Classic Christmas Home Tour

Join me today for my classic Christmas home tour, and then follow along as 20 other amazing bloggers welcome you into their homes for the Christmas Tour of Homes!

There is one thing you can always expect to see a lot of in my home at this time of year, and that is the color red.  It just so happens to be my favorite color, so I love to indulge in lots of it at Christmas time, and my classic Christmas home tour this year is no different.  Today is a very special day because I’m joining 19 other bloggers for a Christmas Tour of Homes!

This tour has been going on since Monday, with such a wide variety of decorating styles that there is surely some inspiration for most anyone.  We have bloggers from those like myself who love traditional Christmas colors, to a more neutral farmhouse Christmas vibe, and everything in between, and I’m honored to be counted among them!  So don’t forget to check out the entire Christmas Tour of Homes at the bottom of this post.  You can start right at the beginning and see all of the beautiful homes that have been shared all week.

Please note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which allows me to make a small commission from your purchase, but your purchase price stays the same. 

Similar tree | pom pom throw option | deer pillow  | plaid and fur pillow

If you are joining me from Maria at Simple Nature Decor, hey, I’m Nicki!  Welcome to Sweet Parrish Place, where I like to share our uphill climb towards updating this 1996 split level home.  I’m also into a bit of fashion and personal style, so I invite you to explore my little corner of the web today and I hope we can be friends!

Today I have plopped you straight into the middle of our living room.  This is the place we chill, hang with friends and family, have conversations, and just do life.  So many memories have been made since we moved into this home in 2012!  We all love Christmas and we have fun during Thanksgiving break by slowly decking the halls around here and spreading Christmas cheer throughout our main living areas.

Similar tree |pom pom throw option

It always starts with the tree at our house.  I feel like things run more smoothly around here when I can keep the mess to a minimum, especially because we don’t have a ton of space.  So it seems more manageable to both my husband and myself if we decorate the tree first, and get that all cleaned up before we bring down our Christmas totes.

We bought this flocked tree last Christmas at Lowes, and it is really beautiful.  The branches are so realistic looking.  Take note of how many stems you see shooting here and there, that’s what I find unique about this tree.  I think the red pops so perfectly against the flocking of the tree.  Unfortunately, it is no longer available, but I found this one on Amazon that looks similar.

This year I chose a plaid ribbon and a red striped ribbon that looks like it has fur around the edges.  You can see close ups and the process of me putting the ribbon on the tree, in my Instagram stories, saved to my highlights, under Christmas.  I always add my collection of white and gold Lennox ornaments, and this year I added some cute little miniature signs with different Christmas wording on them.  I also added sprigs of red berries and some white Poinsettia here and there.  In addition, you will find a variety of different red, white, and metallic bulbs and ornaments.

For the past couple years, I have purged some of our older Christmas decor that wasn’t of sentimental value.  I had so much Christmas decor in our attic that I was running out of space for it.  So I decided to go through it.  I kept the things I really love, and I always add a few new things each season, so my Christmas decor is a mix of old and new.  Seeing all the pops of red all around, mixed in with some plaids and some neutral Christmas decor seems like just the right fit for me this year.

pom pom throw option |  Merry and bright pillow | deer pillow | Plaid mohair pillow cover

I couldn’t resist purchasing two new Christmas pillows this year because as soon as I spotted them I knew they were perfect!  The merry and bright pillow and the deerhead pillow are the two new ones, and they are just the cutest!  Plus my daughter was visiting from Miami, and she is a very bad influence on my shopping habit.  She loved the pillows too.  I brought these home after my husband had asked me not to spend any more money on Christmas decor, so he was a teensy bit peeved at me, but I have to say, these pillows were worth it!  And the hubs got over it pretty quickly.

Similar tree | faux fur throw | deer pillow  | plaid and fur pillow

Any time I share pretty pictures of our sofa, I feel like I need to make a disclaimer that this is not the way my sofa usually looks.  With our two year old pug named Tyson Chicken Nugget, we have been unable to leave pretty pillows and blankets out on our sofa because he chews them every chance he gets.  So unless I’m doing a photo shoot or having company, these pretty pillows sit in a giant box where the dog can’t reach them.  And we have a sheet that covers one section of the sofa where he likes to sit up on the back cushion and watch out the window from his little perch.  The other section is covered by a cozy gray blanket that matches the color of the sofa.  So I cherish the moments when it looks pretty, and I long for the days when our puppy calms down a bit and lets me have my pillows back.

I hung a simple preserved boxwood wreath with a plaid bow and a bell garland that I embellished with some greenery and white and metallic gold feathers.

Let it Be pillow cover | Red and white plaid throw

Our fireplace is always the next thing I decorate after the tree.  I feel like the tree and the mantle are the two main focal points of my home at Christmas.  This is actually my second mantle, because I made a giant garland the first time and hated it.  However, I liked each element of the garland, so I deconstructed all of those elements and added the same things in much smaller increments.  And the creamy white and red stockings that have chunky knit and fur were another thing I couldn’t resist buying new for this year.  Our last ones were quite a few years old, and didn’t really go with my current decor.

Fur cream stocking | Fur red stocking

The icy garland I just draped across the front with some thumb tacks.  I don’t mind using tacks because the rustic wood mantle is already very distressed.  I found the icy garland at Hobby Lobby, and I can’t find it online, but I bet you can still find it in store.  I mixed some berry sprigs, some cotton stems, and some greenery picks and scattered them throughout the mantle.

pom pom throw option | Fur cream stocking | Fur red stocking | globe string lights

I fell in love with these birch candle holders at Hobby Lobby.  I could only find the small one and the large one online, but all three sizes are in stores.  I also found the red snowflake pillar candles at Hobby Lobby. I added some miniature trees to this wooden candle holder, and I love the little globe string lights.  They are a warm white and they are battery operated.  

Small birch candle holder | Large birch candle holder |Fur cream stocking | Fur red stocking

I changed up my embroidery hoops with some plaid fabric scraps I had lying around.  I may just keep those around for the rest of winter.  I often purchase shirts from Goodwill that have patterns I might want to use, and both of these plaids are from old shirts.

pom pom throw option

I piled some books in this basket tray, from biggest to smallest, to mimic a Christmas tree and added these little gnomes riding a sleigh on top.  I like the casual vibe in this space.  I didn’t even realize the top book was upside down until I edited these photos.  I couldn’t go back and retake them, so upside down it is!  Wanna know a secret? I still haven’t fixed it.

I brought this salvaged window into our home last winter, and I love the more neutral vibe it gave the space.  I love the way the lights of the Christmas tree reflects in this window.  I have a small collection of vintage plaid thermos’, which are displayed on the bottom shelf here.  I found the vintage inspired red truck at a day after Christmas clearance sale at Target a couple of years back – score!

This sign was my one splurge this year when it comes to Christmas.  I considered it an investment piece because I will use it year after year.  It says it’s the most wonderful time of the year.  I hung it over this bookcase that sits right at the top of our stairs so it can be seen from the front door.  I love to decorate this bookcase as well, but it always looks better in person than in photos.

I found the cute birch twigs at Hobby Lobby this year as well.  And you can see that our advent calendar hangs here next to the bookcase.  We fill it with chocolate, not gonna lie.  Judge me, go ahead!

Wooden sign | Faux birch twigs | House bud vases

The white houses are from the Hearth and Hand line at Target and I believe they are still in stores.  I have a few Swedish Santa’s on the bookcase that were given to us from our Swedish daughter.  She was a foreign exchange student with us 4 years ago, and we still are close with her.

Wooden sign | Faux birch twigs | House bud vases

Wooden sign | House bud vases

I really love the way the garland going down our stairs turned out this year.  I layered some greenery garland that I bought a couple of years ago at Pier 1 with a white pom pom garland I bought this year at Hobby Lobby, and then I deconstructed a red berry garland into little picks, and just stuck them in here and there.  I also strung it with warm white lights.  I leave these on all night long as our nightlight, and it’s the best and coziest nightlight ever.

pom pom garland option |

Another preserved boxwood wreath makes an appearance in our entryway, and I stuck some more of the red berry picks into the branches.  I found this vintage gold frame at a thrift store, and I just hung it around the wreath for a little something extra.

Preserved boxwood wreath | Faux fur scarf | Tartan plaid scarf

Preserved boxwood wreath | Faux fur scarf | Tartan plaid scarf

If you have been following along on the tour, I am your last stop for today, but don’t forget to come back tomorrow and check out our last 5 amazingly talented bloggers.  And if you haven’t seen any of the tour yet, you can start at Monday’s tours below.  I hope you enjoyed my classic Christmas home tour today and thank you so much for stopping by.  I sure do appreciate you!  Say hi to me in the comments today, I love hearing from you!

MONDAY

White Arrows Home| The Chelsea Project| Our Prairie Farmhouse|

Noting Grace| The Red Painted Cottage

TUESDAY

Celebrate and Decorate| Rain and Pine| Savvy Apron

WEDNESDAY

Curly Crafty Mom| Camelot Art Creations| Follow The Yellow Brick Home|

Mom Home Guide| Twelve On Main

THURSDAY

County Road 407| Art and Sand| Simple Nature Decor| Sweet Parrish Place

FRIDAY

Deeply Southern Home| First Day of Home| Life on Summerhill|

Lemons, Lavender, and Laundry| The Aspiring Home

Do you have champagne taste and a tiny budget too? 
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