Nov 19

Nov 19 Christmas Decorating Party

Making Christmas a friends and family celebration is so much fun with this awesome tradition. The day after Thanksgiving we invite our close friends and family over to help decorate our Christmas tree and enjoy all our turkey leftovers. Over the years, this has been one of the most fun filled and memorable evening with our family.

Here is how I make this tradition special:

Historically we have always purchased our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, which I loved but my husband loathed. Understanbable, the house is a wreck, we are usually a little hung over and its freezing. The other issue is the heater, I usually have the heater on throughout the holiday to keep the home warm for the kids, which inevitable kills the tree before Christmas (There have been many crunchy christmas trees for this family.) It became necessary for me to get my proverbial shit together and find a compromise. Two years ago I found the perfect tree at Target (got it on sale early in the season for 50% off). Here is the tree - But you can use any tree for this tradition - this just fixed a pain point for our family.

A week before Thanksgiving I stage all of my Christmas stuff in the garage to make it easy to bring in the house. The morning after Thanksgiving I start building the tree with takes about a hour, with fluffing all the branches. Once that is all done and the lights have all been checked, I add filler decor branches throughout. I usually do about 10+ of these to add another layer.

Then add the ribbon (or whatever you use as your base: feathers, beads, whatever speaks to you.) I wanted to do a red country tree this year, so I used a mix of plaid, plaid, gingham and burlap. Here are a few of them....

Start at the top using a ribbon with wire, start ascending down to the bottom. I changed mine up using different ribbons but you do what feels right. Every year our tree looks different so I can express myself with whatever inspires me.

Once the ribbons done, put up all the delicate items or little special things that you don't want to break. I used these cute mini wreaths from Michaels that looked so cute!

Once I have the basic foundation of the tree done and it's ready for all the decorations, I clean up and start putting things out for our guests. I use bowls and all sorts of festive things to hold all our ornaments.

Now turn on the best of Michael Buble Christmas and set the table. What I love most about this tradition is the left overs! We always host Thanksgiving and have a plethora of food which is amazing but needs to be thoughtfully consumed AND your guests are all happy to celebrate the seasons and not have to cook. We usually invite people over around 5:00pm for wine, food and most importantly to help us deck the halls and our family tree to enjoy.

Obviously you don't have to do this tradition the day after Thanksgiving but I have found that our family is always in town that day (especially if your kids are getting older and are in college or live far away) and it makes the begin of Christmas a really special time. Use your Thanksgiving left overs or welcome your friends to bring their left overs for an impromptu friendsgiving!