The Hawks Nest: Christmas Decor

Christmas is, without a doubt, my absolute favorite holiday. I love spending time with family, decorating with lights, candles, and my favorite colors, listening to Christmas music (all day, every day), snuggling up watching Christmas movies by the fire, and celebrating the coming of Jesus.

This year... was... a little different. When it was time to start decorating, I still wasn't feeling so hot. Headaches were plaguing my every waking hour, so I decided to keep things as simple as possible, but still make it feel like Christmas. First up, was the tree!

In an attempt to work toward making our Christmas decor a little more "kid" friendly, I decided to add red to the mix! Yep, believe it or not, I added some color! This was the first time that we've had red anything at Christmas... I started with a few red ornaments, a tree skirt, stockings and even some candles. Before this year, everything was white, ivory, gold and silver and all the ornaments were uniform. Very formal. And while I do love the look of the formal tree, the red makes it a little more festive, and the non-uniform ornaments (which we have had but were placed on the smaller tree located in the basement) make it a little more sentimental. As if I need any more sentiment in my hormonal, pregnant life.

Another favorite in Christmas decor is the Nativity set. I've had my eye on this Willow Tree set for quite some time! I received it as a gift for my birthday this year, and I can't wait to add more pieces in the years to come. Three wisemen, you're up next!

This year's mantel was very simple. Partly because all I cared about were the stockings... And mostly because putting up anything else just seemed like too much of a headache. Like I needed more of those.

Here are the major reasons why I decided to stray from my non-traditional tree and use the unique ornaments on our main tree. These bad boys have a lot of sentimental value to me (yes, even the beer ornament; no, not because I'd give my left arm to have one.) I had tears streaming down my face as I took each one out of their wrapping from the year before... How could I not place them on the main tree to be prominently shown each day!? Here's a quick glimpse at a few...