Decorating for Christmas is one of my favorite parts of the holiday! If you read my apartment decor video then you know that I started buying Christmas decorations for my place before furniture even crossed my mind. I had decorations before I even had a place to put them! I have to say the key decoration is the Christmas tree, I like to have a main tree in the living room, this is a real tree, and then I have a fake pencil tree in the bedroom. I always have a color scheme, and somehow I managed to go red in both rooms! Though it leans a bit more on the wine and gold side in the bedroom whereas the living room is the classic red and white.
I also have to have garlands and wreaths literally anywhere I can put them, right now that means one medium sized wreath in each room and a garland under each TV. I cannot wait till I own a house one day and I can have garland wrapped around every stair railing! Once the key decorations are up then out come the nicknacks, dancing Santa, the nativity, sleighs, and more! I have grown my collection by scouring Amazon, ebay, Michael’s, Christmas shops, and Pottery Barn.
My ornament collection however, has had a life of its own. The bedroom tree has a set color scheme so almost all of those ornaments came from sets from Ikea, except for a gold “Merry Christmas” ornament which I picked up last year on my birthday and a year round holiday shop in Manhattan. The living room tree however is one covered in sentimentality. I have a few ornaments that were handed down to me from my mom that we used to put on our when I was growing up, a few more that I got with or from friends, as well as two I got at a little shop in Bryant park for Joe and I of our favorite animals. But the main ornaments on the tree are our travel collection. We have purchased an ornament in almost every place we have traveled together, which makes that tree so special every year. Not the most color coordinated but probably my favorite decoration in the entire apartment.
To me the key to decorating is making it feel special, it can be the most beautiful decorations in the world but adding in those personal touches just makes it magical. I love walking past my tree and spotting one decoration that brings me back to where I was when I got it and all the memories that come with it.
