2017 Christmas Tree

Usually, I'm thinking a year ahead about my next year's Christmas tree and overall Christmas theme, but this year I was 100% focused on buying my first house.  I bought my house in August and painted the kitchen cabinets and slowly got a few things on the walls.  I bought new living room furniture and a dining table and created a craft room from the ground up.  And unpacked. And mowed the lawn. And planted flowers in the window boxes.

All that to say, this year was unusual and by November, I did not have a plan for my Christmas decor.  I planned to use things I already had, but I didn't have a vision.

Then I came across this ribbon from Hearth and Hand by Magnolia at Target and it became the centerpiece of my vision along with the song/sentiment "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays" - to celebrate my first year in my new home.

I pulled from last year when my theme was O Holy Night and the tree was decorated in stars and the year I had a red/chalkboard theme. 

 My first purchase for this year's Christmas decor was this galvanized steel tub from Ace Hardware.

Then I bought my beautiful Fraser Fir tree from Lowe's and once again had a great customer service experience there.  And even with no lights or adornment I love it in the tub in my living room.

Another benefit when you get your tree from Lowe's is that they usually have a bin of branches they've cut for customers and they let me take as many branches from that bin as I wanted.  I used those extra branches all over my house in buckets and on my dining room chandelier - which has been one of my favorite things this year.

Then, although I had a BUNCH of strands of clear lights, a lot of them didn't work, so I got my tree partially lighted and had to buy more.

Next I added strands of beads and my beautiful white and black plaid ribbon.

Then I used my homemade chalkboard ornaments from a previous year, but I modified them to fit this year.

Then I filled in with a few new ornaments from Target, some stars from prior years and some black shiny globe ornaments from Michael's.

I posted this bell ornament pic on Instagram and the next morning I woke up to a message from Target asking if they could use my photo - that was pretty exciting!  They used it on their #TargetStyle section of their website!!

I'm so happy with it!

And every night when I turn off all the lights - the magical glow of the tree makes me so happy!  (And makes me want to take more pictures!)