Deck the halls with boughs of holly

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Thought I would add a few pictures of my decorations this year. It was our first Christmas in our one bedroom, 12th floor flat in Germany after 23 years in the same three bedroom house in England, so quite a few decorations had to go away unused, particularly outside lights, though we did manage a few on the balcony and on the windows.
    
So here is our tree by day and night. On the night picture you can the lanterns on the balcony, over the reflection of the tree in the door.

       
These are some of our oldest decorations. The candlelights on the dresser are a bit like lava lamps. My husband's parents bought them for his first Christmas. Two of the candles have broken, one when he was a child and one this year. If a bulb blows there are no more spares, and over fifty years later I doubt we will be able to get anything to replace them. 
We put the ring in the hallway. It was originally made by my father and two of these used to hang over the dining table, at Christmas, when I was a child. However we had to replace the lights and decorations fifteen to twenty years ago, as again we couldn't get new bulbs and the plastic decorations were falling apart, 

Wreaths, candles, and led lights:

For this Christmas, my family is hosting for the extended family and my mom decided to go with a blue and silver theme. She put me in charge of decos since I love crafting up things and here's some of the stuff so far...

A wreath in the making.


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Things done:
-Painted nutcraker in blue hues.
-Outdoor scenery in white cutouts(used with blue lights behind).
-Some good old paper snowflakes for windows.

Things that need to be done!!! :
-White paper lanterns. My mum looooves those!
-More lights to be put on stair ramps.
-Stockings need to be sewed.
-More scenery cutouts.
-Wreaths to be done(2).
-Centerpieces for dinner tables.
-Etiquettes for glasses of wine? (if time allows it)
-Decos for both bathrooms? (I don't know...)

To be continued...

I thought some of the people in here might be interested in these. If it's not allowed let me know and I'll remove it.

My mom handpainted and made these. She has sold her Christmas items to people all over the world.

I have some for sale on Ebay. There are several auctions for my mom's Christmas ornaments/decorations. These are all from the late 90's. She has been busy and hasn't really made any since then.

This is a link to all my auctions and my feedback:

http://myworld.ebay.com/spookieandsugar

Some photos:







I'm joining October_Homes community. My house is all Halloween/Horror/Gothic decorated.

:)

It's almost Thanksgiving, everyone, 
and you know what that means-
the beginning of the Holiday season 
and as this community's concerned-
the beginning of decorating time!
Is anyone getting prepared yet
or see anything new in a store 
that they would like to share with us?
I haven't seen anything too memorable yet,
but I've only just begun!
I think I'm going to begin to decorate
the weekend after Thanksgiving.
I'm still planning my Christmas Dessert Party.
I believe I'm going to have it on the 15th or so
and  they'll be about 9 people attending.
Anyways, please start posting, everyone!
You don't have to comment my posts with your ideas,
let everyone know with your very own post!

^^ If my house looked like that,
I wouldn't be having this problem :p

I've always wanted to throw a Christmas eve party but never could because my house is so small (I live in a two family apartment and occupy the upstairs). My kitchen gets crowded with three people in it so having it in there is out of the question. But then it dawned on me that maybe instead of a dinner party, I can have like a finger food party (I forgot the technical term for that, if someone knows, tell me!) in my living room. My living room is very small as well but at least I can fit a few people on the couch and one on the arm chair. The rest are free to walk around the house. Maybe I could leave the food on the kitchen table, and people will be free to help themselves. Anyways, if anyone is familiar with throwing these kind of parties, and keeping the small space dilemma in mind, do you have any advice for me? Any recipes in mind? Thank you!

[Edit= Now I've come up with the idea of having a DESSERT party.
So if you know any good Holiday dessert recipes, please let me know!]

Shameless plug... the BEST place in CT to make your home a 

december_homes!

The Historical Christmas Barn, out on Route 7 in Wilton, open all year.  
The music's always playing, it always smells like christmas baking, 
and their little doggie Jingles greets you at the register.

 

 

Hello again :) It's been awhile (the last post here was made last January!).
As most of you can see, Christmas season is upon us!
The stores are bearing the decorations we cherish so much,
wreaths are being hung in the mall, Santa's throne is quickly being assembled.
Because of all that, what better time to revive this community than now?

Under the cut, I have a Christmas survey all of you are free to take
(I did NOT make it, I'm also not sure who did),
a couple of pretty pictures of December Homes,
and a few recipes you're free to use for Thanksgiving or Christmas!

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Please, feel free to post anytime! Any decorating tips, photographs, questions, post it! ;)

Before taking down my Christmas decorations this year, I remembered to take a few pictures.  It would have been better if I'd remembered to take pictures of the buffet tables while they were set up for our party with food, but oh well...
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/castelrouge/album?.dir=1d23re2