Christmas Home Tour on Highcrest

Christmas has always been such a special Holiday for me. Growing up my sweet Mama had a basic holiday decor style. We had a small artificial Christmas tree – covered in an eclectic mix of home-made and store-bought ornaments. There was a nativity set, a plastic Santa and a matching frosty the snowman. At the time I thought it was just awful and I didn’t understand why we didn’t have a Christmas village or lights strung on our front porch. I thought my mom was being mean. But now I know it just wasn’t what was important to her. She was a no fuss and no frills kind of lady. And you know what? I treasure those Christmas memories with all my heart.

That being said, I don’t know if my desire to want a house exploding with Christmas cheer and more trees than a forest came from what I considered deprivation as a child or if it’s just who I am. Whatever the case, I’m still making memories that hopefully my children will cherish as well.

Let The Farmhouse Christmas Tour Begin!

When you enter our home, you’ll be greeted by dogs and decor. Lots of decor. From the stairs to the entryway table it’s screaming, but not yelling, Christmas time is here!

Directly off my foyer, to the right is my formal dining room or winter woodland as my Mister likes to call it.

See this nativity set here? It was my Mama’s. At some point she started collecting them and I was fortunate enough to get several of them when she passed. This one might be my absolute favorite. It’s small but mighty just like she was.

In the corner of this room I have a curio type cabinet. I decorated the top of it to mimic a winter village. I just love these little white noises from Target’s dollar spot!

And yes, that is another Nativity Set that belonged to my Mama!

This letter to Santa Claus isn’t old at all, but I needed something that looked it to go with the vintage typewriter. My Mister, being the creative genius he is (REALLY, he is) printed a letter, stained it with coffee and let it “bake/dry” in the oven. It turned out absolutely perfect. I know, I am truly a lucky girl. *smile*

Next we’ll move into the family room, where my pride and joy woodland style Christmas tree stands in all her glory. *smile*

these stockings came from Hobby Lobby and were a steal at $7ish dollars (after 50% off)!

Several years ago we implemented a new gift giving rule at our house. The kids have make a list of 1) something they want 2) something you need 3) something to wear and 4) something to read. This makes them think really hard about what items they most want and with 4 kids, it certainly makes things easier on us. They do get an additional gift that iS always PJ’s and then also a silly gag type gift as well as a stocking full of useful items and a couple of candies.

With that in mind, I like to make the gift wrapping special. I know it’s probably more for me than them, but it’s important (to me) and I enjoy doing it. This year I decided to hand stamp their gift tags. I just love how they turned out! I typically use 3 coordinating wrapping papers and an assortment of ribbons, raffia, and twine. It’s almost therapeutic for me to sit down, wrap and tie bows. I will admit though…my husband does most of the wrapping and then hands it over to me to finish her off with ribbons and bows. I told you I was a lucky girl.

As my father in law likes to say…that ain’t all ya’ll.

A little history for you, when we bought this house we tore down a wall of cabinets and breakfast bar to make this more of an open concept plan. The kitchen and breakfast room is open to the family room so let’s look there next.

Who remembers growing up with this candy? My grandma, Mary Elizabeth Farmer, had it out every Christmas and in fact this was her dish. It’s so special to me and when I saw the old fashioned candy I just had to buy it. The yellow is my favorite!

Now we’ll move over to the master! I kept the decor pretty simple here, not because I really wanted to but because I was just plain ol’ tired and broke. lol

And lastly but certainly not least I want to share my most prized possession. Since my mom passed in October of 2015, I’ve been putting up the “Nana” tree each year. It’s the simpliest of all my trees, but my most favorite.

It’s a simple tree, with multi colored lights, my Mama always had multi colored lights and I have many of her ornaments on the tree. Some are ones I made when I was just 5 years old! The ornaments on this tree and the memories I have associated with them are absolutely priceless. I think Mama would have loved this little tree.

I made this hand ornament with my Mama’s help in 1980, I was 5! I am so thankful my sweet Mama took time to do things like this with me. It’s a tradition I’ve tried to carry on.