Ideas for Personalizing Your Holiday Decorating

Searching for ways to personalize your Holiday decorating? Christmas is the perfect time to incorporate meaningful items into your displays!

Once we found the perfect spot for the tree, it was time to decorate it! 

I decided to go with the coastal theme and add in a few other special family ornaments.  My husband grew up near Lake Okoboji in Northwest Iowa.  We have quite a few Okoboji themed ornaments and they work great with the coastal theme I have chosen.

The quilt next to the tree is displayed in one of my Dad’s sea bags from his time in the Navy.  It is the perfect size to sit next to the tree.  The quilt is one of several that I have that were made by his Mom. I love how vibrant the red color still is after all these years.  My paternal grandmother passed away in 1954 so this quilt is at least 67 years old.

Once I got the tree decorated, I decided to incorporate more touches of red throughout the house.

One of the Things I miss about the Farmhouse

There are many things I miss about the Farmhouse and several things I wish I had done differently while we lived there.  While decorating the Florida house this week, I realized how much I miss having this dining room table as well as the dining room!  The table often times was covered in piles of who knows what and there was more than once when I was frantically unloading it so that I could decorate it for Christmas dinner on Christmas morning!

The dining room was large enough that I could have a piece of furniture between the two windows that served as a great spot to display the Longaberger Snowman!

I love the Winterberry pattern by Pfaltzgraff.  It took me years to learn how to correctly pronounce Pfaltzgraff and to correctly spell it!  My everyday dishes are Village by Pfaltzgraff.  I think I have service for 17 but that is a topic for a future blog post!

Our original dining table in Florida was a glass topped octagon shaped table that could seat four.  We honestly don’t need a bigger table for every day, I just miss having a bigger spot to decorate (or pile things on.). Last year, we moved some of the furniture around and we now use this table for our dining table! 

Wooden Carriers

I might have a bit of an obsession with wood carriers! I bought this one from a friend who was moving out of state. I thought it looked familiar…. she bought it from me when I had my flower shop/antique shop! It is the perfect size to display some of my vintage Santa mugs and boots.  I tried styling it two different ways.

I think I like to top version better!  What do you think?

Another favorite carrier is put to use here as a shelf for part of my Jim Shore Snowman collection.

I had another old wooden one that I filled with greenery and used it to decorate the top of an old pie safe.

Santa is perched inside an old wooden toolbox that belonged to one of my uncles.  The boots were my Dad’s when he was a child.

I delve into more detail about my love for toolboxes, carriers and cool rusty things in this blog post: Worn Wooden Boxes & Cool Rusty Things!

Speaking of Santa

You can read more about my very favorite Santa here:

During the off season, Santa made a conservatory for me out of old windows.  I am in the process of getting it all decorated for the Holiday Season.  Here is a sneak peak:

Finding The Perfect Spot for the Conservatory