmas at home. All I need now is a Bundt cake pan, hundreds of felt squares, mason jars, lots of oranges and a couple of other things....

Piece.of.(Bundt).cake.