Christmas 2025 Decor

During the Christmas season I like to capture the decor of the year for three reasons. First, I get to enjoy the ambience since I am further from the memory of the effort it took to put it out. Second, I like to document what I did this year to recall it for next year, when deciding what to repeat and what to change. Third, plain and simple, I find the motions of photographing and blogging are soothing.  This activity prolongs the good memories of the season while recuperating from its preparation. This tour goes through the Living Room, Dining Room, Hall, Stairwell, and Family Room in that order.

1) Living Room, clockwise from fireplace
Flanking the fireplace is a pair of snow people. Dan brought these back from an art store in San Luis Obispo when he was an architecture student at Cal Poly there around 2002, and they have been a Christmas tradition for over twenty years. Some large C-9 light bulbs peek out from above the TV. C-9 bulbs symbolize Christmas for Frank. The three knitted stocking on the far right were made by Frank's Aunt Ruth for Frank, me, Robin, Daniel, and Alex. I have knitted eight other of these stockings for  Robin's husband, Jeremy and their two kids, Autumn and Isaiah, and for Dan's wife, Carrie and their four kids, Vivian, Lillian, Daniel and Irene. Robin and Dan have their own and the ones I knitted for their spouse at their homes in Oklahoma and Colorado. 

Zooming in on the fireplace, are twelve star shaped wooden Santa ornaments above, and on the hearth below, are some stuffed critters. The corduroy fox toy breaks the theme of bears, but he was a dog toy that I thought was so cute I bought for this year.

Rounding the corner is the tree, decorated with house tins as a theme. Uninspired by hanging round balls on the tree I took a creative detour. I have collected these tins in several sizes over the years and they typically held cookies or candies or mints. They are light weight enough I just inserted them in between the branches and they stayed. Initially doubtful, the look has grown on me. Disbursing the tins this way was a nice change from lining them up, village wise, on the dining room table as I have done in previous years.

Continuing clockwise around the living room reveals a C-9 bulb wreath on the front door and a Grinch wreath on the closet door. The Grinch wreath was made by an artsy friend of Robin's and made the trip out from Oklahoma.

Continuing around to another themed area, Christmas cars come into view. A Christmas cars wreath I made is draped over a chair next to some car pillows on the floor. There is also a car-themed rug spread over an ottoman where we rest our feet while watching TV. Note that with the pine cone on top of the vehicle, we can use it for Thanksgiving, too. Details of this quilt are in my DL2Q blog post date12/18/20, a year marked by staying at home and keeping safe from Covid-19

There is a corner dedicated to a Grinch statue, a Grinch quilt and other Grinch paraphernalia. The tiniest Grinch was designed and made for Frank by a friend using a 3D-printer. I completed the Grinch quilt in July of 2014. 

As I leave the living room, I have included a diagram of the tour path to help orient the reader on this photo journey, 

2) Dining Room clockwise from Simple Gifts quilt

Next to the hutch in the dining room, I display my Simple Gifts Quilt, made from fabric I bought at a fabric store in San Luis Obispo while Dan was at Cal Poly. It is hard to believe I made it ten years ago. Details and closeups are in my DL2Q blog post for 6/10/2015. Near this quilt is a ceramic tree my sister Maxine made for us. The year inscribed on it is 1981.

On the dining room table we set up a Grinch train set that Robin sent us just this year. At the four corners of the table I set out train placemats newly purchased at HomeGoods. I thought the artwork was very pretty. The label, however, says "spot clean only", so these are never going under a plate of food. The train set was a surprise in that it also plays Christmas music in a very sinister Grinch-y tone. I've included some closeups so the quirky details can be appreciated.

The bright red, sparkly Merry Christmas sign was a new purchase this year from a local Livermore shop. Although originally intended to go over the dining room window, we have now instituted a new "no ladder" policy in our house. The window sill suits it just fine. In our house, though we have not suspended garlands, we've made merry other ways. In the corner, a collection of shiny balls in various shaped glass containers is very festive and also effort efficient. On the lampshade are hung Brighton ornaments I have collected over the years. Some of the Brighton ornaments are tied with a bow on the back of six dining room chairs — dove, tree, heart, snowflake, tree, and star. My favorites are the ones with the intricate metal lace work.

3) Hall 

Exiting the dining room and making the way down the hallway, a grandfather's clock is on the left and a tongue-in-cheek American Gothic picture is on the right. Both support the multicolored-ball theme in both garland and wreath format. Passing the powder room door, yet another wreath is seen, brought out from Oklahoma by Robin and Jeremy in Christmas of 2024.

4) Nook and up the stairs

Every year I hang stuffed ornaments around — on curtain rods, on garlands, on cabinet door knobs, on the tree, on railings. I cut back this year, putting them only on the curtain rods in the nook and kitchen.  My body groans at the twisting motions needed to disburse these ornaments everywhere, and there were no little young bodies around to do it for me this year. These small stuffed treasures hold fond memories of my own kids stuffing them, and of the grandkids hanging them.  

On the wall at the base of the stairs hangs a metal shadow box type house with compartments decorated with other smaller wooden and ceramic houses. Note the three elves made from wooden blocks labeled R, D, and A. My sister Maxine made those for my three kids when they were babies. Those elves are close to forty years old! They have not aged a bit! Farther up the wall is canvas of a Chris-Moose and a reindeer quilt I made last year. Details for the quilt are in my DL2Q post for 12/2/24.

5) Family Room
Entering the Family Room, straight ahead is a Merry Christmas sign flanked by two gingham bows. Usually I am not a fan of black and white but after the brightly colored hallway garland, B&W is a palette cleanser of sorts. I did not violate the ladder rule. We simply leave the holes in the wall, leave the nails for the bows in place, tape the nails for the sign to the back of the sign, and re-installation is a cinch. Who is looking up at those holes and nails anyway, the rest of the year? Eyes are on the TV. 

Tossed onto the backs of two chairs are Disney Xmas throws we used to collect. Disney stopped making them so we were saved from buying too many to deal with.

On the far right is the Santa corner. The felt ornament hanging from the knob of the end table was made for us back in 1975 by college friends John and Sue when we still lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and they had the apartment upstairs from us. That Santa ornament is fifty years old!

 

I made happy pillows of Santa and a Reindeer and they went into the family room. A cat-themed Christmas quilt that Frank loved from a quilt show is displayed on the closet door. I did not make this quilt. We (gasp) bought it!

On the final turn around the family room are three small nativity sets arranged up on the piano. My favorite is the smallest. It came from three sets of figures — holy family, kings, and animals — sold by the cosmetic company Avon. (Yes, I checked, Avon is still around.) The donkey has a peg leg because Alex fed him to the bunny one year. The bunny nibbled off one front leg. The larger, flat, wooden sheep is from a second, adjacent nativity set.

The second nativity set is flat and is a set from Target many years ago. In front of it are an ox and a camel from a different hard rock maple set from New England. The complete hard rock maple set is shown next, farther to the left, in its Alex-configured re-arrangement. Alex's signature traditional move each Christmas is to intermingle these nativities. 

6) Outdoor entrance
The indoor tour is complete but here is a brief look at our outdoor entry. The entrance to our house had a bit of gaiety with an ornament ball wreath on the front door and a flat metal Santa wreath off to the left.

Frank spread some oversized large ornaments among the bushes along the path to the front door. They are shiny and cheery; they caused those who saw them smile and smirk quietly. Who needs a ladder?

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2025