Lance
Our holiday traditions start before Thanksgiving and involve family at every turn. We kick-off Thanksgiving Day early with twenty or so extended family members arriving in the morning for mimosas and to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, followed by a mid-afternoon feast on the back porch to accommodate the whole family and whoever else might join in! Inevitably, a few extra extended family members show up and are happily received.
Our Christmas tree is being put up increasingly earlier in the season. We used to put it up the week after Thanksgiving but these days with the grandkids so anxious for the holidays we give in and put it up in early November. And again, Mimosas are involved as they figure heavily into our holiday traditions. Following the tree, a wide array of beautiful decorations spread across our home. The best way we’ve found to accent traditional holiday decor is through the use of natural greenery. There are so many holly varieties and evergreens available, making it easy for anyone to create a truly festive space. A roll of red ribbon and greenery can go a long way in making a space special for the holidays.
To embrace the spirit of giving this season, we all decided it was best to support local charities rather than buying more of the same gifts none of us need. The adults in the family dispensed exchanging gifts and decided to only treat the children and give to those in need. Although we altered our gift-giving tradition, a tradition we still take very seriously is one of our biggest holiday events, cookie making! It’s always an all day affair with the kids. Everyone pitches in to roll and cut-out sugar cookies, then the kids ice them in every imaginable color. Sprinkles, colored sugar, red hots, and anything else edible help create the perfect Christmas cookies. The kitchen is a wreck after, but we make some great memories.
Terri
Christmas with the Baldwins is a joyous affair! Inside our home that is dripping with holiday cheer, we first get in the holiday spirit by baking an endless amount of cookies and pound cake that we stretch out eating over a week…great for breakfast, lunch or dinner. What better way to kick off the holidays than having cake for every meal! We also put up our Frasier fir tree the first weekend of December and decorate it with colored lights topped with a very special angel we bought the year our daughter was born.
In the effort to deck our house out in holiday decor, we like to go in the woods and clip fresh greenery. It’s important to get brown back magnolia leaves, holly, and smilax. These work well for many different applications. We make fresh garlands for the mantle and around the front door. We also add greenery to the Frasier fir wreaths to fluff them up so we can add battery operated fairy lights to make them glow! We believe a wreath is not complete until it’s styled with whatever the Christmas muse inspires. One year we even had a miniature sleigh! We have also done gold stars and a nature theme with birds and burlap ornaments. We love to get creative!
The rest of our home is no less festive! We hang our stockings that are monogrammed with our initials and add a tree skirt which is also monogrammed…we are in the south after all. Every bed gets holiday pillows and flannel holiday sheets and the bathrooms get decorated with lovely festive towels. Most importantly, our special collectibles are always put out on display, like our collection of Little Golden Book Christmas books. The most special display is our nativity scene that was hand painted by my husband’s great grandmother over 100 years ago. These precious decorations get us into the holiday spirit like nothing else can.
Can you tell we looooove Christmas?!
Kara
My family loves to decorate for Christmas, but we also have certain traditions that help complement the season. To start our Christmas morning off right, we eat a delicious brunch made by my mom then spend the rest of the day with family playing games where the winners are awarded scratch-off prizes to hopefully win the mega bucks! We are also big fans of watching the classic holiday movies like Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, and Elf, which are played on repeat all Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
I love decorating my home for the holidays, but believe it is important to not go overboard. At the beginning of December, I typically add a few decor Christmas flowers over my fireplace mantel with twinkle lights intertwining each garland. I also buy Christmas candles and poinsettias for a centerpiece in our living room. On our tree, I put red, white, and gold flowers to fill in the open spots and add a touch more natural brightness! With a smaller house, you don’t want to over decorate, so having a few points of festive emphasis in any room can create a radiant effect that is much more inviting than a tidal wave of Santa’s and lights. No matter how you like to style your home for the holidays, the most important thing is the time you can spend with your family!
Rebecca
My family is Polish, and our traditions are always so special this time of year. One of my favorite traditions is waiting until after Christmas Eve mass when the whole family is together to put ornaments on our tree. Although we wait until Christmas Eve to hang the ornaments, we set up our tree in early December with lights strung around it and a village set up below. This always makes Christmas Eve an extra special day. We then take down our tree every year on January 6th, which is Three Kings Day.
As for the rest of our house, I like to decorate using simple foliage and placement of holly and cranberries to create a classic look for the holidays. My family also has a small artificial tree that holds different shell ornaments that we’ve found on the beach or made when we were little. Being from the coast, this tree holds a special place in our hearts while also achieving that desired Lowcountry look.
Julie
I absolutely love Christmas and decorating for the season, although I admit I tend to go overboard during the holidays…but who’s complaining! Since we travel for Thanksgiving, the decorating starts mid-November by stringing lights all throughout the house. It’s something we look forward to doing every year. After the lights are up, I make sure every room has some sort of Christmas decor. This year, I decided to put life-sized lit deer in my dining room! They are made for the outdoors, but I like them inside to be enjoyed all day long! I also put up six trees, making my house look like a Christmas forest. To quote the famous Iris Apfel, “More is more and less is a bore”, and that is exactly how I feel about Christmas decorating!
Because there are six Christmas trees, we like to decorate them all differently. One of my favorite trees has a snowy wintery feel to make up for my “snow envy” from being raised in the South and it is decorated with handmade ornaments made by my daughter, my grandmother, and other friends and family. This tree holds sentimental pieces and treasured photographs of special moments in our lives. My favorites of these photographs are of my daughter and Santa that we have taken every year. We even managed to get one this year! Although Santa is behind plexiglass and a shield, I didn’t want to skip the tradition just because it was going to look a little different!
Another tradition that we celebrate is the birth of my daughter who was born near Christmas Day! One of our many trees is dedicated to her special day and has a fun and playful birthday theme. We use a large cupcake as the tree topper and have a tree skirt that is embroidered with a special birthday wish. This tree is also decorated with a cupcake ornament collection that is dated and signed and also holds mementos of her past birthday parties. I even saved her baby cupcake rattle that was one of her first birthday gifts and put it on the tree; I am very sentimental. To make her feel extra special, we wrap up all her gifts in birthday wrapping paper and put them under her tree. It is a unique tradition that we all have so much fun with every year.
Lance
Our holiday traditions start before Thanksgiving and involve family at every turn. We kick-off Thanksgiving Day early with twenty or so extended family members arriving in the morning for mimosas and to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, followed by a mid-afternoon feast on the back porch to accommodate the whole family and whoever else might join in! Inevitably, a few extra extended family members show up and are happily received.
Our Christmas tree is being put up increasingly earlier in the season. We used to put it up the week after Thanksgiving but these days with the grandkids so anxious for the holidays we give in and put it up in early November. And again, Mimosas are involved as they figure heavily into our holiday traditions. Following the tree, a wide array of beautiful decorations spread across our home. The best way we’ve found to accent traditional holiday decor is through the use of natural greenery. There are so many holly varieties and evergreens available, making it easy for anyone to create a truly festive space. A roll of red ribbon and greenery can go a long way in making a space special for the holidays.
To embrace the spirit of giving this season, we all decided it was best to support local charities rather than buying more of the same gifts none of us need. The adults in the family dispensed exchanging gifts and decided to only treat the children and give to those in need. Although we altered our gift-giving tradition, a tradition we still take very seriously is one of our biggest holiday events, cookie making! It’s always an all day affair with the kids. Everyone pitches in to roll and cut-out sugar cookies, then the kids ice them in every imaginable color. Sprinkles, colored sugar, red hots, and anything else edible help create the perfect Christmas cookies. The kitchen is a wreck after, but we make some great memories.
Terri
Christmas with the Baldwins is a joyous affair! Inside our home that is dripping with holiday cheer, we first get in the holiday spirit by baking an endless amount of cookies and pound cake that we stretch out eating over a week…great for breakfast, lunch or dinner. What better way to kick off the holidays than having cake for every meal! We also put up our Frasier fir tree the first weekend of December and decorate it with colored lights topped with a very special angel we bought the year our daughter was born.
In the effort to deck our house out in holiday decor, we like to go in the woods and clip fresh greenery. It’s important to get brown back magnolia leaves, holly, and smilax. These work well for many different applications. We make fresh garlands for the mantle and around the front door. We also add greenery to the Frasier fir wreaths to fluff them up so we can add battery operated fairy lights to make them glow! We believe a wreath is not complete until it’s styled with whatever the Christmas muse inspires. One year we even had a miniature sleigh! We have also done gold stars and a nature theme with birds and burlap ornaments. We love to get creative!
The rest of our home is no less festive! We hang our stockings that are monogrammed with our initials and add a tree skirt which is also monogrammed…we are in the south after all. Every bed gets holiday pillows and flannel holiday sheets and the bathrooms get decorated with lovely festive towels. Most importantly, our special collectibles are always put out on display, like our collection of Little Golden Book Christmas books. The most special display is our nativity scene that was hand painted by my husband’s great grandmother over 100 years ago. These precious decorations get us into the holiday spirit like nothing else can.
Can you tell we looooove Christmas?!
Kara
My family loves to decorate for Christmas, but we also have certain traditions that help complement the season. To start our Christmas morning off right, we eat a delicious brunch made by my mom then spend the rest of the day with family playing games where the winners are awarded scratch-off prizes to hopefully win the mega bucks! We are also big fans of watching the classic holiday movies like Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, and Elf, which are played on repeat all Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
I love decorating my home for the holidays, but believe it is important to not go overboard. At the beginning of December, I typically add a few decor Christmas flowers over my fireplace mantel with twinkle lights intertwining each garland. I also buy Christmas candles and poinsettias for a centerpiece in our living room. On our tree, I put red, white, and gold flowers to fill in the open spots and add a touch more natural brightness! With a smaller house, you don’t want to over decorate, so having a few points of festive emphasis in any room can create a radiant effect that is much more inviting than a tidal wave of Santa’s and lights. No matter how you like to style your home for the holidays, the most important thing is the time you can spend with your family!
Rebecca
My family is Polish, and our traditions are always so special this time of year. One of my favorite traditions is waiting until after Christmas Eve mass when the whole family is together to put ornaments on our tree. Although we wait until Christmas Eve to hang the ornaments, we set up our tree in early December with lights strung around it and a village set up below. This always makes Christmas Eve an extra special day. We then take down our tree every year on January 6th, which is Three Kings Day.
As for the rest of our house, I like to decorate using simple foliage and placement of holly and cranberries to create a classic look for the holidays. My family also has a small artificial tree that holds different shell ornaments that we’ve found on the beach or made when we were little. Being from the coast, this tree holds a special place in our hearts while also achieving that desired Lowcountry look.
Julie
I absolutely love Christmas and decorating for the season, although I admit I tend to go overboard during the holidays…but who’s complaining! Since we travel for Thanksgiving, the decorating starts mid-November by stringing lights all throughout the house. It’s something we look forward to doing every year. After the lights are up, I make sure every room has some sort of Christmas decor. This year, I decided to put life-sized lit deer in my dining room! They are made for the outdoors, but I like them inside to be enjoyed all day long! I also put up six trees, making my house look like a Christmas forest. To quote the famous Iris Apfel, “More is more and less is a bore”, and that is exactly how I feel about Christmas decorating!
Because there are six Christmas trees, we like to decorate them all differently. One of my favorite trees has a snowy wintery feel to make up for my “snow envy” from being raised in the South and it is decorated with handmade ornaments made by my daughter, my grandmother, and other friends and family. This tree holds sentimental pieces and treasured photographs of special moments in our lives. My favorites of these photographs are of my daughter and Santa that we have taken every year. We even managed to get one this year! Although Santa is behind plexiglass and a shield, I didn’t want to skip the tradition just because it was going to look a little different!
Another tradition that we celebrate is the birth of my daughter who was born near Christmas Day! One of our many trees is dedicated to her special day and has a fun and playful birthday theme. We use a large cupcake as the tree topper and have a tree skirt that is embroidered with a special birthday wish. This tree is also decorated with a cupcake ornament collection that is dated and signed and also holds mementos of her past birthday parties. I even saved her baby cupcake rattle that was one of her first birthday gifts and put it on the tree; I am very sentimental. To make her feel extra special, we wrap up all her gifts in birthday wrapping paper and put them under her tree. It is a unique tradition that we all have so much fun with every year.
