Deck the Halls; and the Other Rooms, and Anything That Stands Still Too Long

It's that time of year when what seems like every blank space (as well as many that aren't blank) in the Family W household gets the Christmas treatment. We LUUUUURRRRRVE Christmas, and like to start our decorating on the 1st of December every year. What luck that this year it fell on a weekend, making tree shopping a much less stressful prospect.

Here's hubby having a look if the one right at the back is worth having.

And here's DC suggesting that we just go with the one at the front; and that's exactly what we did.

After a bit of furniture moving, the tree was brought in

and de-netted. Quite a looker, don't you think?

After a couple of hours primping, she was ready for her big moment.

Ta daaaah.

Some close ups of just a few of the many, many, many decorations.

I made this one a couple of weeks ago using a wooden star template with a Christmas paper napkin decoupaged on top; it was the first time I'd ever done anything like it and I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

Lots of our tree decorations have been bought overseas; whenever we go on holiday we try to find a decoration so that when we open the boxes at the beginning of December we are transported back to many and varied destinations such as:

New York

Sydney

Hungary (left) and Latvia (right)

India

Bruges

And then there's the disappointment of managing to break the lovely bauble I'd bought to mark DC's first Christmas. Darn.

But back to the decorations that remain in tact (for the time being at least.)

DC came home with this fabulous sleigh that he'd made at school. It's being driven by a Fisher Price pilot, with a rather worried looking Father Christmas as a passenger. And the best bit about this? I made the Father Christmas at school when I was about the same age that DC is now. I think it's probably earned the name 'Vintage Father Christmas'.

Over on one of the shelves we have a laser-cut wooden tree (which I think we bought in Krakow), along with a bark reindeer from New York and a lovely old green glass bottle with the words 'F. Christmas & Co' across the middle (hubby gave me that a couple of birthdays ago.)

On another shelf is a little sorpresa (which translates as 'surprise') which we bought in El Salvador.

The surprise being that when you lift up the tree, there's a tiny nativity scene hidden inside.

Other shelves house a variety of decorations including a wooden moose wearing a jumper, which we bought at the Eden Project, a Merry Christmas garland which came from Monsoon when I worked there, and a wooden advent calendar in the shape of a house.

One of the windowsills in the living area is home to a selection of glittery decorations.

While the mantle is adorned with sparkly lights and a Father Christmas who is just counting the days.

Out in the hallway my branches are decked in tiny baubles from Florida.

And a robin and snowman add to the festivities.

On the other side of the hallway is tree number two. An artificial one here, wearing matching baubles and coloured lights, because we like to have a tree that can be seen twinkling away when you walk up the path to the house.

And the final tree, here in the snug, the Starbucks tree. It's a sad but true fact that we have so many Starbucks decorations that they need their own tree. So shoot me.

And it's not just decorations that abound; 

just look in the mug cupboard - Christmas is everywhere in this house.

And the little wooden shelves haven't escaped either.

After all that, it's time for a well-earned Christmas drink. 

Snowball anyone? Bottoms up.