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

Friday, December 7, 2018

Christmas Front Porch and Yard, Christmas Home Tour, 2018

Welcome to my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!
   Today, I will finally be sharing the front of our townhouse decorated for Christmas!!!!
 But first I want to Thank Angelina, over at Petite Haus, for featuring my post, Christmas in the Dining Room, Part 2, from last week's Thursday Favorite Things Party!!!
And thanks Angelina for also mention my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!!

I also want to Thank Bev, over at Eclectic Red Barn, for featuring my post,
Christmas in the Craft Room,  also from last week's Thursday Favorite Things Party!!!
 
 Thanks so much, Bev!!

Please stop by and link up to these great parties!!!

Between record breaking rain fall and then 11 inches of snow, every time I was off and planned to decorate the front porch and yard, the weather just did not cooperate!!
This was the first time in at least 3 decades that I did not have the outside Christmas decorations finished by Thanksgiving so that I could continue my tradition of lighting up the house for the first time of the Christmas Season on Thanksgiving Day night!!
I barely managed to throw some wreaths on the windows and door so that at least there were some Christmas decorations outside.......
I did do things a bit differently outside this year........
I leave some of the decorations out all Winter and to make it easier on myself this year, I decided to incorporate some of my Winter decorations that I usually put out after removing all the Christmas decorations.......

Now why I didn't think of that before this is beyond me!!!!
Okay....

Let's start here..........
You can see that my next door neighbor and our house share a front porch divided by a wrought iron railing........

In front of the middle pillar of our front porch is a black urn......
This year, I decided to put  my tomato cage topiaries in the black urns on each side of the porch.......
I topped it off with a bow made out of red striped burlap ribbon and hung a large snowflake on the front of it!!
2 years ago, I bought red velvet ribbon and made a whole bunch of bows for the outside......

To my dismay, I noticed that a lot of the bows had faded due to weather......

So instead of buying new ribbon, I dug out the red striped burlap bows that I made last year and used as part of my outside Winter decorations.....

Against the railing that divides our porches......
My neighbor Elly's sons have been cleaning out her home to get ready to sell it since she passed away and they dug this sweet wicker deer out of the attic!!
It found a home at my house!!!

I wrapped some garland around his neck and added one of the red velvet bows that had not faded!!
In the middle of a black wrought iron table is a lantern, also with garland wrapped around the bottom of it!!
This red milk can that also came from my neighbor Elly's house and replaces the black one that I had here other years.....
The penguin that sat on the milk can in this corner of the porch for many years finally fell and cracked one to many times last year so this little Christmas Gnome now has the place of honor on the milk can!!

One of my Winter slates hang between the houses and a sign that I just bought in Dollar General "Where the Tree Tops Glisten" hangs from the garland on the railing......
The front door....
I added the white snowflakes that I usually use after Christmas for Winter decorations to the garland on the railings and around the door......
And I used the red striped Winter bows on each side up at the top of the door.....
I made the wreath for the door several years ago......
I am liking the snowflakes and the burlap bows with the red velvet bows!!
Looking at the rest of the front porch......
As I have said many times in the past, the weeping mortar on our house makes it very easy to hang things!!!!
Next to the front door......
3 of the things here have sentimental meaning to me......

The wooden "sleigh" was made by my son Jim in Cub Scouts.....
And the reindeer planter was made by my son Joe in Cub Scouts.....
The sled was my childhood sled that I spend a lot of time on as a child sleigh riding down the hill in front of my parent's house......
 It is decorated with a sign that says "Welcome to the Warming House", skates, gloves, greenery and one of those burlap bows....
 
 The sled stays out here adorning the front porch all Winter....

I bought the "Snow" sign in Gabes last year and used it as a Winter decoration only.....
 I decided that this year I would use it for both Christmas and Winter......

A large lighted wreath hangs in the middle of the house itself.......
The "Snow" sign hangs below it.....

This year, I also decided to leave out the table from the Summer front porch furniture.....
This snowman that we bought at Wegman's last year fits perfectly on the table.....

I placed a wreath around his base and added snowflakes and pine cones to it......
On the other side of the large wreath....
A tin pocket that says "Merry Christmas", filled with Winter greenery.....
In the corner of the porch.......
I hung a small and a larger sets of Christmas Bells on the Tree that occupies this space year round, topping it off with w red velvet bow.....
This post stays on the front porch year round but I decided to move it over to the corner here from the area by the front door...... ........
 The tin stocking hanging on it was bought many years ago as was the Happy Holidays sign........
 So that is what the inside of the porch looks like......
    The railing in front is also covered with garland that I added more white snowflakes and red striped burlap bows to......
  A lighted white snowflake hangs in the middle of the railing......
 Dollar Tree snowflakes hang on each side of the lighted one......
 I normally put out all the snowflakes for my Winter decorations but this year, they will already be out and it will save me some work when I take down all the Christmas related items and decorate the outside for Winter!!
  You can see the other black urn at this end of the porch......
  I also topped this tomato cage topiary  off with a bow and a snowflake!
  So this is what the front porch looks like decorated for Christmas this year....
 Combining both Christmas and Winter decorations will make it a lot easier for me after Christmas as I will not have much Winter decorations to add after I take away any Christmas decorations!!
Next to the front porch, is a little flower bed under our Living Room window......
 Mini Christmas flags are displayed on each side of my chippy angel that is out in the front yard year round........
 This year, I moved the large square pots that usually sit on the sidewalk in front of the porch railing into this flower bed.......
 One of the reasons why is this.......
 When the icicles form on our gutters after snow and ice storms in the Winter and they start to thaw, they drip down on the area in front of the porch railing.......
These are what those pots looked like last year in front of the porch!!
 
 I placed 2 vintage galvanized watering cans, that were also my neighbor Elly's, inside the pots.....
 I had Joe take a walk up to the woods behind our townhouses and cut branches from 3 different types of evergreen trees which I filled the watering cans with!!
 I tied a bow around each of the spouts of the watering cans......
 When we get snow, at least they will be elevated off the ground and will still be able to be seen.....
 Just wanted to show you what it looks like with a dusting of snow on the ground......
 Now let's take a look at the front yard which is a long flower bed that runs in front of our row of townhouses at the top of a slope.....
 It does look better with a bit of snow........
 Over on the left.......
On the side of the faux mailbox in the front yard is another galvanized watering can............
 I just love the shape of this one!!!

Again, I filled it with greenery and added a bow .........
Joe bought this mail box cover at Wegman's last year.....
I added garland around the base with a "Let It Snow" Sign......
And again, with snow!!
 My park bench........

I love to decorate the park bench for each Season.....
The lamp post is decorated with garland, a bow and a tin bird........
Another sled is attached to the front of the lamp post which I will show you at the end of this post......
A potted poinsettia, an angel and a lantern are on the bench......
Garland is wrapped around the top of the bench.......
  The lantern sits in the middle of a wreath decorated with pine cones and snowflakes......

 I love how different it all looks with some snow......
 The deer that are out in the yard year round have greenery around their necks and bows.....
Another Christmas mini flag......
The deer always look better with snow on the ground.....
 There are 13 steps to walk up to get to the sidewalk that runs in front of our row of townhouses.......
 
 This is our house looking up from the parking lot at it.....
 You can see that wreaths hang on each of the windows.......
 I was thrilled when I saw that there had been that little bit of snow in the morning when I took these photos......
 You can see the other sled that I mentioned before on the other side of the park bench.......
 A few years ago, I painted this sled and glued a B on it because our last name is Barna......
 You can see the faux mailbox and the one watering can in this photo......
 Here are a few photos I took in the early evening......
 As it got a bit darker......

Even though I was way behind in sharing this front of our townhouse decorated for Christmas, I hoped you enjoyed seeing it!!
I am happy with how it looks with the combined Christmas and Winter decorations......
And it will make it easier after Christmas is over as I will just have to change out Christmas for a few Winter decorations as most of the Winter ones are already out!!
 In my next post, I will be sharing our Powder Room decorated for Winter with a bit of Christmas......
So I hope you will come by and visit  again!!

And thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

However, if you are a vendor and insist upon leaving a comment with a link back to a website, You have forced me to now moderate ALL comments so do NOT even try it!

Hugs,
Debbie
 I am linking up to these parties:

All Things Christmas Linky Party

 Happy Holidays Link Up Party

 SATURDAY
 Saturday Sparks
 Pink Saturday-Anything Goes!!
Best of the Weekend Party

SUNDAY
Snickerdoodle Sunday
 Sundays at Home
 Silver Pennies Sunday
 Happiness is Homemade Linky Party
Nifty Thrifty Sunday
The Fabulous Party

 MONDAY 
Inspire Me Monday
Inspiration Mondays
 Dishing It and Digging It Link Party
Busy Monday
What'd You Do This Weekend?
Cooking and Crafting with J & J
Metamorphosis Monday
Project Inspired Weekly Link Party
 Celebrate Your Story Monday Night Link Party! 
Make It Pretty Monday

 TUESDAY
 Tuesdays At Our Home
Inspire Me Tuesdays

Ducks in a Row Wonderful Wednesdays Blog Hop
Sizzle into Summer Party
Talk of the Town Party
Party in Your PJ's
Dream Create Inspire Link
 Waste Not Wednesday
Style Showcase
Wow Us Wednesday

THURSDAY
Vintage Charm
Home and Garden Party Thursday
 Share Your Style Thursday Link Up Party
  Inspired Creations Linky Party
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop 
 Grace at Home Party
 
FRIDAY
Home Sweet Home Friday
Friday Features Linky Party
  Feathered Nest Friday
 Funtastic Friday
 Friday Favorites
 Home Matters Linky Party
   Flaunt It Fridays
  Sweet Inspirations Link Party

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

11 comments:

  1. What a great tour!!! I cannot imagine how much work you put into all of that decor! You are amazing and I love your porch!!! Wow is all!

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  2. My heavens, it all looks so pretty and festive. I like velvet red bows. Hopefully I can find the ribbon on sale after Christmas.

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  3. Just beautiful and so very festive. You did an amazing job and I know that was a lot of work. Lovely

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  4. So wonderful to see all your wonderful decorating AGAIN. You are one amazingly talented lady!! Thanks for all your pictures filled with loving spirit. Merrrrrry Christmas!

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    Replies
    1. Marcy Ray, Thanks so much for stopping by and for taking the time to comment!! I did not know how else to get in touch with you so I am doing so here...
      Hugs,
      Deb

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  5. What a beautiful Christmas festive front porch, the prettiest on the block dear friend. It must be a lot of work, but I'm sure fun too ! Congrats.
    Merry Christmas,
    Fabby

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  6. Your front porch is beautiful Debbie. You look all ready for Christmas. Thanks for sharing at Creative Mondays.

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  7. Your red decors are so festive, perfect for Christmas time. Thanks for being always so deary with me
    Hugs

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  8. Such a festive porch, Debbie! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!

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  9. I feel happy looking at your wonderful Christmas decor. Merriest of Holidays, Kippi

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However if you are a vendor and insist upon leaving a comment with a link back to a website, You have forced me to now moderate ALL comments so do NOT even try it!

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