I’m so ready and excited to add wreaths to the front of my home! I hope to get that done this weekend. I know a lot of you have started your decorating, many are already done! It’s exciting and fun to have our homes all decorated and festive for the holidays, especially when family we rarely get to see visits us for Thanksgiving.
In today’s post, I’ve rounded up 26 ideas that I hope you’ll find helpful as you start preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I hope you find this helpful as you decorate, craft, cook, and prepare for the holidays!
You may want to bookmark this post for future reference if you see something you would love to make or do as Christmas draws closer. Also, please feel free to pin any of the images to Pinterest if you find that helpful for locating those posts later.
Click each highlighted title below to access that particular post for all the details.
Hope you enjoy these ideas as you ready your home for the holidays!
Beautiful Colonial Williamsburg Fruit Fan–Above Door Decoration: Consider crafting this beautiful Colonial Williamsburg Christmas Fan to go above your front door!
Pottery Barn Inspired Garland Tutorial: I was obsessed with this picture when I first saw it in a Pottery Barn catalog. Since the cost of the garland was outside my holiday decorating budget, I found an easy, inexpensive way to make it for my own front porch.
Here’s how the garland looked on my front porch.
Cranberry Trifle for Christmas Dessert: This trifle is really good and so easy to make. Your guests will never guess how easy this impressive-looking dessert was to make!
Make a Beautiful Colonial Williamsburg Centerpiece for Christmas : These elaborate apple or lemon tree centerpieces are not nearly as difficult to make as they appear. They are actually quite easy and make such a beautiful eye-catching centerpiece for a table or buffet.
Hang Wreaths on Your Exterior Windows: It’s much easier to hang wreaths on your exterior windows than it may look.
The wreaths look especially magical if you live someplace where it snows during the holiday season.
Easy Holiday Centerpiece that takes 15-Minutes to Make: Such a fast and easy way to dress an entry table. Works great as a table centerpiece, too!
An Insanely Awesome Champagne Punch: Great for Parties or a Christmas or New Years Brunch: Makes several batches because this punch is a big hit and always goes really fast!
Set Up A Hot Cocoa Bar To Enjoy All Winter Long: I had so much fun putting his Hot Cocoa Bar together! It would be great to create for your holiday guests or a holiday party! You’ll find a tutorial for making the sign below.
Make This DIY Sign for Your Hot Cocoa Bar: This is a detailed tutorial sharing exactly how I made the sign to go above my Hot Cocoa Bar.
Christmas Tree Napkin Fold: This is such a fun napkin fold to make and your guests will find it delightful!
10 Beautiful Mantels All Decorated for Christmas: If you’re looking for a bit of inspiration as you decorate your mantel this year, you’ll find it in this post!
Emergency Substitutions for Common Ingredients: Ever find you’re missing an ingredient you need when preparing your Christmas dinner? Here’s a list of common substitutions you can make if you’re out of an important ingredient.
How to Repair Those Dead Christmas Tree Lights: Sometimes the fix is an easy one, but you just have to know where to look!
Decorate Your Door With Triple Wreaths: Grandinroad Knockoff: It took me a while to figure how to make this “triple wreath” thing work for my front door. It’s an over-the-top look that’s a lot of fun to create!
Spreading Little Bits of Christmas Whimsy Throughout Your Home
Make a Winter Snow Globe, Easy DIY Project: This would be a great project to do with the kiddos. Also, I think these would be wonderful to make as place cards for a Christmas dinner party, writing each guest’s name with a sharpie on the little ornament inside. Then the guests could take them home to enjoy after the dinner.
21 Drinks Great for Holiday Parties: I would love to make every one of these recipes! So many good ones in this post!
Decorate a Lantern, Mailbox or Pergola for Christmas: This is seriously the easiest arrangement you could ever make for a gate, post, lantern, pergola or mailbox. If you don’t have a magnolia tree in your yard, use holly or another long-lasting evergreen. There’s a lot of faux greenery available out there that would work well for this, too.
Create a Table Centerpiece With Dept. 56 Lit Houses: If you collect Dept. 56 houses, consider using them down the center of your Christmas dinner table this year. This works great on most tables. My table is a bit more narrow than I would like and I was still able to do this. If you table is a bit wider, it will work even better!
Christmas Vacation Movie-themed Table Setting: Are you a Christmas Vacation movie fan? Check out this fun table for a bit of inspiration if you collect the Dept. 56 Christmas Vacation lit houses.
Christmas Vacation Movie Themed Gift Wrapping Idea: If you’re looking for a unique way to wrap your gifts this year, check out this post where I share a DIY idea inspired by Clark’s Christmas tree escapades in the movie, Christmas Vacation.
Decorate a Porch for Christmas: Decorate your porch and enjoy it all through the holiday season! Even if it’s too cold to be outside, you’ll enjoy seeing it from inside throughout the holiday season.
Snowman Spice Cake Dessert and Centerpiece: Bake this adorable Snowman Spice Cake for a festive holiday dessert! He’ll make a great centerpiece for your holiday table, as well!
12 Beautiful Christmas Banister: Looking for a bit of inspiration for decorating your staircase banister? Check out all these gorgeous banisters ranging from simple but beautiful to over-the-top gorgeous!
23 Themed Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas: So much inspiration in this post if you’re looking for some new ways to decorate your Christmas tree this year.
Dress Up Your Presents With This Easy DIY Christmas Mouse Or Hang It On Your Christmas Tree: These make the cutest Christmas present topper or use them as ornaments on your Christmas tree.
Delight the Little Ones with a Christmas Bedroom Makeover: I had so much fun giving my two grandson’s bedroom a makeover for Christmas. They look forward to having their bedroom transformed for Christmas each year.
Hope you found these ideas helpful as you decorate your home for the holidays this year! Happy Thanksgiving, can’t believe it’s just a week away!
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Happy Thanksgiving, Susan. Great ideas from your archives of many great years of blogging content!
Thanks, Rita! Happy Thanksgiving to you!
XXX
So many wonderful ideas, the pictures are a feast for the eyes!
Thanks for sharing Susan, I’m always looking for Xmas ideas.
I absolutely loved your post a while back about Tea Caddies because they’re one of my weaknesses….. so I’m gonna tippy toe out on a limb and ask….
I hope it’s okay to suggest if you ever find the time in your busy days.. I’d love to see a post about clocks, you always have the best taste and I couldn’t help but admire the clock in the background of your trifle picture and of course I always love when I see your grandfather clocks, they’re amazing.
I’m wondering if you have some hidden treasures, ticking away the days… that we haven’t seen yet. 🙂
Thank, Catalynn! I do love me an antique clock! 🙂 It all started back around 1980-81 when I visited an antique shop in Jacksonville, AL and fell in love with a mantel clock I found there. The owner was nice and let me pay for it in two payments and it was the start of a real love for old clocks. That clock is still on my mantel today and it plays the most beautiful Westminister chime on the quarter, half, three-quarter, and hour.
Over the years I’ve collected a few more including an antique grandfather clock bought during a visit to the Palm Beach area, the French balloon clock you mentioned from a local antique shop that is sadly, no longer open, the Danish Bornholm longcase clock that lives in my upstairs bonus room and a vintage German Cuckoo clock I have hanging in the kitchen that was an eBay find. Oh, and I also have an antique Sessions bookcase/mantle clock that belonged to my mother and father-in-law. You can see a few of the clocks in this New Year’s Eve table setting I put together a few years back: https://betweennapsontheporch.net/a-new-years-eve-table-setting/
I have a clock that chimes in each of the downstairs rooms and when they are all wound, it can be a lot fun around here at the top of the hour. The funny thing is, after a while you no longer hear them unless you make a point to listen.
Hey Susan! Thanks for all the great ideas for Christmas. I wanted to tell you that I saw a Christmas Vacation game at Target the other day. I don’t know if you have seen it yet, but I know you love that movie. It is a small box and looks pretty simple. Thought you would like to know.
Really? Too funny! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
So creative – ALWAYS!!! Here we go……………..franki