Because everything starts so early around here so that I can enjoy all the decorations (Halloween begins middle of August), I am always more than ready when the next holiday rolls around. Watching all of the Christmas decorations roll out at our Target around October 22nd, made me more than anxious to put away our Halloween decorations and put everything up for Christmas. Which is kind of sad really considering that Halloween is genuinely my favorite holiday (EV’s too for that matter). Halloween this year was perfection with the kids going trick or treating for the first time with Sean and our best friends, having a HalloweenTown marathon on our front lawn (we put the inflatable screen up), candy for the kids (we had so much and literally had so many kids that by the end of the night we legit had one piece left) , and jello shots for the adults (yup, those were gone too…thankfully with the last person or else I would have had a mutiny on my hands).
Have you ever seen a cuter Anna or Kristoff?! I will wait.
You better believe and complete with sideeye from Sean that first thing I did on November 1st was ask Sean to grab the bag with the Christmas tree in it and while that was being done, I was pulling all the Halloween boxes out, packing everything up and by noon, I was up to my elbows in garland, ornaments and Christmas decor. I had promised myself I was not going to go out of control this year with decorations and the Bullseye Christmas section because we finally had a really nice curated collection, but that went to the wayside with all the great things they put (and continue to put) out.
My crafting table became a holding pattern (November 1st) for all the new Dollar Tree and Target Christmas I had gotten while waiting for Halloween to end and for Sean to take down the other boxes. Sean discovering that all this was new was a fun day lol.
I was still off November 1st for my vacation and I had put up EV and the Commodore’s Christmas tree a couple days before Halloween (don’t judge me lol) because we were giving them our mini tree for the first time this year and I wanted to make sure that it fit in the space I had planned and my mom and I had gotten them a ton of toddler friendly ornaments at the Dollar Tree along with a few special ones from Target. If your kiddos have a tree in their room, I highly suggest you infiltrate the Dollar Tree as you will not have to worry about the ornaments, they are actually really nice quality and were perfect for little hands. I also feel they can be used from year to year (possibly even ones they would want to keep as momentos into adulthood) without worrying about the ornaments or them.
The North Pole Believers sign was only $5 from the Wondershop section of Target.
I love the soft star for up top which the kids could push on and I didn’t have to worry about them damaging anything. Being a star putter-on’er is a VERY important job that they both got to experience. The gray and white storage bin is for Holiday books so I go through their bookshelves and pull out all the Christmas-inspired books and put them in this box for us to read.
The kids ended up doing a great job of “being gentle” with ornaments and had no real interest in trying to pull them off the tree much to my surprise. However, what my kids, did have an interest in, was this…
A light controller….you read that right…prepare to be amazed.
and THIS Santa radio…
I loved the ‘Twas The Night sign (I bought two, one for each kiddos room) there is something so nostalgic about having the first page of a classic being done in decor form. This metal sign came from the Bullseye section this year.
I do not know about you all, but anything that makes music and sounds, doesn’t matter the age, but my kiddos love it. The radio was a fun find because it is a Santa radio with working dials, and working ‘stations’ that play music, news, etc., and a really easy to volume control. I found it durable, it has provided countless entertainment and has gotten the kids so excited for decorating and planning for Christmas.
THIS tree light switch is something else. I honestly did not have very high hopes for it and it not only exceeded whatever hopes I had and intensified them, but I am now regretting not getting one for the kids tree. I put it on the family tree since the plug to light up the tree is backed up into our built-ins and our back glass sliding door (what was I thinking). It is wireless so you can move the switch anywhere (this makes turning the tree off and on sooooo easy without crawling under the tree for the plug), it plugs right into the tree lights into the wall and sure as heck, you flip the switch which has the coolest sound ever ( you can actually turn this feature to silent) and the tree lights turn on and off with the flip of the switch/controller.
EV and Commodore have been taking turns at night turning on the Christmas lights and the hardest thing is having them do it only once. Man oh man I can understand wanting to do it several times as it is REALLY fun and has become a totally unexpected ‘much needed’ Christmas ‘decor’ item. We were very lucky to even get this as for the last several days I have been scouring our multiple Targets for another one and the minute they are in, they are flying off the shelf. If you see one, it will be the best $25 you have ever spent…I promise!
My mom came to the house with THIS ballerina for EV and THIS snowglobe for the Commodore and he loves it so much that he goes to sleep with it. It is pretty much the cutest darn thing ever! The pictures online do not do it justice and it is a really durable plastic so I am not worried about it breaking or him hurting himself. The ballerina although beautiful has been one of those things that has been really hard to monitor EV with and to talk to her about not being able to take the ballerina off her stand or turning the fake key (which is not to be messed with at all). I finally for the time being just had to put it on a higher shelf. She gets really distracted when she is doing other things and the key was going to end up paying a price as a result of that.
In other news, the mini bottle brushes (below) were perfect for inside the gumball machines and went with the pastel decorated theme of EV’s bureau (do people still say bureau). I bought regular colored tree ones for the ones in the built in and the green wooden bullseye trees for the dining room one (I really became obsessed with the gumball machines).
Commodore just adored his snowglobe and I love it as it reminds me of Macy’s in NY at Christmas time…or Eloise at the Plaza…take your pick. Either way it is nostalgic for me.
It lights up, throws up up snow flurries like a traditional snowglobe, plays music and has cars…as you can see, the Commodore was in heaven.
My favorite part about having built-ins if you haven’t guessed already has been the decorating and yes, I might have gone a little hog wild for Christmas, but I just wanted everything out and lit up and looking as holiday-ish (my mother’s favorite word ever) as possible. My favorite will always be the tin vintage cars decked out with holiday lights (they remind me of my dad and anything that makes me feel close to him this time of year is a win) and the ceramic white houses that I have been collecting from the Bullseye in all forms for years.
I used the cloche dome containers (they are plastic which we loved) for the extra bottle brushes I had and I was able to get some really pretty vintage glass trees for $1 and stuck them in there too (I have no idea why this looks uneven, but I promise you, they are straight on). The glass/silver trees are my favorite as they light up, they have a yellowish light when all lit and they look so vintage on the shelves. I may have overdone it with them, but I do not care and they are impossible to find, so there’s my rationale…have at it.
Anyone that knows me, knows I am terrified of dolls. I do not do Elf on a Shelf (I do not care what you say, those effers come alive at night) even though it seems so cute, so instead I bought the little mini Elf ornaments (make note of how high they are so they cannot attack me at night or so I have convinced myself) to do our version of Elf on the Shelf and yes, I did buy the cute $1 set-ups that that Bullseye had, because why not.
I love how the green wooden trees look in the other gumball machine and they were only $1.
Totally here for the clapping of the tree going on for the first time!
Most of our ‘special’ travel ornaments (to commemorate special events or trips taken Sean and I always get an ornament) are higher on the tree away from interested hands so I did get a few ‘regular’ run of the mill ornaments for lower that the kids could look at or interact with.
I lovingly refer to this area as how much Christmas is too much Christmas? Asking for a friend.
It is no surprise that I love Hearth & Hand everything, but I especially love THIS cakestand. It is quite heavy and although we are not a cake eating family, I do use this as a centerpiece and decorate the inside for holidays. I bought this lightup tin farmhouse from the Bullseye years ago (I believe there are similar ones that are $10) and it is always inside the cakestand. I just buy little pieces to go along with it for the holidays or add mini ornaments (basically whatever I feel like).
What I won’t be posting is my crazy ‘sleeps till’ advent collection obsession. I always thought that the people who collected advent calendars were crazy (I mean how many does one person need) until I purchased my JaxnBlvd ‘sleeps’ countdown from Hobby Lobby (the price I got it for was incredible). Her sales are always good online, but the shipping always had me pulling back. Now time for an unpopular opinion, look away now: I love the merchandise at Hobby Lobby, I hate the place, the people there are always rude and I am sorry but some of the soapbox they stand on, I just can’t get behind…sorry not sorry. Anyway moving on, I went it for just this piece years ago…got it (okay technically I didn’t go in the store, my mom did and scored it for me…does that count though) and never went back. Since then, the sleeps till’s have basically become like Pokemon to me. There is something magical about having a ‘sleeps till Christmas’ countdown which has resulted in a must have them all obsession. I just acquired THIS one at Target recently (it is a lot dimmer than the large one I got last year, but similar to the controller they are sold out everywhere and can no longer be shipped so whatevs), but it also demonstrates how I style the bottle brush trees that I get from Target for $1 (these were last years) so two birds…one stone or some jazz like that. Bottle brush trees are another one of those crazy items that I get a bunch of and think of the design aesthetic later.
Commodore’s first picture with Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the American Pavillion in Epcot. I miss this so much, you have no idea. I have an area of holiday pictures of the kids that I take out for the respective holidays (birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, Arbor Day…I kid) and replace with the ones that are normally there. Gallery walls are perfect for this.
Case in point…
Lastly, although it has nothing to do with decorations whatsoever, I thought we would bask in EV’s holiday boots (THESE) that I purchased during the Cartwheel 20% off. I literally bought these shoes for pictures with Santa and to take to Disney for our Holiday pictures with Capture Your Moment (no surprise that this is happening again). It’s basically everything that me and my Wizard of Oz loving self would want in a holiday shoe and I am not the least bit apologetic about it.
I mean c’mon….just look at them!
So now that I am over the top and I don’t even think I am done yet (I have a Take Out December 1st Storage container for goodness sakes), but I know I should be decorating whirlwind…who’s with me?!
Where are my other November 1st’ers at?! Don’t make me think I am crazy!
