I Will Honour Christmas In My Heart

I will honour Christmas in my heart,
and try to keep it all the year.
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!

~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Christmas Home Tour 2012, Part Two, The Living Room

Welcome to our Christmas Home Tour, Part Two!!

If you missed Part One which featured the outside of our Home, please click HERE...

Caution:  This is a long post with LOTS of Pictures.....

And now we would like to Welcome you into our Home....
 Look....
There is an Elf calling you to come in....
 No wait!!! It is a Joker and not an Elf!!

LOL!!

This is what you see when you step through the Front Door into our Living Room....
The stairs are directly in front of you....
And to your right is the Living Room.....
First , I want to show you the garland on the stair rail.

I have had this garland for a few years and I decided to try to do something different with it because I usually attached it to the top of the railing so if you had to hold onto the railing going up and down the stairs, you had to grab the railing underneath the garland.

Fact of the matter is , with Joe having had surgery on his feet this past Summer and me having my knee injected several times a year, we NEED something to hold onto!!
 LOL!
So I decided I would drape the garland and attach it to the railing only in a few places.
This is when I realized how stupid I could be at times...
The railing is slanted down so when I attached the garland to the railing, it all slid down to the bottom of the railing!!
LOL!!
I did this after I came home from working all night long but I wasn't totally brain dead though.....
I grabbed my double sided stick tape and cut pieces to put on the railing and stick the garland to it.....
So now the garland is hung  in loops and we have a place to grab the railing....
Also, in my quest to be more energy efficient this year, I used a new set of LED Warm White lights.....
And this is the top of the stairs.....
And now back down into the Living Room....
I used to also have the garland come all the way down to the steps . I have now placed a Nutcracker there....
When you walk into the Living Room, this Hutch is directly to your left .......
It was Joe's paternal Grandmother's Hutch....
To the  right side of the Hutch....
An arrangement that I made.....
The other side of the Hutch....

New this year is what I did to the top of the Hutch... 

I bought gold glittered garland at a flea market during the Summer for $5.00 so I decided to hang it over the Antique Mantle Mirror and added Warm White LED battery operated twinkle lights to it.

And I chose to display my Christmas Tree Shop Carolers on top of the Hutch with the Gold Churches....

 
Also I decided to display all 3 of my Nativity Sets inside the hutch this year.....




The set above is a Home Interiors set that I bought the first year we were married, 34 years ago....

My Old World Santa's always sit on the steps......



  Here is the corner by the stairs......
 Santa heads and a vintage looking angel....


 The globe is a Mr. Christmas product that I bought at a Flea Market...
 It lights up, the scene revolves and it plays several Christmas carols....

It is a bit blurry because the scene is revolving....
 Some of my Bearington Bears....
 Underneath the chair.....
 And now moving around the room....
 Looking into the Dining Room.....

  This is the corner over by the Dining Room.....





 My little Collection of Praying Santa's are on this table....


I bought the plate at Salvation Army for 99 cents!


 The little elves ( knee huggers) were mine as a child....
 Next to the table is one of my Victorian Dolls and another Santa....

 My Fake window.....


   I wrapped this gold pillow with gold mesh fabric and glued a red velvet poinsettia to it.....
 And around to the other corner.....

 A little side table....
 The little skater doll was also mine as a child....


And now for Tree # 1......

 This year, there are all Warm White LED lights on this tree.....

Instead of using 900 - 1000 lights ( you should have at least 100 lights per foot of tree) like I have other years, I was able to cut back to 750 lights. There is a set of C 9 bulb lights through and around the center of the tree so it illuminates from within and the rest of the lights are C 3 bulbs.
 All light sets were bought at Sam's Club...

 This tree has a Victorian Theme and matches the red, gold and green used through out the Living Room.....
Other years, I used candle lights on this tree but I elected not to use them this year but I did use my candle ornaments on the tree .  In Victorian times before electricity, they only lit the candles on the tree for a short time on Christmas Eve and had someone stand by with a bucket of water to throw on the tree in case it caught fire!!




 You can also see the beaded gold garland that is on this tree.....

And I carry out the tradition that I knew as a child with a Village under the tree....
 But I will get back to the Village in a minute.....

Here is a better look at some of the ornaments on the Tree.....


There is also gold sprigs  tucked into the tree....

     Taken with the Flash Off....
 And now back to the Village......

It is a Lemax Village that I started collecting in 1981 when my oldest son was born. My Dad made the platform for us 34 years ago....










And here is the whole village again.......
 And moving around to the front wall where the front door is.....
 I was able to move this 3 tier table back over next to the TV stand when I put the Tree and Platform up.....



 The Caroler Plate was another 99 cent plate from Salvation Army....



 Quite a Dapper looking Snow man.....
 More Bearington Bears....
This new TV and Stand is what caused me to re-think how I decorated the Living Room this year......
I decided to display this set of Caroler's bought at Sam's Club many years ago on top of the TV stand and treat it almost like a Mantle.....
 There are 3 small lighted trees behind the Carolers so those are Trees #2, #3 and #4.......
 The wooden church was bought many years ago on Clearance at Burlington Coat Factory...

 This entire set was something I always displayed in my Den but I really like how it looks now in the Living Room....



 And now moving around back to the Front Door Area....
 
 These Carolers were bought a long time ago at Lowe's.....
 Another set from Sam's Club....

 


 And we are back to where you came in....

Since we have to use our Front Door, I created a bit of a foyer when you walk into the door.....
 The angel was another Flea Market find....


 I filled this crystal basket with Shatterproof ornaments....

 Gold Cherubs and Lenox....


For those of you who have visited Debbie-Dabble or this Blog, you are most likely wondering where are all the pictures in Candle Mode that I SO like to take......

Well, here they are.....

This is the Living Room all lit up....


 I really like how the garland looks...




 I love the reflection of the Tree and the figures on the TV Stand in this picture....


 
 You cab see the Dining Room Tree lit behind the curtains on the divider....



 You can see the reflection of the Tree in the mirror.....
 



 





 






 Another vignette that I really enjoy...





 
 And that is now the end of your Tour of my Living Room decorated for Christmas this year.....

I do hope you enjoyed it and I didn't bore you with so many pictures....
 I am still decorating.I will be doing the Powder Room tomorrow and then the downstairs will be finished....

For Part Three of our Christmas Home Tour, the Dining Room, please click HERE

There will be 12 Trees downstairs....

If you missed Part one, the Outside of our Home, please click HERE.

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Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and every day that you take the time to visit with me!

Hugs,
Debbie
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