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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And my official Favorite Holiday is drawing closer– YASSS! Decorating for Holidays always gives me so much joy, and this year it’s been really special to decorate our new Connecticut home! Last year I decorated for Christmas as well, but there was a lot going on in my personal life behind the scenes AND Major was just an itty bitty baby still– it was really nice this year to get a fresh start and really go for it with the decor. Everyone in my household just feels happier around Christmastime, and there are so many fun traditions we love doing as a family! (more on this next week). Today I wanted to give you a little home tour and show you how I bring the Christmas cheer in to my home to get us all in a festive mood!
For the exterior of my home, I always love investing in a gorgeous faux wreath that I can use year after year! I had a magnolia leaf one that I used for years on our front door in Los Angeles (We had real magnolia trees on our property so it worked perfectly!)– but the wreath got damaged in our move. I was a little sad, but honestly I like my new wreath even more! It’s nice to get a bit of fresh energy in my Christmas decor this year! I got my two mini trees outside from a local nursery, and dressed up the simple planters with beautiful ribbon. I also FINALLY upgraded our doormat game. I’ve always loved monogrammed doormats and I had this extra wide one personalized.
Inside the home, I love decorating our most trafficked areas in sweet little ways that still go well with my existing decor. It’s important to me that all my holiday decorations match my existing aesthetic! I just about died when I saw these adorable galvanized steel houses at Terrain. I had to have them! In the store they filled them with little sparkly light strands, and I knew my kids would adore having some cute buildings all lit up on our marble island in the kitchen. Boy, was I right. Major screeched at the top of his lungs and lunged out of my arms towards them when he saw! Talk about holiday spirit! LOL. I think these pieces would also look so charming on a mantel or on an entryway table.
Our kitchen mantel always gets a little love, too! This year we introduced the kids to The Elf On The Shelf, and her position of glory is on this mantel. There’s no place better for her to observe my children and threaten them with her relationship with Santa than overlooking the area where they eat all their meals! Tantrums begone, ha!
Now, I should take this opportunity to mention that Grapes The Dragon is still going strong in our household! If you somehow missed the vibe of Marlowe reinventing herself around Halloween time with her green dragon costume, I will recap for you now and let you know that she has worn her costume pretty much nonstop since the beginning of October. She has a whole dragon persona named Grapes (she came up with the name), and I have to say it’s been a pretty hilarious part of our lives as of late. Marlowe wanted to be in the pictures for this post, but only as Grapes– so you are about to see her in all her glory! LOL. I’m dying over these pictures, why are kids the cutest and weirdest literally ALL OF THE TIME. If I had enough memory space on my hard drive I would just film this crazy kid all day long and have hours of footage to watch on repeat when she grows up. Ha! Good thing for this blog, at least I can scroll through the pics nonstop one day!
When it came to the holiday decor for our Family Room, it just felt meant to be this year. I love decorating with pieces from Grandin Road– and when I got their holiday catalog in the beginning of september I almost lost it when I saw that one of their featured new Holiday collections matches our family room PERFECTLY. I mean I could not believe it!!! It’s like it was made especially FOR ME! Ha! I raised the bar big time in terms of holiday decor in this room this year, and even added a second faux white tree with twinkle lights and beautiful colorful ornaments all from the catalog. The pretty holiday pillows and the glass trees are from Grandin Road as well. I absolutely adore how this room turned out…and I’m semi convinced to keep the tree up year round! Guess who else loves the room? GRAPES!
Lastly, I get really excited to decorate our Living Room as well. This is our more “adult” living space that Kyle and I use together without the kids. It has our bar in it! LOL. Whereas our Family Room has an energizing and modern holiday vibe, I wanted to go more traditional Christmas in this room. We decorate our family tree in this room each year, with ornaments that we’ve collected over the years– and some that I’ve held on to from my childhood! I just love our perfectly imperfect Christmas tree– it feels so “us” to me every time I look at it. Our iron bull head and bar cart had to get decked out also, of course! And while last year we had our completed family set of four stockings hung up, this year is the first year we will be spending Christmas in our own home– and that is SO special to me. I can’t wait to watch my kids run in to this room to see their gifts on Christmas morning!
Having our home all decked out for the Holiday season really puts a spring in my step, and I know it may be a little crazy to go all-out before it’s even December– but if holiday cheer is wrong I don’t want to be right!
To kick off the season, I wanted to do a special giveaway for you guys right now! When I opened my Grandin Road Christmas Ornaments for our Family Room tree, I actually gasped. I couldn’t believe how beautiful they are. Welp, I’m giving one lucky reader a complete set for YOUR tree! These ornaments aren’t even available anymore on the website (clearly I’m not the only one obsessed) so you will be extra lucky to snag them! To enter, just comment below and share your favorite Christmas tradition. I will pick a winner tomorrow!
**UPDATE** The Giveaway is now closed! Congrats to Joelle , you won the giveaway! Please see my reply to your comment below to claim your prize!
Shop the look…
My top by J. Crew
My Skirt & Shoes by Tory Burch
Marlowe’s dragon costume by Pottery Barn Kids
Photographs by Carter Fish
Oh I would love to win some ornaments! My favorite Christmas tradition is Polar Express with my 5 year old daughter. We just love it!
Great post! Our families tradition is on Christmas Day we eat a wonderful brunch and then play pass the parcel. It’s so much fun especially with a lot of family plus it helps give a small gift to everyone without breaking the bank! I also love to make biscotti and fudge with my mom as gifts for our friends and family. Happy Holidays!
So beautiful, thank you for the giveaway. Our favorite holiday tradition is our advent calendar — it puts us all in the holiday spirit. Even on the mornings we are rushing out the door, the kids never forget to check the pocket. Sometimes it’s a small candy, sometimes it’s a good deed we want to accomplish for the holidays, sometimes a surprise gift to open or a Christmas-related outing. It takes me a lot of time to put it together but it’s worth it!
Also, the shop the look links don’t seem to be working for me — anyone else?
Same here!!! I tried few times !
My favourite tradition is our Christmas Eve family get-together. We come from far and wide, enjoy each other’s company, have a beautiful Christmas dinner and top it off with my mum’s annual chocolate mousse cake. Bliss!
Our favorite tradition is getting hot chocolate and driving around the neighborhood to look at all the beautifully decorated houses.
Going out to dinner on Christmas Eve with my now adult children. Then back home and everyone gets to open one present. And cinnamon buns and mimosas on Christmas morning!
I remember always being super excited for the holidays growing up and stockings were a favorite Christmas tradition for my family. My dad’s parents did oranges in them, but our family continued the tradition with small gifts wrapped and placed in our stockings. As an adult I still have stocking hung and enjoy the tradition.
Decorating the tree with my husband is the BEST moment of every Christmas, and the stuffed shells we eat on Christmas Eve are a closer runner-up. <3 (Literally LOLed at Lowie's little face peeking out from the Grapes costume.)
My favorite Christmas tradition is that we have a birthday cake every year for Jesus. We put candles in it and sing Happy Birthday before we have it as dessert with our Christmas meal.
Your house looks stunning!! Love the idea of having a room with more traditional decor and another kid-friendly room with more energy and color! (Obsessed with those Holiday pillows from Grandin Road!)
Our favorite tradition is on Christmas Eve. After dinner (and several drinks) everyone opens one gift before going to bed. It’s a great way to end the festivities on Christmas Eve and get excited for Christmas morning 🙂
Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family! xo
What a beautiful way to decorate your home! I’m a huge fan of those pillows. My favorite Christmas tradition is getting cozy in front of the fireplace and watching It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. Thanks for the chance to win!
My favorite Christmas tradition is spending Christmas Eve with just my little family of 5 and letting each person open one gift before they go to bed. The kids are always so excited about this.
I love how you decorated your home! I’m with you on the Holiday spirit around here, my house was all done up by Sunday! Haha. I have a ten month old son Dylan and he was ALL smiles when he came home from Nana’s house to see lights on the house, decorated Christmas Tree and all the colors and glitter inside. My favorite memory for Christmas is that my parents used greens and reds for the outside lights, so I’ve incorporated that in ALL my decor. My home is all green, red and gold. Hobby Lobby has been bringing back vintage decor the last few years so I’ve gone nuts on buying a few pieces at a time! Not to mention I’ve found actual vintage pieces or been given some from my grandparents. I just love Christmas and I can’t wait for Dylan to understand it better next year! Have a great Holiday Eva!
Every year on Christmas eve, my three daughters (11,9 and 3) get to open one gift of Christmas pajamas. I spend a lot of time finding ones that I think they will love, or find funny, and it makes me so happy to see them open them and wear them for Christmas. They never match each other because my girls are all very different, and I like to have them reflect that in their clothing choices too!
My absolute favorite Christmas tradition is watching A Christmas Story ALL DAY. The best part is having it on while unwrapping gifts with my mom and sister. That movie has been such a huge part of my life that I even have a leg lamp tattoo! Lol!
Expecting our first baby in January, so can’t wait to start new traditions, but until now, I love laying under the tree and looking up at the lights/decorations. And bourbon chocolate chip pie of course:)
Hi Eva! I absolutely love this post! Our favorite tradition is also hot cocoa and driving around to look at the Christmas lights! My 2, almost 3 year old daughter loves the elf on the shelf tradition we just started as well!
Happy Holidays!
My favorite Christmas tradition is going to look at Christmas lights! My husband and I for years had a date night to go out and walk around a local hotel resort or Phoenix downtown to take in the Christmas lights with hot chocolate. But the last year we had our son join us for his first Christmas. This year, Will, is old enough to really take in the beauty of twinkle lights and so I’m excited for him to join us and see his face fully take in the magic of the season.
You’re the best mother I’ve ever seen. Love you so much.
My favorite tradition comes just after Thanksgiving. That is getting on the train and heading downtown Chicago to look at the windows at Macy’s. Their decorations are always so adorable and fun to see! Afterwards we walk around the corner to the German market where I pick one ornament to commemorate that year. Reservations for a nice dinner afterwards just makes it so special.
My favorite Christmas tradition with my family is that we all eat pizza for breakfast on Christmas morning! My family (parents and two sisters) literally love pizza over everything. We typically purchase the pizza the night before and then warm it up in the oven to eat while we open our gifts! It’s the best thing ever! I am 28 and hope to continue this tradition with my own family one day. 🙂
Decorating Christmas cookies!
We love decorating gingerbread houses every year at our house as a Christmas tradition. Also, just generally cooking and baking holiday treats which makes the house feel extra cozy and smell like the holidays.
Hands down love seeing pictures of Christmas Trees and riding around and see everyone’s yard with all the lights! Plus since I’m a high school teacher a much need break!
Christmas starts in July for me haha, one month of celebrating just isn’t enough! My favorite tradition is driving around after our Christmas Eve church service and looking at all the homes that have been decked out with lights!
Ahhhhh love your site!! Well I must say being a ct girl born and raised my favorite Christmas tradition is of course going to Christmas tree farm with family and picking out and chopping down our own tree, followed by hot choclate, obvs!
My favourite part of Christmas is when my entire family can all make it to celebrate Christmas dinner together. With almost 50 people in attendance, it’s crazy, but wonderful.
Holiday baking is a tradition from both my husband’s and I’s side that we have carried on with our kids. For my husbands tradition we pick a weekend in December and make various types of homemade goodies to delivery to family and friends. It’s two straight days of baking! My tradition is to spend family time making a double batch of cookies and decorating them just in time for Christmas.
Instead of Elf on a shelf, we have a stuffed toy soldier that my parents used when we were kids. When my oldest of three kids started to ask about how Santa knows everything he does, my dad wrote a letter from Santa giving the soldier his new orders. Saying that his old orders(my siblings and I) were old and now he has new orders (my three kids). My son thought it was THE coolest thing ever. I love that it was mine and I can pass it down to my kids, but my favorite thing about it, is that my parents helped with it too!!
My father collected Dept. 56 Christmas Village collection pieces, and literally has enough pieces to make a village! So every year the day after thanksgiving we spent setting up our 12ft village display around the tree. One side was our “city” and the other our “residential” with a train running around the tree to each side. My most fondest memories are doing this with him as it was “our thing”. After it was done, i would just sit and stare in amazement everyday at all the lights, enjoying every moment we had while the display was up and the Christmas season continued. I always got teary eyed when we had to take it down. My parents have since moved and this year marks my first Christmas married and starting new traditions, but I still miss those days putting the village up with my dad and look forward to one day continuing the tradition with my own family!
First of all… Grapes? I am dying! She is like the best kid ever! Not tha Majie is not, but Marlow’s personality is just a dream!
My favorite holiday tradition is baking with mom and putting up the tree with the whole family.
Although as of last year it seems we have a new tradition: traveling. This year we’ll be in Amsterdam again, but after two years in a row away, next year I just want to stay home!
Love your decorations! So beautiful!! My family’s favorite tradition is riding around to see Christmas lights while drinking hot chocolate.
My favorite Christmas tradition is on Christmas Eve, my mom would always make a special dinner…steak or shrimp something we wouldn’t normally eat and after dinner we would open one present that my parents picked. Almost every year the present would be matching Christmas pj’s for my sisters and I. We would put them on and watch The Santa Clause or Polar Express and then my dad would read us Twas the Night Before Christmas.
Hope your family has a wonderful Christmas!
My favorite Christmas tradition is one that’s fairly new to me: Picking out a tree from a local farm and cutting it down! I started this couple of years ago when I moved out for the first time. I love the smell, the bright green against the twinkling lights, and the holiday cheer it naturally brings. Because I’m a post grad millennial living in CT, I had to move back to my parents’ house so I haven’t gotten a tree yet because they’re not too into the idea. But I think I’ll get a mini one for my room. I definitely need some holiday cheer this year for sure!
I love your family room. Such a great vibe
Love your living room, which we usually don’t get to see! Absolutely love Grape in your photos!
Love this post – your home is decorated beautifully! Also, love the appearance of Grapes again! My favorite Christmas tradition is for lunch before all the extended family comes over we always eat take out Chinese food. It’s just so cozy and casual! We even got an ornament of a Chinese take out box that is proudly displayed on our tree every year!
My favorite tradition is Christmas Eve. My grandmother always made Christmas Eve such an exciting and special day. She always made lasagna, stuffed mushrooms, bacon wrapped prunes, peanut butter blossoms, and pitzelles. She would always allow us just 1 special gift that night. She passed away when I was pregnant with my first child. It was hard to accept the face that she will never know my kids. So to keep her spirit alive I’ve taken over Christmas Eve and follow in her footsteps. I make the same foods and drinks. I make sure my kids get 1 special gift (usually Christmas pjs and a movie) and try my hardest to give my house the same excitement she did. Hopefully one day my kids or grandkids will feel the same way I always did.
Picking out and hanging our stockings has become a big part of Christmas for us! We don’t have a human baby yet but our fur babies each have their own mini stocking that we picked out especially for them and fill with treats for them to enjoy Christmas morning. We’re so excited for next year to pick out a stocking for our first child!
Your house looks fab! Festive and fun…so great.
My favorite Christmas tradition comes from my mother, who is from Berlin. December 6th is St. Nicholas Day. On the evening of the 5th, children clean their shoes and leave them outside their bedroom door. When St. Nicholas comes and sees how well children have taken care of their shoes, he fills them with sweets. If the shoes are dirty, children get coal LOL! We always did this with my mom growing up, and now I’ve started it with my girls. My mom still gets into the spirit and left some new boots filled with treats for my daughter last year. I love carrying on traditions that I did as a child with my children!
Oh your home looks amazing! I love how the decorations go with the existing color scheme and aesthetic of your home. I think Grapes the Dragon needs to reinvent herself as a Christmas Dragon – bringing fire to the fireplaces of all the good boys and girls who wish to roast chestnuts (haha).
My favorite Christmas tradition was always as a child, opening one present a couple nights before Christmas. I would pick out one for my mom and she’d let me pick which one I wanted to open for myself. It was just a sweet way to really take time to be thankful for that one special gift before we got caught up in the hoopla of Christmas day. Between the ages of 5 and 8, I do think I re-gifted her the same faux diamond necklace (like we’re talking tacky Gatsby style) – but she loved it just as much each time.
Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday and I’ve enjoyed getting older and finding more and more joy out of gifting to others.
My favorite Christmas tradition is watching holiday movies during the inbetween time after gifts and before dinner. Everyone is pleasantly full from breakfast and some are quietly checking out new gear from Santa. Everyone sits together in the family room snuggled up to watch family favorite holiday movies! At least half of us fall asleep and enjoy a Christmas catnap!
Every year we eat Christmas bread made by my great aunt! It’s so yummy and such a fun treat to wake up to on the big day! Loveeee your house and all the decor!
Beautiful! One of my favorite holiday traditions is decorating our tree. When my husband and I got married almost 10 years ago, we started a tradition of buying Christmas ornaments when we travel. So, every year when we decorate the tree, we get to remember some of our most special family trips together. The kids are fully involved now in picking the ornaments out and at ages 8,7 and 6, sometimes the funniest ornaments make it home with us. (who doesn’t need an enormous dinosaur tooth on their tree from the dinosaur national monument?!)
My favorite tradition is finding the perfect ornament to add to our tree each year. This year it’s a plaid picture frame with an ultrasound of our little guy, coming this February!
Every year, my family of 11 and I each write out our Christmas wish lists and stick them all in a hat. On Thanksgiving, each member then draws a list, and gets to buy gifts only for the person who they draw! The whole thing stays secret, and on Christmas day we all go around one by one and open our gifts. Then, we have to guess who chose our name and bought our gifts – it becomes a fun game, especially when my Grandpa has to buy Victoria’s Secret paraphernalia for my 16-year-old cousins 🙂 It has become a favorite family tradition, while also making sure everyone in our large family has a special gift with their name on it!
Our tradition is one that I’ve carried over from my childhood. A freshly laundered pair of Christmas pjs wrapped for everyone to open on Christmas Eve. I also handmade my kids’ and my husband’s stockings to match my handmade stocking. And a new tradition (I hope) that we are starting this year is a take on the 12 days of Christmas. We are doing 12 days of service.
I do not have kids of my own but I’m the crazy aunt in the crazy Christmas jammies every Christmas! I love watching them open their gifts on Christmas morning and the kids and I always wear our fun Christmas Jammie’s until it’s time to dress up for dinner!
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the Christmas tree with my little guy.
I am so excited this year to start some holiday traditions. Last Christmas my daughter was only 2.5 months old, so she really wasn’t “into it”. I have already noticed this year her pointing out all the decor in stores and having this cutest big grin when she sees the lights I have up around the house already. One tradition I am going to start is a Christmas Eve bag-and fill it with Christmas pjs, an ornament for the tree, a holiday book & or movie and a little treat.
One of our favorite traditions is eating a yummy dinner on Christmas Eve, going to a candlelight Christmas Eve church service and then coming home to get in cozy pajamas before watching our daughters open one of their presents.
My favorite tradition is decorating my house with my family. Especially decorating the tree with a holiday cocktail and Christmas music.
My favorite holiday tradition is reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ to our 4 year old on Christmas Eve and drinking boozy egg nog while we decorate our tree ?
My favorite tradition growing up was opening presents on Christmas Eve, which both my mom and dad did as kids too. I have twins who were born last Dec 28 so this is technically their first Christmas, and my husband and I are excited to start own own family traditions! Your home is decorated so beautifully!
I loved this post! My favorite Christmas tradition started when my daughter was 2 years old (she’s now 13). On Christmas morning we go into her room and have breakfast in bed as a family. We tell each other what our most favorite moments of the year were and make a bucket list of what we would like to accomplish in the new year! It gives us such a peaceful start to the day and we do not go into her room until 9am so that saves us from having her bounce into our room at sad’oclock in the morning, screaming to open gifts 😉
Love your blog/IG!
We became a family of 3 last year so this is second Christmas with a child! Last year we made salt dough ornaments of his hands and feet and this year we are going to make a reindeer with his “bigger” handprint! Super cute and will be fun to look back on in the years to come!
Beautiful! My favorite tradition will always be decorations Christmas cookies with my Grandmother and mother. I can’t wait until my son is old enough to include in this tradition.
(Also, I love the artwork in your home!)
*decorating
I love getting together on Christmas Eve with the family and then Christmas morning opening presents in our PJs ???
My favorite holiday tradition is putting on Christmas music and decorating our tree! It is a tradition made even sweeter now that I share it with my 3-year old twins.
My favourite holiday tradition is going to Christmas eve Mass with my brothers family and my own. The happy craziness of shopping, decorating and baking etc is finished by then you are able to relax and feel inside the true meaning of the season. Peace and love for all peoples of the world.
Your decor is beautiful! But, I have to say Grapes the Dragon is probably my favorite part of this post. She is hilarious, I love when she pops up in your Insta stories too!
My favorite holiday tradition is taking my daughter the Nutcracker each year. We dress up and it’s a tradition we can continue forever. It definitely gets me in the mood for the holidays. Love your holiday decorations 🙂
My favourite tradition will always be Christmas Eve on our family. It’s the one day no matter what we get everyone together, use to be at my grandmas and those were my favourite memories growing up. Now it’s moved to our home and I try to recreate the same memories for my family! My brother flys in from the states and my sweet grandma comes in from out of town. We have my grandmas original appies, games and listen to my Grams records. It’s truly the best, feel like a kid again!
Grapes is the best dragon I’ve ever seen 🙂
The tradition in my family (going back several generations) is for Mom and Dad to get pajama’s for everyone. Same style but different designs, crazy, whacky designs at times.
Everyone opens the pajama presents on Christmas Eve. We then build a fire, bake cookies, drink special eggnog (or anything for adults), wrap any remaining presents and stocking stuffers. The best is hanging out with family all in our pajama’s. We have a special cookie dish for Santa and is freshly baked goodies.
Christmas morning we all wake up in our pajama’s, crack open the mimosa’s, have our favorite breakfast casserole and feverishly open everything Santa brought us. We lounge around in jammies until us adults have to start cooking.
This will be our most special Christmas EVER! My dad was diagnosed in June with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and we are hoping he hangs in so we can enjoy one last beautiful Christmas with him. It’s going to be amazing and full of love. Viva la Christmas!!!!
First of all I love how you decorated your family room with bright holiday colors that worked with your decor. Second, Lowie in the Dragon costume as Grapes is so priceless and special when you look back years to come to see so much of her personality shining through.. the side photo of full headed Grapes hanging the ornament?. Our family tradition is every year we go and cut down our own Christmas tree and each year the kids rotate as to who gets to hang the Angel on top of the tree, it’s the first decoration after the lights go on. They still find the magic in it even as teenagers✨
Every year, each of my children gets a new ornament relating to their interests that year, whether it be soccer, animals, or even Star Wars. They open their ornament on Christmas Eve and put it on the tree. Each year when they put “their” ornaments on the tree they have a blast looking back, and someday when they have their own trees, they have will get their ornaments for their own home.
A new Christmas tradition I’m implementing this year (since we’ve got two kiddos now) is matching Christmas jammies. I bought striped red & white Burt’s Bees ones from Target this year (and a similar pair for mama). I’m going to give them to the girls tomorrow since it’s the first day of December.
Also, this year my two year old is super in the looking for Wink (our elf on the shelf) each morning.
Another tradition we do is Zoo Lights with my parents a week or so before Christmas.
Lastly, and probably my favorite, is that we go to the Christmas Eve service at church, and then we have everyone over from both sides of the family for my homemade spinach quiche and a variety of yummy treats.
Oooooo, hands a-waving! I would love to decorate a tree with these Grandin beauties!
LOVE Grapes trimming the tree! So real and so cute!
One of my favorite traditions is bundling up all the kids to look at Christmas lights in the neighborhood. There is so many different things to see and the wonder never leaves their little faces!
My favorite Christmas tradition is…I Make chocolate croissants every Christmas morning. My boys come down the stairs to see what santa left under the tree, and this most amazing smell fills our home.
Karin
These “Grapes at Christmas” pictures are TOO MUCH. I love that you just rolled with her wanting to wear her costume. Those pictures will become family classics!
My favorite Christmas tradition is what my family and I call “Family Christmas Eve.” On the evening of the 24th, after dinner but before caroling, everyone opens some very special presents — Christmas PJs (you have to put them on as soon as you open them!), and a Christmas-y outfit to wear the next day. When my three siblings and I were little, my parents did all the shopping. We’re all adults now, but the tradition lives on — except that now, each person buys for one other family member, Secret-Santa style. It’s so fun and magical, and everyone ends up looking so dapper! It’s definitely one of my most magical moments each season. : )
Your home is beautiful and family friendly, thanks for the inspiration.
I have so many holiday traditions that I love passing along to my 2 children (8 and 4). Starting with new Christmas pj’s on Christmas eve, cutting down our Christmas tree, a trip to the city to see all the beautiful lights, windows and the big guy himself and just simple moments with my family around the Christmas tree.
My favorite tradition is our “Christmas box” that we open on Christmas Eve. Every year I write a poem, put new jammies inside, an unseen Christmas movie, and some cocoa.
Love the blog! You’ve done a wonderful job, always the best taste.
Curious – what do you think of Bad Moms Christmas?! Your mom is great!
My favorite tradition is letting our kids open one present on Christmas Eve. It’s always pajamas and a movie, but they forget it is each year! I love that when they wake up Christmas morning, all my boys are dressed in their matching pajamas and seeing their faces when they see what Santa brought!
Just beautiful Eva. your family is beautiful and, you exude joy and love. Sei sempre Bella Eva e spritzzi allegria.
My favorite Xmas tradition is picking out matching Xmas pjS with my sisters—we always wear them for the first time on Xmas eve and open the first Xmas presents before we go to bed—-so much fun and he perfect photo opp!
My favourite tradition has always been baking and decorating with my mom while listening to Céline Dion’s Xmas album. Cheesy, but true. And now that I have a daughter of my own (5 months!), I’m keeping the tradition alive with her. Also would be thrilled to have new ornaments for her first Christmas that we would keep throughout her life!
Congrats, Joelle! You won the Grandin Road Ornament Set! I can’t wait for you to get these beauties!
Please reach out to me at hi@happilyevaafter.com with your mailing info so I can get these out to you asap.
Happy Holidays and I hope you and your sweet fam enjoy your daughter’s first Christmas!!!!!
xoxo
EAM
Ahhhh! This is so exciting!
Thank you so much!
*email sent!* 🙂
I love your house! So cute! One of my favorite Christmas tradition is setting up all our trees (3 to be exact) I love putting on Christmas music and getting everything out and together. It always reminds me of my dad. Then I watch White Christmas!( one of my all time favorite Christmas movies)
Hi so my favorite Christmas tradition is one we have had since I was born. Every Christmas Eve we gather by the fire and read the Polar Express. We are all much older and some will be having kids of their own but it’s our constant and I love every moment of it.
Those pillows are gorgeous. We love rainbow color things in our house. Your home is so festive. You make me wanna get decorating already! My favorite tradition is pictures with Santa since I know the kids won’t do it forever!
Our family opens 1 gift on Christmas Eve and it’s always pajamas for everyone. The kids really look forward to opening them and seeing what patterns and style they have. We all sleep in them that night. It’s our family’s most favorite tradition.
My favorite Christmas tradition is picking out and gifting our two boys special ornaments to open on Christmas Eve. We love being able to capture a snapshot of their personalities in these ornaments and they will have a beautiful, personal collection when they start families of their own. These gorge Grandin Road ornaments fall perfectly in line with our tradition. Happy Holidays!
Hi Eva!
My favorite holiday tradition is putting up the tree with my daughter. I work on the lights and then she places each ornament on the tree. I oversee her, but watch in amazement as she carefully places each one with thought and care. This year is my son’s first Christmas and I got two new ornaments with Kaylani and Nathan’s names togethe with a big sister/little brother thing and one for our dog. She’s looking forward to doing it this weekend.
I’m also planning on becoming Clark Griswold and hanging lights on my house for the first time! Can’t wait!
Happy Holidays to you and your family!
I was dying over those ornaments and wa so disappointed they were sold out! This is so exciting! Because my daughter is only 3 and my son is only 3 months this is a newer tradition but a fun one. We get the stamps that make it look like reindeer have walked in the snow and then around the Christmas tree. We stamp from the door to the tree and then leave some crumbs and bits of carrots on the plate. My daughters eyes light up and she looks amazed that santa and his reindeer have really been here! She likes to laugh and say “mommy, santa and his reindeer sure do make a mess! They need to clean up!”
Ps last year your recommended a navy work bag for my husband and he loved it so much and still uses it. So thank you for that!
My favorite Christmas tradition starts first thing in the morning! I wake up and make eggs Benedict. Last year my oldest wasn’t quite one so he didn’t fully get to enjoy in the tradition so this year will be fun and he’ll get to help in the kitchen!
I love the way you decorate! I especially love the “Ho Ho Ho” banner on your kitchen mantle and Grapes (of course)! Our family holiday tradition is opening the gifts from youngest to oldest. This gives each person a chance to have the spotlight. It takes a bit of time but it’s worth it!
We always host a gingerbread house decorating party. It’s a sugary blast, and it’s been so fun, as my children get older, to watch how involved they get!
Lovely home! My favorite Christmas tradition is pulling out the things my husband and I brought home from our honeymoon in Germany and Austria—a beautiful hand-carved Christmas pyramid (that I chose) and the ugliest bride ornament you’ve ever seen (that he chose and that I hide in the side of the tree). Looking forward to celebrating our 9th Christmas with those cherished items, and our first with two little boys (3 years and 11 months)!
Beautiful decorations!!! My favorite Christmas tradition is when we go Christmas shopping for a family in need or make decorations and Christmas goody boxes for elderly people at a nursing home close to where I live. The joy on their faces warms my heart!! I also watch Christmas movies and shows on Christmas Eve with my girls. They are 6 and 3. We all put on Christmas Pj’s get snuggly and enjoy our time together. Their little faces on Christmas morning after Santa comes is priceless!!
What a beautiful post! We love to go on a Christmas train ride to see Santa. There are Christmas carols and hot chocolate on the trip there and back, the kids love it!
Omgosh I Love Your House It’s Beautiful !! awesome job and your kids are beautiful … HAPPY HOLIDAYS ?FYI :: Your husband is so laid-back remind me a lot of my hubby they’re very rare ???
My favorite Christmas tradition is making cookies with my boyfriend’s little sister! She is so filled with Christmas spirit and every year it makes the holidays so real and new. We play Christmas music, dance around the kitchen, put ornaments on the tree, and make an insane amount of cookies all in one night. Sharing Christmas with her will always be the best tradition of the season.
Those ornaments are gorgeous! My favorite Christmas tradition is opening our Christmas jammies before the Christmas Eve service, and then coming home and my momma reading us The Polar Express. All of us “kids” are grown up now, some with kids of our own, but momma never fails to read us that story every year. ?
My favorite traditions from childhood that I’ve continued with my kids is the chocolate advent calendar and making Christmas treats with my mom, especially peanut butter balls! My dad also took my sister and I to get a real tree which is something that I’ve been doing with my kids and husband. And of course elf on the shelf is something my son looks forward to every morning?
I love the galvanized houses…I want them!
My favorite family tradition is one we just started last year…a dance party on Christmas Eve! My 7year old and 1 year old have morning dance parties but on Christmas Eve the whole (extremely large) family does it and it’s super fun. We’re all in our Christmas jammies too!
My extended family get together every Christmas Eve to eat gumbo and exchange gifts. The best part is that we have a dessert competition between the men in the family (great idea by the ladies!) and we all taste and vote. The winner wins the “golden whisk” plaque that’s been passed down for years with the winners names written on the back! My favorite tradition 🙂
Absolutely love your simplistic holiday decor. Your home is so friendly and happy…? it! I’ve got a few cute vintage thrift finds around mixed with more modern and i love it. I have a thing for vintage knee bigger elves and Santa’s:) love your blog! Thanks for the giveaway!
Making cookies with my mom! We make all kinds, but there are some ‘must-bakes’ every year. Pizzelles are my favorite! As an Italian girl, I’m sure you know pizzelles, those wonderful thin anise flavored cookies made on a special waffle iron. My mom grew up making them with her mom, and they’ve been a staple every Christmas of my life. She makes them a few other times a year, usually when she’s visiting with her family, who all remember my grandmother’s pizzelles. But no matter when she makes them, they always taste and smell like Christmas to me.
This will be my first Christmas as a mother, and though my daughter is only six months old, I’m so excited for her to watch her mama and nonna make them this year, and to help make them with us when she gets a little older.
Love love!! My favorite tradition is on Christmas Eve night, we take cookies and little treats and surprise people that can’t be with their families. (Gas station attendants, firefighters, nurses, etc.) My boys love to help “wrap” the gifts and deliver them before santa comes!!
My favorite tradition holiday tradition is to buy a new ornament that reflects what is happening in our lives that year. This year’s is by far my favorite because it shows because it shows “mom, dad and the baby bump.” 🙂 I can’t wait to see this collection grow once our little one arrives!
Sorry for the apparent baby brain – I wish there was an edit option! Oops!
My favorite Christmas tradition was Black Friday shopping with my Mom and decorating the family tree. Now that she’s gone, my favorite Christmas tradition is decorating my own tree with all the ornaments that she loved. It keeps her close to my heart during the Holidays!
Gorgeous decor Eva! Every year, we pile in the car on Christmas Eve to drive around our neighborhood Christmas lights circuit while listening to holiday tunes. The whole family loves it!
My favorite Christmas tradition is stockings on Christmas morning! It has been my favorite since I was a little girl and I can’t wait to see my own kids enjoy it as much as I do!
So fun! It’s my first Christmas as a mom and I got so excited to hang my son’s stocking and start decorating for the holiday.
As a holdover from my childhood my son (and any subsequent children) will get a new ornament every year. Our personal little family tradition is Christmas Eve pjs. And for the last three years I make loads of cookies and have my nieces and nephews over to decorate. It’s a busy but fun time of year.
My favourite Christmas tradition is going with my family to pick out and cut down the perfect tree! Last year was unique with my mom recovering from brain surgery and myself being 9 months pregnant but it was one of the best years! This year we have 2 new babies to introduce the tradition too!! Happy holidays!! ? now I just need to work on some serious holiday decorating with some new inspiration thanks to this post!! ?
Beautiful Eva <3 and of course I would love win a set for our home. This year we decorated the first time with our little girl, she is one and totally in love with all our Christmas lights. My favorite tradition is and old but gold one. As we were kids my parents decorated our christmastree with us together the evening before christmaseve. We live in Germany and our trees get really late in our houses. Lots of family’s don’t decorate it together. The parents do and the children get to see the tree on christmaseve. I always loved it so much to get the old boxes together from the attic and look together through Christmas decor from generations of our family and see through our history and remember together old time. And after going to church on christmaseve we finally light the tree. It is so beautiful and magical. Today I am adult but I share this tradition now with my wife and this year the first time with our little Ava Girl
We love getting our Lego-loving 5-year-old excited for Christmas with his Lego Star Wars advent calendar! Oh, and watching Home Alone, The Family Stone, and Love Actually on a loop!
Our tradition is a Christmas movie in Christmas pjs every night in December! ???
Hi Eva! 🙂
Good to see Grapes getting ready for Christmas too.
My favorite Christmas tradition is putting up Christmas decorations, looking at the lights, making Christmas cookies, watching the Polar Express, opening presents and spending time with my parents and my grandparents. 🙂
I hope you and all your family have a great Christmas
Our family loves to all load up in the car, in our jammies of course, and drive around looking at Christmas lights while we drink hot chocolate. My nephews are 14 and 11 but they still look forward to our yearly adventure.
My favorite Christmas tradition is having Christmas Eve dinner with the family. We always have our favorite fondue style shrimp and cheesy potatoes. Even as my sisters and I have grown up and moved away from the family home, this Christmas Eve tradition still holds up, we’ve even added a few extra members to the dinner table!
My favorite tradition is a cliché, but still a good one. Decorating the tree! Both my kids love doing it! We always talk about the ornaments we are putting up and the story behind them. I have a lot of ornaments from my childhood that remind me of my mom. She passed away 11 years ago, and Christmas was her favorite time of the year. Her presences is felt all over the house because I kept a lot of decor that was hers. I always have a moment when decorating, but it’s starting to be less sad and more about the memories, both old and new.
Hi there, my favorite Christmas tradition is going to see Santa at Macy’s. I’m especially thrilled to get there and see how long the line is and trying to estimate how long we will be waiting 🙂 This year it will be extra special, since it’s the first time my baby will join his big brother. Thank you!
Making Christmas goodies and candies to give as little gifts to family and friends! My husband put up extra lights in our lanai and it made it feel extra Christmasy in the house this year, I love it, just might keep them up all year.
My favorite tradition is making Christmas cookies with Christmas movies on in the background. My fave is The Bishop’s Wife with Cary Grant.
Love the Xmas post (and the way you paired your skirt with a flannel)! My favorite Christmas tradition is waiting in the hallway, lined up youngest (yours truly) to oldest while our parents make their morning coffee and set our stockings out in the living room! Even though a few of my siblings are married off with their own traditions now, my sister and I (33 and 28!) still line up Christmas morning as usual! 🙂
Gorgeous decor! My favorite tradition is opening up presents Christmas morning with my family. We always do a rotation with one person opening at a time. My mom would be sure to have the exact same number of presents per kid but I’d always do my best to conspicuously skip a turn and have presents left at the end to make my brothers think I got more than them ? they caught on after a few years!
We string our Christmas garland made from years of holiday cards across the living room ceiling.
Beautiful home~love Christmas!
A holiday tradition for myself and my mom, it’s been the 2 of us and my son now for a few years. Having quiet Christmasses. When my son is asleep, we put our favourite movie on (which is set on Thanksgiving) “Home For The Holidays” and I feel the day is then complete. It’s not a very usual tradition I suppose but the feeling I get from just doing this one little thing at the end of a long Christmas Day is something I hope to be able to do with my mom for another 30 years!
Your home looks so festive! My favorite tradition is snuggling up in bed Christmas Eve with my sister and mom and taking turns reading the book ‘Santa Calls’ out loud. I’m may be 29 but I’ll never be too old for such traditions and I look forward to continuing them with my own family one day 🙂 Merry Christmas!
Hi Eva , I love all your décor especially the pillows . I have a sister named Holly so I’m always looking for holly themed items at Christmas . Grapes the Dragon is the cutest lol . You have such a great , honest blog ! With our busy schedules just getting together with my sisters is my favorite tradition . Thanks for the giveaway ! 🙂
Your house looks gorgeous!
We just moved from the city to the suburbs and finally have room for a normal sized tree! Getting our tree this weekend and will decorate the house! Hopefully our new couch gets delivered before Christmas! ?
I make crepes Christmas morning for the family before we open presents.
Happy holidays!
So lovely!! Cannot be more excited to take our 3 boys, yup 3, and go see Santa this weekend and then after we always go pick out our tree! We love it to really kick off the Christmas season for us! Happy holidays ???
My favorite holiday tradition is waking up early on Christmas morning and opening presents next to the tree with all the family! So simple, but so magical.
My favorite tradition will be opening our Christmas Eve box with matching family pajamas and snuggling up with hot cocoa watching Christmas vacation!! Then waking up and having a big Christmas brunch after opening our gifts. We did this when I was younger and after 7 years of infertility I have my own little girl who I can finally pass these traditions onto! I cannot be more excited!
Your Christmas decorations are gorgeous! I love the wreath!
My favorite Christmas tradition has always been opening gifts with family on Christmas morning, in cozy pj’s! And a delicious Christmas breakfast!
This tradition became even more special to me, now that I get to share it with my daughter! ❤️ Happy Holidays to your beautiful family!
My favorite tradition is the “surprise box” on Christmas morning. My mother always gave me and my sisters a surprise box full of things we didn’t ask for… but we always loved. I’m excited to carry on the same tradition with my son. I also love opening one gift on Christmas Eve 🙂
First off! Best blog post yet! It’s so nice to see color in a home! Everything is so white and grey lately. Now for my favorite holiday tradition…you could call me basic but I love watching a movie by the tree with hot cocoa and the family…what’s not basic is my favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard! We watch it every year!
Love, shannon
Christmas Eve jammies!!! It’s the only gift I let anyone open early. We put on our jammies and drive around town looking at Christmas lights.
Fav xmas when I was little and my great granddaddy (retired preacher) told all the cousins/family the birth of Jesus in their country church. Just our family was there. Such a special memory.
GRAPES! OH EM GEE! I absolutely LOVE that Grapes made an appearance on this post! HAHA my favorite Christmas tradition is making tamales with my mom <3 My daughter has been helping us since she was maybe 2 or 3 (now 10). I seriously look forward to this bonding time with my mom and even better, her most amazing and most delicious tamales to have afterwards. They are a lot of work but boy are they worth it 🙂 xoxo
I love that you have ornaments with memories. I have been giving my 7 nieces and nephews an ornament every year for Christmas. They reflect either something their interested (like mermaids or Star Wars) or an achievement (starting Kindergarten or riding a bike with out training wheels) I lov
My favourite holiday tradition is baking cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve 🙂
Besides decorating the tree, my favorite Christmas tradition is this program I starts called Letters for Hope. I collect cards for Hospitalized Children and then send them to the Cards for Hospitalized Children Foundation run out of Illinois. They mail them to over 100,000 sick children across the United States. This year I also compiled a few names of sick children at home to send cards to. I honestly am always surprised at the response from my community, I meet new people who live by me that I never knew, and have even made friends!!! Social media has made it so easy to meet caring people that you did not know were out there. The feelings of connections with new people, and knowing out there somewhere a child who is ill got some sort of happiness, or a smile from our cards means EVERYTHING. That’s what Christmas really means. So far this year I am nearing 300 cards!!! Girls scouts, and nursing homes, and first grade classes have been involved it has been amazing every year I do it!!! Let me know if Grapes would like to make a card and send it with us!! Hahaha ❤️ This grapes thing is SO good.
I also forgot to write that this makes a GREAT girls night!!!! My girlfriends and I are always so busy, but we always have a night before Christmas where we drink wine and make cards!! It’s so fun the kids get involved and than they go to bed and we get to play with glitter and make holiday cards and spend time together. Even my grandma does it with her friends hahahaha!!!
My favorite tradition during the holiday is having every single crazy family memeber all together in one place! We are South American so we have a huge family so it’s nice to have everyone around partying and celebrating the joy of the holiday! I have a little boy a week younger than Major so this Christmas will be so fun since he is so into ripping things !! Thanks for sharing all the decor I am starting this week !
My favorite Christmas tradition…that’s a tough one! There are so many. I think it is setting up our Christmas village. My kids absolutely love it! This year they helped me put the people and trees in it (they’re 4 and 1). It reminds me of when I was younger- I would set up my moms Christmas village with her every year.
My daughter was born prematurely and very sick in 2015. We were in the nicu for 264 days before she could come home. The first Christmas she was home Santa came to visit her at home. My tradition before then was to take my son every year to see Santa but since she was so sick i couldn’t bring her around crowds. This year I was able to take her to see Santa with her brother. To see her eyes light up and seeing her run to Santa was by far the best part of the season so far. And to see how excited my son was for her made it even better
Love your holiday decor!my favorite tradition is making tamales with my mother, sister, and daughter.
Love your holiday home…especially the pillows! I’m a huge fan of pink for holiday decor. My favorite tradition is getting our decorations out the day after Thanksgiving and decorating as a family. We listen to classic Christmas music and have our first glasses of egg nog for the season!
My favorite tradition is to get new pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve! My mom always did this for us as kids, and I have 14 month old who has now joined in on the fun!
Our favourite holiday tradition is riding the Bright Nights at Stanley park train and seeing all the amazing lights the firefighters in our city volunteer to put up. It’s amazing. And at home I love our Christmas Eve appetizer party we have for our family.
You have a lovely home and beautiful family! I adore Marlowe….I think she (and Grapes) are my spirit animal!
My favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas Eve, everyone opens one present and then we head to bed where my husband and I each read holiday-themed stories and dream about what our lives will be like the following Christmas Eve!
Beautiful job decorating! Thanks for the fun giveaway! For a number of years, Macy’s department store sold a large stuffed holiday mascot/character. My mother always got one for each of her children and continued as we started families of our own. I now have 27 “friends” as my kids call them. It’s their favorite job to arrange them on the stairs and peeking through the balcony railing outside their rooms.
My favourite Christmas tradition is making homemade Korean dumplings with my mom, my sister and 3 nieces on Christmas Eve. My mom steams them as we fill the wrappers and we eat them fresh! I live in London and can’t wait to go home to Michigan in 3.5 weeks!!
This sounds so yummy! What a great treat. 🙂 Happy Holidays!
I love how you decorated the family room! My favorite holiday tradition is baking Christmas cookies with my mom (and when I was young, my grandmother!) Now I cook with my mom, sister and our (collective) 4 boys and nothing gets me more in the spirit!
Thanks for sharing this glimpse into your home and for hosting this giveaway. Although it has wavered in years past thanks to living abroad and a baby, I’ve always enjoyed the tradition of a Catholic “midnight mass.” Now that we’re settled back in the US again, it would be fantastic to begin our own tree-trimming tradition with these gorgeous ornaments. Your “adult room” is an inspiration ❤
My favorite Christmas tradition is reading stories to one another around the fireplace wearing matching plaid pajamas. Good luck to everyone!
What a wonderful post!! Your house and family are beautiful! My favorite Christmas tradition is to open our stockings together as a family on Christmas Eve with glasses of hot chocolate and butter beer (#harrypotterforlife). Then after tucking our 2 sweet boys in, my husband and i exchange our presents quietly together under the Christmas tree. Just us and a moment of quiet before the chaos of the coming morning 🙂 Merry Christmas to you!
We all do a pajama swap on Christmas Eve and change in to the pajamas while we’re spendint time together!
I love the Holidays, nothing better than hearing the music play on the radio. The anticipation is overwhelming. My favorite family tradition is spending time with my nieces making cool ornaments. Or even sharing hot chocolate, with the tiny marshmallows with my fiancé, he loves the organic kind.
Every year the women in my family get together and we make toffee and dip 30 pounds of chocolate to share and spread holiday cheer! We spend all day making delicious treats to share and listen to Christmas music and just enjoy each other’s company. My grandma started the tradition over 25 years ago and we have kept it going to keep her spirit alive and around! She loved Christmas and always made it so special. I am sad we can’t enjoy the tradition with her anymore but I am so excited to share the tradition with my daughter and soon to be daughter! Happy Christmas!! Oxox
We have a lot of extended family, and we celebrate with them on Christmas Day. So, on Christmas Eve, we prepare a prime rib dinner feast just for our immediate family, with formal place settings and dress, then, we go to Midnight Mass. While there is so much to love about celebrating Christmas, our Christmas Eve tradition is my favorite!
Love your site! My favorite family Christmas tradition is that we always go out as a family and pick our tree out and cut it down. When we decorate our tree we take a piece of popcorn, put a straight pin through it and pin the piece of popcorn to a branch. It is a tedious process, but we’ve done it all my life and it looks like fallen snow when it is all finished!
Our favorite tradition is getting all bundled up on Christmas Eve & going to either walk around/drive around to see all the beautiful Christmas lights on display! I have done this with my parents ever since I can remember & I’m so excited to this with my daughter this year for her first Christmas!
My favorite Christmas tradition is putting up and decorating the tree with family while listening to Christmas music.
Great post. Your house is beautiful! My favorite memory is watching Holiday movies with my kids. They are big now (19 & 16) but they still put there PJ’S on and we squeeze in my bed with got chocolate and popcorn and watch our holiday favorites. Elf, Four Christmases, Family Stone, Love Actually…..?
Happy Holidays!
Your home looks wonderful!
My favorite Christmas tradition happens Christmas Eve. We spend the day making cookies with the kids. Latkes and crab cream cheese apps to pick on early evening. Everyone gets to open one present and then Chinese Food!! So much eating, so much laughing, so much fun.
My favorite Christmas tradition is Looking at Holiday lights with the family. We pile into the car with hot chocolate and look at lights in a residential area called the Fabulous 40’s in Sacramento, CA. Everyone’s homes are decorated from top to bottom and there’s huge green lighted garlands that cross over the streets as you drive through. Lots of people attend and there are sleigh rides pulled by horses in the street. It’s something out of a classic Christmas movie. A favorite of ours for sure!
My favorite Christmas tradition is brunch on Christmas morning. Once all the chaos settles from opening gifts, I love sitting down together as a family (with my brothers, my sisters in law, and my parents) at one big table. We are a close family and having so much love in one room is special, especially on Christmas morning. I get butterflies every time I think of how wonderful the holidays have always been for me. I’m incredibly blessed.
Your house looks lovely! Grandin Road is a favorite of mine too.
Our Christmas tradition is opening one gift on Christmas Eve. After dinner we finish decorating the tree and open one gift. It helps curbs a little of the anticipation of Santa’s arrival! I enjoy your blog so much, especially Marlowe! She’s a pip!
My favorite Chirstmas tradition has always been Christmas Eve Mass then dinner at my grandparents house. We live in New Mexico so our menu is always the same. Posole, red chile, beans, tamales, chile con queso and sopaipillas. (Stomach is growling now!!!) After we eat we all pile up in the living room and open one gift each. As kids that was always so exciting. Now the younger generation gets excited about picking the best looking gift to open first. My generation usually opens the gifts from our grandparents and they get to open ALL of their gifts. It makes them so happy, it’s a really special night!
I love decorating the tree with my family while we play Christmas music and drink hot Christmas drinks. We all like different drinks but popular ones in our house are mulled wine, hot cider, and egg nog.
My kids are older than yours (15 and 12) but I’ve been collecting a special ornament for each of them each year. They each have their own special box for their ornaments that they unpack each year. It was a little perilous when they were little, and the durability of the ornaments from then to now has changed, but it is a joy. My thought was that they’d take their box to their own homes someday… if I can part with them (the children AND the ornaments!). We’ve also been collecting photo ornaments for 15 years… I unpack those especially and shed a tear or two each year at the changes that can be seen from year to year… ornament to ornament… we use Snapfish and get their annual dated ornament with a picture from the year on it… Your kids are young enough that you could easily start this lovely tradition, too!
Love the idea of decorating the family room and the living room in 2 different moods!
My fave Christmas tradition is to create a curated playlist that is different every year…usually a mix of tunes in English, Italian, French and German…
We all sing and create a mini show with the kids
One thing never changes – my husband and I always sing as a duet baby it’s cold outside…!
Our favorite tradition would have to be the night before Christmas. Whoever finds the pickle ornament on the tree gets to be the helper. We all open one gift (always Christmas pjs ) and then we watch It’s A Wonderful Life. I can’t wait for my toddler to understand the wonderful that is George and his wonderful life. Xo
I am a mom of a 5 year old and pregnant with my second… our favorite Christmas tradition so far is putting on national lampoon’s Christmas vacation (never gets old I’m sorry lol) and decorating the tree and putting out all of our holiday decorations… this year was extra special because I let my son pick out his new baby brothers Christmas stocking for next year!!!
I love the holiday traditions. Each year my gift to our families is the gift of “time” something that can’t be bought but an adventure out that is tailored to that special someone. Whether it’s dinner at a new restaurant prior to a play, a special weekend going to brunch and visiting a museum that they have wanted to always do. With everyone so busy we love making time and planning something for them!
Love all of the decor throughout your home! Our favorite holiday tradition is reading one Christmas book a day starting December 1. We pick from a pile of wrapped books (same books every year, some are from when I was little) so you never know which book you’ll get to read!
I honestly had to think for a minute because I love this season. My birthday is the 27th so as a child it was always extra special and I was excited to have children and share the magic with them. I’ve always done a lot of baking and crafting as Christmas gifts ( with my mom) so naturally that is something I do with my girls (9 & 5) we make classmate gifts, teacher gifts, neighbor gifts etc. And sometimes my mom gets to join in with us as well…so the tradition continues! I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!
Those ornaments are to die for!
Our family tradition is on the 1st December every year – we take out all of our Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra Christmas albums (We love the older traditional carols) and put up the tree as a whole family!
Its puts everyone in such a Chrismassy mood – with the Christmas music pumping, the tree going up and us together enjoying the moment 🙂
So beautiful!! The whole Christmas season is always a very special time for me and my mom. We have an annual shopping trip that we never miss. Christmas Eve Party at her house with ALL the fam. This year my sister and I are wearing special onesie pajamas to the party. My sister’s is a unicorn and mine is…. Wait for it…. A DRAGON!! I will think of cutie Marlowe when I wear mine. ?
I love your skirt! I think my favorite tradition from when I was a kid and I carry on with my children is new pajamas on Christmas Eve. I even still want my own new ones.
Hot chocolate and a visit to the Christmas markets!
I love the tree in your Living Room, reminds me of mine as a kid!
Looking back now, it’s pretty funny what my favorite Christmas tradition is. When I was a teenager I didn’t think it was so much fun but we always got to open one present on Christmas Eve. The present was always new pajamas and slippers so we would look cute for pictures the next morning. My mom thought she was so clever (she really was!) and up until about 14, I loved it too. Then, when I moved away from home I actually missed it. Now I do it every year with my boyfriend. The best!
What a fun & festive home you have curated Eva!! Thank you for the opportunity to win this pretty set of ornaments!
Love the post! My favorite tradition is exhanching ornaments with my hubby on Christmas eve. We’ve exchanged Homer and Marge Simpson, a pizza slice, a dog…anything silly that reminds us of each other ❤️
Your decorations are beautiful! My dad, traditionally, grew up listening to Jim Reeves Christmas music every year with his dad, and has passed on his love of the classic crooner to me and my sibs. It’s not Christmas morning without coffee brewing, Jim Reeves playing, and stockings being dug into (stockings always come first!). No one is allowed to touch gifts till Jim is singing us all awake ?❤️
I started doing the 24 books of Christmas for my granddaughter a few years ago. I now have my grandson Luke who is 16 months and old enough for his own so it is now the 48 books of Christmas shopping for me. I love It! I bought a couple of books per your recommendations.
LOVE the decor. I have 3 little ones and we have a few traditions they get excited for. We go to a tree farm and take a tractor ride out to pick out our own tree and they cut it down right in front of us. We also watch “A Christmas Story” and order take-out on Christmas Eve. It started kind of by accident years ago between my husband and I and we’ve kept it alive for almost 12yrs now!
Every year on Christmas Eve, Santa comes to my parents street on a fire truck. It is the greatest tradition ever and even in my 30s I still get excited. It’s such a wonderful way for our family and our neighbors to be together and get excited. Always feel like a kid again and it’s so fun passing it on to the next generation in our family!
My husband and I always make a bunch of appetizers the weekend after thanksgiving and decorate the tree with Christmas music and eggnog while stuffing our faces with shrimp cocktail, chicken wings, etc. This year we tried to with our two year old and it was more chasing him around so he wouldn’t break everything! It was a blast
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating our tree- my grandparents bought me an ornament every year, a tradition which my grandma continued after my Pop passed away. I absolutely love unpacking all my ornaments and the memories that come with them! It’s even more special now, as I get to see my children’s wonder at their own special ornaments from their “Grammy”.
My favorite Christmas tradition is to drive down “Christmas Lane”! In my town there’s literally a street named Christmas Lane and almost everyone who lives on these two blocks decorates their homes. Some just have lights and some go all out with lights, music, blow up figures, a model train going around the outside of their home, and there’s a house that does a food drive for the homeless shelter! It’s not the holidays until you take a drive down this street and admire everyone’s Christmas spirit!
Everything looks GORGEOUS!!
My favorite tradition is a new one we started with our kids after our three year old was born. I purchased a simple red tree skirt and every year the kids stamp their hand prints on the skirt with white paint to mark the year. This year while decorating, my girls had so much fun comparing hand prints and talking about how big their hands are now! So sweet to watch them have that moment!
With my family our tradition was getting together in Christmas Eve, but now my husband and I live very far from them so we are just starting new traditions with our kids like having an advent calendar and baking with the oldest (she is 3 yo and it’s very excited with Christmas that she requested a Christmas tree for the first time so we bought it in early November and it’s in our living room since then) Also we always try to get a good Christmas family photo (with Santa or a nice Christmas tree).
Going to the farm to get our tree and then going through the ornamemts with Christmas music in the background and cherishing all the memories they bring back from past holidays.
My favorite Christmas tradition is simply getting the tree and decorating it. I used to enjoy doing it with my husband and having a glass of wine or two but it’s even more fun now that we have kids!!!
Reading the Polar Express on Christmas Eve… my favorite thing my dad with my sister and me:.. and now my favorite thing to do with my 4 and 1 year old!
My favorite tradition is setting out my nativity set. This year my daughter has her very own set to play with!
My favorite Christmas tree would probably be taking a picture in front of the Christmas tree every year!
I’m so looking forward to creating new traditions with our ten month old. A baby in the house makes Christmas Time even more special!
Oh the pillows are gorgeous!! Our favorite family tradition is on Christmas Eve! We always spend our Christmas Eve with my parents, best friend of 20 years, and my amazing aunt, uncle and cousins. We play games, eat great food and of course enjoy some adult bevies. P.S. Marlowe and my little girl Milly are kindred spirits! Milly loves dressing up in her Dino or tiger costume and totally has an alter ego! So fun to watch.
Happy Holidays ?
Christmas waffles!!!!!!!
Your beautifully festive home is so sweet Eva!!! I ADORE your blog. My favorite holiday tradition is bringing out all of my belated grandmother’s decorations I enjoyed helping her decorate w/ when I was little, and now allowing my son to see it all & love it as much as I did ❤️?
My favorite traditions stem from my own childhood traditions with my family that I now do with my boys. Every Christmas we watch Certain Christmas movies BUT Christmas Eve is special! They get to open 1 gift and it always contains special jammies, popcorn, hot cocoa and the perfect movie. Usually no matter which movie I put in the box we always end up watching Christmas Vacation or Elf. ?
I love your holiday decorations! What a great giveaway. 🙂 One of my favorite holiday traditions is making Christmas cookies and watching Christmas movies with my mom and sister.
Your home is beautiful! This is my daughter’s first Christmas and I want to make it so special for her. Grandin Road has gorgeous holiday decor and these ornaments would be perfect for our tree!
Gorgeous decorating Eva! My favorite tradition is definitely Christmas morning breakfast. It’s a team effort…. Hubs and I will set a beautiful table spread. Mother in law and father in law take over in the kitchen for their famous salmon benedicts. Sis in law is in charge of opening the champagne bottles to keep mimosas flowing 🙂 It’s a tradition they have been doing since my husband was a little boy and they are VERY passionate about it.
I love that my husband feels so strongly about this tradition that he now insists on making his childhood Christmas breakfast even when we are spending the holidays with my family, not his. Of course, I take over the champagne duties when he is in the kitchen 🙂 It’s so sweet to have him feel so strongly about a holiday tradition that is nostalgic and sentimental for him.
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
We also have an “imperfectly perfect” Christmas tree made up of mine and my husband’s childhood ornaments, ones we’ve picked up along the way on our travels together and ones that the kids pick out each year based on their interests (bubble guppies is a big one this year!)
Our favorite tradition is turning off all the living room lights and just by the light of the tree playing “I Spy” – it’s a great way to revisit all the memories associated with each special ornament.
So beautiful!
We have a tradition where I leave a note in an ornament that is a (larger) heart-shaped locket. I write the note to our family with blessings and Intentions for them for the year ahead, and I pack it away with the decorations until the following year when we read it together. Sometimes I dedicate it to one person like my daughter or to my husband.
Happy holidays to you and yours! xoxo
My parents had 4 kids under the age of 5 and both worked full time. My grandparents weren’t ‘kid people’ and didn’t like spending time with children (!) but every Christmas Eve my grandparents travelled for hours to bring us a Christmas cake and would decorate it with all 4 kids. My siblings and I are all adults now but each year we all gather and decorate the cake together. My Grandad passed away a couple of years ago but my Grandma is still with us and is making the cake! It’s given us something to bond with her over now that we aren’t kids. We will look forward to Christmas Eve so that we can sit around the table, listening to Christmas songs and decorating our personal family cake!
My fave christmas tradition is making homemade pasta tortellini with my family that we enjoy together on Christmas Day! It’s a delicious labor of love and during the pasta making and tortellini rolling process we tell stories and laugh with cousins, aunts and uncles.
Where are your earrings from? I love them!!!!!!
Thanks! They’re Tory Burch, but from a few years ago. Her jewelry is always outstanding, and not many people now how gorge the collection is!
Hi! Everything you decorate is absolutely gorgeous! You have a real gift! Bless you! Enjoy this wonderful time of the year! May you treasure those precious memories of your dear parents.
Hi! The article looks very good, Amazing decor ideas