2019 Christmas Home Tour

We are half way through December and I finally got my home decorated for Christmas! Today I’m sharing how my home would look if I was having a Christmas party! I’d invite you in, you’d see our main living areas (entry, front room, dining room, kitchen, and living room) and you might use the bathroom while you were here, so I’m sharing our half bath as well!

I shared our front porch a little over a week so and you can check that out here. We are living in a 60s brick ranch that we have spent the past 6 years fixing up here in the suburbs of St Louis. It’s small but cute!

Update! I added this photo today because it’s a winter wonderland out there and my front door looks so pretty!

I’m excited to be sharing my home today along with 7 other lovely and incredibly talented friends of mine, as we share our homes in the similar theme: a holiday gathering. Each has interpreted the theme in their own unique way, so you definitely want to see what they are sharing (at the bottom of this post)!

While we didn’t actually have a Christmas party this year, shortly after I was finishing up photographing on Saturday, Bruno’s aunt and uncle popped in to drop off some gifts and visit, so we enjoyed the ambiance and snacked on the charcuterie board I had prepared! It is my favorite type of gathering: small and spontaneous!

Our entry is less a separate room and more a wall that holds a pretty green bench and a shelf with hooks over it. Check out the recent makeover we gave to this area here. 

I used to have 4 framed door photos on the shelf, but just opted for one and added my vintage brass candlestick holders and a new brass ‘partridge in a pear tree’ votive holder with some cedar garland. Did you know that my last name means “pear tree” in Portuguese? It’s true: Pereira means pear tree. 

I didn’t do much to this room besides the tree. A couple wooden horses and ceramic houses are on the piano (all from years ago), and a velvet green pillow on the couch. The rest of the room is still pretty neutral and will transition nicely after Christmas!

I hung the Nativity drawing I did a few years ago above the buffet and I love the simplicity here. 

Let’s pretend you had to go to the bathroom shortly after your arrival, shall we? Because we haven’t touched our kids’ bathroom down the hall, I’ll take you to our basement half bath. It’s cute and has natural light. 

I took down the juju hat that was in our dining room for a while and put it on the big blank wall we had in here. It’s fun and adds great texture!

So, yeah I added a little fake tree from my storage and bought a new red candle and some pine-smelling soap. Bathrooms are often forgotten and festive smelling soap and a candle can do wonders to any bathroom (even if you don’t have room for a mini tree!). 

Alright, back upstairs, we move onto the kitchen. I added a faux garland over the window and some whimsical little toys to my mini shelves by the sink. It feels nostalgic and right. 

Over the years, I notice I gravitate most towards little nordic or fair isle-inspired Christmas decor. I love everything about it!

Our kitchen always has food on the island when people come over. I made up a charcuterie board and put out some bottles of juice. 

Did you know I got everything on that board from Aldi? They have really stepped up their game and offer at least a dozen different types of cheeses and all the fancy Italian cured meats close by. 

The kitchen is connected to our dining room. A simple bouquet of white roses is all I did in here!

This pic gives you a better idea of how they flow together… and no, I didn’t try to hide the baby high chair off to the right. It’s real life and I love that our little Nina takes center stage in our lives right now!

From the dining room you go into the living room, which was an addition from the original home floors plans. It’s always chillier in here because there isn’t a basement below this room, so we always have lots of throw blankets around.  The tree really is a focal point here though…

I added clip-on candles to our pre-lit tree this year and I love how classic old-fashioned it looks with just the candles. These candles are one of my favorite purchases this year. They are battery powered (AAA so it’s not too heavy), LED lights so they last a long time, remote control, have 4 brightness/dim settings, and they have 2 flicker settings. My fav is the slow flicker. I used 3 boxes of 10, and one remote works for all of them. 

I also added several strings of twinkle lights, so when they are all on, it’s our most lit tree ever!

Isn’t that wood reindeer so fun? My parents use to own a gift shop in Juneau, Alaska in the 80s and these wood reindeer were one of several things they made and sold! My dad would cut out the wood pieces and my mom would hand-paint them. Last year they were going through boxes and found the original pattern, so they made one for each of us kids and gave it as gifts last Christmas. This is the first year we’ve had him out on display!

I’ve decided I can’t do Christmas without red, but opted for a more burgundy red this year. I paired it with some deep blue because I was able to use everything that I already owned!

One of the few things I bought new was those cable-knit stockings. I found them on Amazon for an unreal price of $24 for 4!

I added these pretty monogram ornaments to Nina and Kaila’s stocking and am still on the lookout for something more masculine-looking for the boys’ stockings. 

You can’t go wrong with fresh garland and brass candlestick holders. 

And that is our tour! This tree is my favorite I’ve ever done. 

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our little home, lovingly decorated for Christmas. Thank you for coming to visit!

Now… take a look at my friends’ homes. You won’t regret it! Simplicity and festivity at its finest!!!