Decorating Giveaway

Make sure to pop in on Friday when I’ll have another giveaway in conjunction with my Proverbs 31 devotion that will be running! :-)

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No profound musings today. Just an old-fashioned picture show & a giveaway!

I love getting new ideas for decorating, especially around the holidays. So, here are a few of my ideas and a glimpse into our humble home. (Be sure to read until the end where there is a giveaway.)

The front of our house :-)

Hubby's childhood sled rescued from his parents' garage & Kenna's old skates
Our front door. I got the trees 75% off last year the morning after Christmas & I actually made the swag about 15 years ago.
Todd's bike from about 1973 & an old wagon from my friend Lori.
Dining room table. I love gold & wood together!
Door to laundry room. Garland $1 from a yard sale. "For Unto Us a Child is Born" sign made by my friend & co-author Trish.
Antique school desk with garage sale finds. Snowman runner made again by Trish.
Stacking Snowmen made & given to me one year by...you guessed it! Trish! I know you're jealous you don't have a Trish! Two of the noses have gotten lost over the years but this is still one of my favorite Christmas items!
Bone china nativity given to us by my in-laws for our first Christmas in 1986.
View out our back slider door.
Snow began to fall just hours before our neighborhood open house.
Speaking of open house...here is the food!
...and the folks!
...and the fun!
Kids playing pool.
Little ones decorating cookies :-)
Teens hanging out...what else?

Here is our tree. It is hard to see but the ornaments are either handmade by the kids or sugared fruits & candies. Underneath is my kids' favorite decoration, the ballroom dancers that glide.
And our fireplace. I waited 22 years to get a fireplace!!!
All these toys were either mine, Todd's or our kids'.
A close-up of the mantle. Most items from garage sales. Gingerbread cookie jar from my mom. Heart box has anscestor pics on it.

Well…our quaint cyber tour is done! How I wish you all could have stopped by in person.

However, since you couldn’t, here is a decorating giveaway I will be sending shortly to one of you!

It includes:

~Three signs from At Home America (a company I LOVE!). My friend Tammy was a consultant for years & I have many of their products in my house (most bought on clearance , of course!) The signs say “Simplify”  “Imagine” & “Family”.

~ A box of six apple-cinnamon votive candles from Pier One.

~ A signed copy of my book A Life That Says Welcome: Simple Ways to Open Your Heart & Home to Others (full of simple decorating short-cuts!) If you want info about getting any of my books tax & shipping-free for Christmas gifts, click here.

Simply leave a comment today and you’ll be entered. I know you are all busy as we hit the Christmas homestretch, so the comment today is simple.

White lights or colored?

What’s on your tree?

As you can see, we have huge old-fashioned colored lights. My kids won’t have it any other way. :-) Nor will my husband, who is quite quiet about Christmas decor, until it comes to the lights on the tree!

Winner announced Friday when the next giveaway kicks off!

Bright-Light Blessings,

123 Comments

  1. white but only because my in-laws gave us their old tree. We always had colored when we bought a live tree each year. My kids want to go back to buying one so they can have colored lights!!

  2. White lights and lots of kid-made ornaments on the tree. Plus ornaments collected over the years from vacations. Love it!

    Your photos were wonderful, Karen. I love your decorating style. The snow looks beautiful too. I’m in California so I don’t see much of that stuff anymore. ;)

  3. WOW! Love the pictures! You are very creative. We do colored lights on the tree, but white lights outside. Our tree is decorated with a combo of the kids’ homemade ornaments, special ornaments that signify specific things in our lives as a fmaily, and a collection of cheapo round shiny bulbs because that is my husband’s favorite decoration.

  4. White lights, always. And I decorate with a random assortment of ornaments that I made when I was younger, and even some I made this year!

  5. My family likes colored lights. Our tree is filled with memorable, beautiful ornaments that were given to me by friends and family. Each ornament has a story to tell and it’s always a delight retell the story. May you have a wonderful, blessed Merry Christmas!

  6. Beautiful decorations, must seem sad to take them down. I have been doing less and less decorating. We use white lights. My favorite ornaments are the ones my kids made when they were little. I pray you have a blessed Christmas. Thanks for the giveaway.

  7. My hubby loves the colored lights, and he adds some blinkers. ;-) The ornaments are from my and my husband’s childhood plus whatever new ones we’ve acquried while married. Our boys have some – they’re 4 & 2. We need to give them more ornaments!
    Your pics were great, Karen. You have a lovely home – beautifully decorated for Christmas. And I love your book – what a great giveaway!!

  8. Colored lights for sure! My kids may harm me if I decorated the family room w/ white lights. However, the room where I have my Bible time in the morning I have decorated with white lights:) And I love how you displayed all of the toys – super cute!

  9. I love the wagon with the gifts! That is such a great idea. Keep up the musings – I so enjoy reading your blog.

    Merry Christmas!!
    Christine Mc

  10. We use colored lights – the kids and my husband prefer that. I will go back to white lights, beads and bows when the kids grow up and take their ornaments with them.

  11. I could go either way on the lights, but my daughter loves the white lights – so be it! We have mainly different shapes and sizes of gold and silver ornaments, some snow flakes and a few pears because we live in Pearland!

    Thanks for the tour of your decorations – I love, love, love them!!!
    Danette

  12. After 20 some years of having colored lights last year I decided to changeout my lights to quiet white. My husband accidentally bought LED white. After they were on the tree (big mistake), they were turned on, tree decorated and I was like deer-in-a-headlights really upset. Beautiful tree, ugly lights. I really had to work through that perfectionism thing on decorating and realize what Christmas truly was about and not allow it to disturb my happy. It gave our young adult son’s friends something to talk and laugh about and some fun memories. They teased me about my tree. They called it “Mrs. Wilson’s BUG ZAPPER TREE” because it reminded them of those outside bright lights that kill bugs. How very flattering. But, I took it in stride, laughed and those lights are gone! This year I love, love, love my quiet, white lights and beautifully decorated tree with crosses, angels, stars, old and some new ornaments.

  13. White lights – which my mom laughs at because growing up I always fussed for colored lights on the tree & now have white ones on mine. =)

  14. Colored lights always- it just wouldn’t be a warm family Christmas without colored lights on the tree. And Sunday night, I just spoke to my husband about trying to get some of the big old-fashioned colored lights for our front porch. Loved those growing up!

  15. We used white lights on our tree this year. I would love the big colored lights though. Totally brings me back to my childhood.

  16. I have white lights this year (I like both white and colored lights so I alternate) along with silver and blue bulbs and decorations. The ornaments are varied, some following the blue, white and silver theme, others are ornaments that have been collected through the years. Atop the tree is a star that lights up and there is also blue ribbon that drapes around the tree from top to bottom. Underneath the tree I have a white billowy soft fleece throw that I arranged to look similar to snow and there are giant blue and silver ornaments stuck here and there in the ‘snow’ along with a couple of snowmen – and presents of course!

  17. Your home is beautiful! I love homemade decorations! And I love colored lights and ornaments that look homemade. My big tree has a lot of wooden and cloth ornaments, and I have a small tree in my kitchen with just white and green lights and small ornaments that is so pretty!

  18. I like white lights. I grew up with green lights on the big tree and colored lights on my childhood tree. I think white lights give a classic look : )

  19. We have colored lights as well! This year we thought we were going to have to replace them but they shine on (going strong now for almost 15 years!!!)

  20. We have colored lights on our tree – our youngest daughter and my DH make that selection. This year they doubled the number of lights on the tree. Then it is decorated with ornaments collected over the years – from family, friends, places we have visited. Same daughter says it takes me WAY too long to decorate because I stop and remember as I put the ornaments on the tree. BTW – enjoyed seeing how you have decorated and glad you were able to have your get together.

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