I need Christmas Ideas...

[happily single]

I'm looking for new ideas on how to decorate the living room for Christmas. Please inspire me and give me your ideas.
Last year I left it up to my ex and he proceeded to staple holiday lights all around the ceiling and up the stairs I wasn't sure if I was in a night club or my living room, although the kids liked it.

Please photo your photos from years past

 

[jx3smom]

I like to use lots of greens and red bow, red and green candles, some lights around the entertainment center and sometimes I put lights in my potted plants.

 

[tinkgurl]

If you have a staircase with an open railing, I love doing stuff like this:

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...n&safe=off&rlz=1T4DKUS_enUS256US260&sa=X&um=1

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

Micky heads!! fun for the kids to make with styrofoam. I do alot lights in the living room, a simple tree, fake wrapped gifts (cause the cats would chew up the real ones) .

 

[DMickey28]

I need ideas period. I am lousy at decorating in general. We just bought our first house and don't have a ton of furniture but a lot of space. I have a coupon for my whole purchase at the Christmas tree shop so I want to spend a good amount of money on some Christmas decorations.

I don't have a mantel in the family room (our living room with the fireplace/mantel is not furnished yet) but I do have a gas stove with brick surrounding it. I also have two dark wood beams, one with a support beam coming down the middle in the room. Add a bay window.

I tend to undo the decorations because I am afraid they will look cheesey but then I like when I see it really decorated!!

Pics anyone.

 

[lovemygoofy]

My Christmas decorations are going up this weekend since this is the last weekend at home for a while for my husband and I didn't want to haul the stuff out by myself. I will post pics sometime this week. I'm excited to be in this big house with lots of space to do things and show off all our holiday stuff.

 

[AntePrincess]

We like to keep things simple because I don't want to store a whole lot year round and I refuse to do any holiday activities before Dec 1st, so:

We peek at the IKEA winter holidays "catalog" online most years and pick up a straw wreath if our old one has seen better days, plus some traditional Swedish inspired ornaments if I'm in the mood. Never more than $20 worth.

We string white lights.

I pick up some Dover winter or Christmas themed stained glass coloring books and activities, maybe with other crafts like the Oriental Trading snowflake rubbing plates or stamps. The kids get them early in the month and they make the bulk of the decorations themselves. I figure it's not stylish, but it's from the heart.

I enjoy a few crafts myself. I paint unfinished wood items in a matching shiny surfaced red to pull out for use on the holiday table, or do some freezer paper stenciling on cheap fabric to make simple banners. It's a lot of color for very little money or effort and takes little to no space to store.

Otherwise I rely on wild greenery and bought garlands. My husband likes to make garlands of strung acorns, nuts, pine cones and things like that, as well.

 

[MarieFan]

I love to decorate. My pride and joy is my big tree. I FILL it with poinsettias, ribbon, beads, "pearls", ornaments and ting ting. Oh, and lots of white lights.

One of my favorite areas is a table with lots of Christmas photos - some of my girls, some of me and my siblings when I was little, some Disney, some Santa. And I love my stocking holders, which have a picture of each of us wth Santa when we were 1-2 years old.

If you have some money in the budget, I love Illuminations .com for ordering gorgeous decorations. I have some cylinders (SP? Too tired to look it up)that I bought some years ago, and I put glass ornaments that I ordered from the same site, and floating candles - it is very cool.

 

[natenapril]

I love to decorate. My pride and joy is my big tree. I FILL it with poinsettias, ribbon, beads, "pearls", ornaments and ting ting. Oh, and lots of white lights.

One of my favorite areas is a table with lots of Christmas photos - some of my girls, some of me and my siblings when I was little, some Disney, some Santa. And I love my stocking holders, which have a picture of each of us wth Santa when we were 1-2 years old.

If you have some money in the budget, I love Illuminations .com for ordering gorgeous decorations. I have some cylinders (SP? Too tired to look it up)that I bought some years ago, and I put glass ornaments that I ordered from the same site, and floating candles - it is very cool.

I love it!!

 

[AKL_Megs]

We mostly just do a tree. A small tree at that. We have no fireplace, and no good place for hanging stockings, so we don't put those up. Oh well.

 

[hellokitty86]

We just moved into a big house this year so I would love to decorate! I'm a little sad we can't have a traditional tree- my animals are bad. My cats tend to knock the tree down in the middle of the night and my dog would eat the ornaments So I would love ideas for things that I can hang up around the house to still make it look festive. I love the stairs railing idea!!!

 

[bas71873]

I love to decorate. My pride and joy is my big tree. I FILL it with poinsettias, ribbon, beads, "pearls", ornaments and ting ting. Oh, and lots of white lights.

One of my favorite areas is a table with lots of Christmas photos - some of my girls, some of me and my siblings when I was little, some Disney, some Santa. And I love my stocking holders, which have a picture of each of us wth Santa when we were 1-2 years old.

If you have some money in the budget, I love Illuminations .com for ordering gorgeous decorations. I have some cylinders (SP? Too tired to look it up)that I bought some years ago, and I put glass ornaments that I ordered from the same site, and floating candles - it is very cool.

I like kitty hiding and peeking out from under the table

 

[bas71873]

We just moved into a big house this year so I would love to decorate! I'm a little sad we can't have a traditional tree- my animals are bad. My cats tend to knock the tree down in the middle of the night and my dog would eat the ornaments So I would love ideas for things that I can hang up around the house to still make it look festive. I love the stairs railing idea!!!

We had a cat, snowball, growing up that would climb the tree. And it was artificial. My dad had to anchor the tree to window, but we would still find white fur all over the branches. then, my mom played a lot of tennis and had this white tennis ball ornament that looked like Santa....for years our Doberman would find that thing and take it off the tree. It became quite a tradition

 

[MarieFan]

I like kitty hiding and peeking out from under the table

Ha! You can usually see the other one peeking out from under the tree. I didn't even have the lights on it yet, this year, when he staked his claim to his spot. Thankfully, neither of them climb or knock over the trees. Our little girl kitty before them did that a few times.

 

[MarieFan]

The story about the tennis ball ornament and the dog cracked me up! Too funny!

Oh, and I always thing what I could do if we had a cool stairway and railing! I see so many neat things done with them.