Welcome to my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!
I am so happy you decided to stop by my Christmas Blog!!
I prove that you do not have to live in a large home to have several Trees, over 20, in all shapes and sizes!!
The majority of my Christmas decorations are placed in the same room every year and I know that this is not what most Decorator's care for but to me, it like seeing old friends again when I decorate each year for Christmas as many of my decorations were gifts from family and friends...........
The majority of my Christmas decorations are placed in the same room every year and I know that this is not what most Decorator's care for but to me, it like seeing old friends again when I decorate each year for Christmas as many of my decorations were gifts from family and friends...........
I do try to add a few new things and change up things a bit but for the most part, these decorations are part of my Christmas Traditions and bring back a lot of treasured memories.....
I post 3 TIMES A WEEK on MONDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAYS.....
As always, click on each picture if you would like to enlarge it....
PINTEREST
A NOTE ABOUT COMMENTS
I
enjoy reading your comments and will return the favor by visiting and
commenting on your blog or reply to you directly here if you do not have
a blog but I do have my comment section set to Moderation due to
spammers and hackers so your comment will not appear immediately...
And since I have a very busy life, like most of us do, it may take me awhile to return your comments but I promise I will....
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In my last post, I shared my annual Winter/ Heart Month Home Tour for 2026
Along with a few gifts for my Birthday....
And New Buys...
Click HERE if you missed that post....
I want to Thank all the hosts of the "You're the Star" Month long link party for choosing my Blog post, Snow & Ice Tree in a Winter Woodland Den, as one of their featured posts for HOME week...
Please stop by and link up to this lovely party!!
And now for a few Personal Notes...
For the New Year, I am trying something different with my 3 times weekly posts....
On THURSDAYS,
I will feature what I cooked and ate during the week, showcasing local
cuisine and a few recipes for things that I actually made...
I decided that on SATURDAYS, I will showcase What I Have Been Up To in the past week, sharing events and places I went to, if any....
On MONDAYS, I will be featuring What I Have Bought or Been Gifted Recently, if anything...
Today is Thursday, so it is time to share some food....
My son Joey treats on Fridays and since last Friday was the first one in Lent and I will not be eating meat on Fridays til Easter, He brought home NY style pizza from one of our local favorite places, Serpico's...
A plain pie....
And a mushroom one...
Last Saturday, I made a roaster pan of a pasta bake with ground turkey, sauce, sour cream,
mozzarella cheese, American cheese, ziti and seasonings...
It was very good!!
My
neighbor Mehrukh brought over this luscious piece of red velvet cake
with cream cheese icing and filling on Tuesday evening for Joey and I...
It was her husband,
Mo's Birthday...
It was delicious...
They are now celebrating the entire month of Ramadan!
Ramadan is quite
similar to the Catholic's Lent...
Fasting and abstinence is also
involved but much more strict then our Catholic rules on
Fasting....
"Fasting during Ramadan, a core pillar of Islam, involves
abstaining from food, drink (including water), smoking from dawn to sunset for a month, usually 12–15 hours daily.
This practice cultivates spiritual reflection, self-discipline, and
empathy for the less fortunate.
The fast is broken with an iftar meal,
while suhoor is eaten pre-dawn."
So as the sunset starts to set later in
the day, they Fast longer.....NO FOOD OR DRINK, even water!!
I am posting on Wednesday rather than my normally scheduled Thursday because.....
HAPPY RUDOLPH DAY!!!!!
Rudolph Day is celebrated the 25th of each month......
Most will share something to do with Christmas on Rudolph Day....
In the 16 years that I have been Blogging, I am constantly asked
WHERE DO YOU KEEP IT ALL?
Over many years, people have questioned my maximalism....
This is the AI definition of Maximalism....
"Maximalism is a
"more is more" design philosophy, contrasting with minimalism by
embracing, color, pattern, and texture to create rich, personalized
spaces. It focuses on,,curated, individualism rather than chaotic
clutter, utilizing, bold, art,,layered, textiles, and,personal,
collections to tell a story. Popular in,interior, design and fashion,
it,highlights,self-expression "
I love that it highlights self expression....
Nothing against Minimalism for those that embrace it but it is just not for me....
First, I am going to show you .....
How I store ornaments for my Seasonal Trees....
Many, many years ago, I bought a card board ornament box with cardboard dividers for the Christmas ornaments for my only Christmas Tree...
After a few years, those card board boxes had seen their last day...
So I decided to save those card board dividers, toss those the cardboard boxes and go with tubs....
So I cut the dividers to fit into the tubs.....
I am able to store all the decorations and ornaments from my 7 ft. Tree in the Living Room for Christmas in one tub!!
Saving ornaments in the indiviual boxes they came in and even in the boxes that maybe 6-10 ornaments came in, take up too much room....
I will put several nonbreakable ornaments together in one section....
This is the second layer...
Now the divider for the 3rd layer, I made myself from cardboard boxes, using the original dividers as a template...
In this layer, I store larger items, storing ornaments in the order I put them on the Tree with those that go first on top........
I also store the beaded garlands, bow and streamers of ribbon in this tub...
Any overflow like the forals that I tuck into the top of the Tree and all around the Tree will go into another tub....
I have 2 slightly smaller tubs for the Dining Room 6 ft. pencil thin Tree....
The first one is all ornaments and the second tub holds the remaining ornaments and the rest of the decorations for the Tree....
I am also able to fit a wreath and a sign into this tub...
So I know you are wondering if I have have breakage of ornaments....
Almost never...
So much so that I even store my vintage Shiny Brite ornaments for the smaller Tree in the Living Room in this manner....
I have 3 of these ornament boxes bought a very long time ago....
This is the container that I store the decorations from my Kitchen Tree in..........
I also use these containers for the Powder Room Tree and my bedroom Tree.....
Now you all know that I have decorated Trees up year round...
For the 7 ft. Seasonal Living Room Tree , I have made more dividers out of cardboard boxes and have an ornament tub for each Holiday and Season that i decorate this Tree for...
I keep up the 6 ft. pencil thin Tree in the Dining Room for Heart Month so I also have an ornament tub for that Holiday...
For the smaller trees that I keep up that I do not have a large amount of ornaments for, I use a box and put one layer of ornaments and then a layer of bubble warp and another layer of ornaments...
I then can put that box into a tub with other decorations for that Season or Holiday...
Okay!
With all that being said, let me show you Where Do I Keep It All in my 1700 sq. ft. townhouse without a basement!!
Okay, you can pick yourself up off the floor now...
I have been told many times that i must live in a BIG house to have so much stuff!
NOPE!
But I do make good use of the storage I have and made in my townhouse especially since I do not have a basement...
STORAGE UNDER THE STAIRS.....
I always say this is hidden storage....
This is my hallway closet....
My coat closet....
Take all the coats out and this is what you see....
Take that trap door out and look!!
My hot water heater....
But over across from the hot water heater is all this storage....
I use this area for storing my Christmas village pieces and other heavy items that would kill me if I lugged them upstairs and then up the attic, which I will get to shortly...
These are 5 medium sized tubs that I have most of my Christmas Kitchen decorations stored in as they are heavy, consisting of a lot of ceramics...
These are the tubs from my Christmas village and other Living Room decorations...
ALL of this fits into this storage area under the stairs!!
And there you have it!!
Before I go any further, Let me tell you to get rid of all the original boxes that decor items came in because they take up too much space...
You can wrap those items up in bubble wrap and put them together in tubs.....
I just got rid of a lot of the boxes that my Christmas village houses came in as they were so old that they were falling apart...
And guess what?
I had an empty tub left over ( as I put the boxes into the tubs)!
THE ATTIC...
Let me warn you that there is nothing glamorous about this post!!!
Shortly after we moved in to our townhouse, we had the attic floored and instead of using the tiny trap door in one of the closets in the Master Bedroom, we had pull down stairs installed in a different area of the Master Bedroom to provide an easier access up to the Attic......
I "dabbled" a bit and cut out images from a wall paper border to dress up the pull down up a bit......
Our eldest son, Joey, asked if I was going for a Sistene Chapel look!!!
Our eldest son, Joey, asked if I was going for a Sistene Chapel look!!!
LOL!!!
The first 2 were wooden stairs which both broke because of the heavy use!!!
So we opted for the more expensive metal set of stairs and so far, they have held up without any problems......
You can see that they are in an area of our bedroom which provides easy access up and down......
Some of my neighbors installed them in the upstairs hall way where for
the most part, attic pull down stairs are installed but that really
limits the amount of space around the stairs so it was my idea to have
them installed in the bedroom.......
After all, I am a carpenter's daughter.......
I do want to add that I am able to walk around up in the attic but in a slightly hunched position...
I have a small stool up there that I can move around and sit down on and work from......
It was easier for me to go up there as I am used to it because every time my late husband Joe went up the attic, he impaled himself on the nails from the roofing!!!
After all, I am a carpenter's daughter.......
I do want to add that I am able to walk around up in the attic but in a slightly hunched position...
I have a small stool up there that I can move around and sit down on and work from......
It was easier for me to go up there as I am used to it because every time my late husband Joe went up the attic, he impaled himself on the nails from the roofing!!!
Or fell down the stairs...
LOL!!
The attic has a 20 by 16 ft. section that is floored....
The roof truss system in the attic has very nicely created "sections" which makes it easy to organize when storing things......
By not putting the pull down steps in the hallway, which would put the stairs smack dab in the center of the attic, they were able to put the steps in one of these "sections" and they fit perfectly!!
Again, that was my idea!!
For Christmas decorations, I store decorations from one room and sometimes 2 rooms depending on the amount of storage containers, in each section.....
This makes it easier when decorating as I bring down only the decorations for the room I am decorating at the time and then put those containers, now filled with the everyday things from that room , back up into the attic in the "section" for that room......
This makes it easier when decorating as I bring down only the decorations for the room I am decorating at the time and then put those containers, now filled with the everyday things from that room , back up into the attic in the "section" for that room......
Up in the attic, are 2 large tubs that stays up there and I just empty them out up there in laundry baskets rather then lugging these large tubs up and down from the
attic........
One is for the Kitchen and I store my Kitchen Santa's, florals, garland, etc. in that one.....
There is only another red tub of things I left out for Winter decor in the Kitchen after Christmas and the ornament container.....
The other large tub that stays up the Attic for the Living Room florals, garlands and swags.........
In the section next to the Kitchen is the Dining Room Christmas decorations....
In the section to the left of that one are the Living Room Christmas decorations....
The next section to the left is used to store the decorations from the Den and the Powder Room........
The Den go in first.....
And then the Powder Room decorations.........
There is a middle aisle in the attic with the truss system sections on both sides so I have plenty of "sections" where I store the rest of the Christmas decorations for the upstairs and the Easter, Fall, Halloween, Patriotic, Under the Sea, and early Fall Apple decor for the Kitchen....
I also have 2 toy chests, that I Dad made, up the attic and they fit perfectly in a "section" created by the truss system.......
One was mine as a child and one is the one he made for my sons....
Holiday linens are stored in those..
MY STORAGE SHED
28 years ago, when my Mother passed away, I inherited her bedroom set, a vintage Waterfall set...
She lived in a senior citizen apartment and we only had 2 weeks from the date of death to clear our the apartment that she lived in for 17 years after my Dad died...
So Joe and I rented a storage shed to store the furniture and other things that I needed to store until I could bring them to my house...
We ended up keeping it as we stored ALL of my son's toys in the shed, all outdoor furniture, all the outdoor decorations and other things too large to store at our house...
Now Joe was in charge of the shed which is the size of my Dining Room....
10' by 10'
Needless to say, Joe was not as neat and organized as I am.....
This is what I found after Joe passed away almost 2 years ago....
YIKES!!!!
This is what it looks like now.....
Slowly, I have been throwing things out and passing things on to family and friends ...
I still need to decide on whether or not to keep a few more things .....
And I still need to go through this side as all my son's toys are in the back corner..
I also no longer take all the outside furniture down to the shed which is about 5-8 minutes from my house...
I bank them up against the back of the house and cover them...
One of my INTENTIONS for this year, which I still need to do a post on, is to be able to drop down to a smaller shed, a 5' by 10 ' one...
And one last storage trick.....
I store things in plain site.....
I have 2 large round tables, one in the Living Room and one in the Den, that I had covered with floor length tablecloths...
I store things under both of those tables......
Under the Living Room table, I stored the heavy seashell items and lighthouse that I made from clay pots from my late Summer "Under the Sea" theme...
I store 2 smaller trees under the Den table along with a few Christmas Den decorations....
Also in the Den, you have seen my china cupboard and the vintage suitcases underneath and in front of it....
There is one of these book boxes on top of one of the suitcases....
After Christmas, most of the figurines from inside the china cupboard are stored in this box....
There is another box on top of the computer armoire and I store more Christmas figurines from the Den in that box...
I also use the suitcases to store away Christmas decor......
So there you have it.....
Using them to store my regular decor in after I decorate for Christmas....
That is Where Do I Keep It All????
I think I have made pretty good use out of the little space that I do have.....
One of my favorite You Tubers is Brittany Blane....
For those of you who have larger homes with garages and basements, this video of Brittany's shows her amazing garage with all her storage tubs and shelving....
I wish I had this much space to use for storage....
I HOPE that maybe you will pick up a few ideas from this post on storage and using the space that you do have to the max......
And I also hope I have finally answered the constant questions as to...
Where Do I Keep It All??
Doubt it!!
LOL!
And try to find JOY in every single day! 
Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!
Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!
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......
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THURSDAY
Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
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