Ryan and I are leaving for Florida after work and Girls On The Run today. We’ll sleep at my parents’ place in Jacksonville tonight to help break up the 10+ hour drive to Sarasota where we will be spending Thanksgiving with my in-laws. I swear I can already taste my mother-in-law’s pineapple soufflé and Ryan’s grandma’s glazed carrots!
Since we’ll be away for Thanksgiving, I used that as an excuse to decorate our house for Christmas last weekend so we can come home to a fully Christmasified house!
(Do you like our teeny-tiny angel tree topper? We’re using an angel ornament until we find a legit tree topper we like. And yes, there are already presents under our tree for our family members. I have a present-buying problem.)
And now for a super-short game of “Where’s Sadie?”
Peek-a-boo!
Sadie was not exactly a fan of my Christmas décor photo shoot this morning…
It got in the way of her sleepy snuggle time. She’s definitely not a morning dog… Unless you say the word “WALK!”
In addition to decorating the inside of our house for Christmas, Ryan and I put up all of our outdoor Christmas lights last night. (We tried to hold off, I promise!) Since the weather has warmed up significantly since last week, it wasn’t a miserable experience and we only needed a light jacket to keep warm.
Even though it wasn’t too chilly outside, we still used the whole “decorating for Christmas” excuse to break out some hot chocolate. And so, the first Fagan family Christmas gift was opened before Thanksgiving! I am so ashamed.
I gave Ryan a gift to open early because we both wanted hot chocolate and there’s one kind of hot chocolate that reigns supreme in our household.
Williams-Sonoma peppermint hot chocolate is the best. It’s made from chocolate shavings, not powder, making it extra rich and creamy.
Ryan and I first fell in love with the hot chocolate after sipping on a free sample at Williams-Sonoma years ago when we lived in Orlando. We ended up unknowingly buying it for each other for Christmas that year and now it’s a Christmastime tradition in our house to drink their amazing peppermint hot chocolate together.
(2007 flashback!)
I changed things up a bit this year though and bought the “sampler pack” that came with the peppermint hot chocolate but also included salted caramel and regular hot chocolate as well. We made the peppermint hot chocolate last night, but I’ll be sure to report back about the other two flavors if they’re as good as I hope they are!
Questions of the Morning
- If you decorate for the holidays, when do you start decorating?
- When it comes to outdoor decorations: White lights, colored lights or a combination?
I almost always wait until the day after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas, but this year I got started quite early! I think owning a home has a lot to do with it, since I was anxious to decorate a place we actually felt was ours for the first time ever. My parents are also stopping by our house after Thanksgiving on their way home from Thanksgiving at my aunt’s and I think wanting them to arrive to a festive house also motivated me to decorate early. I think I love Christmas a little too much!
And as for outdoor lights, we’re all about the all-white lights in our house!
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No tree for us this year because our puppy would probably knock it down. He’s prone to running around the condo in a complete frenzy!
Yayyy for a puppy!! <3 <3 <3
I’ve been dying to start decorating! My husband is such a stickler for waiting until after Thanksgiving, so I’ve tried to hold off! Luckily we will be home this weekend, so I intend on going to get our tree early Saturday morning 🙂 Have a great thanksgiving!
I love that table behind your couch! Where did you get it?
Thank you! I got it on sale from Gilt.com. I cannot remember the name of the brand, but I do know they had it on Amazon.com, too!! (I was comparing prices/reviews and found it there as well before buying it on Gilt!)
Very nice! Thank you. Love the decorations! After reading this I decided I’m going to do a tree. It’s just me, my boyfriend and dog but what the heck. First Christmas in our first house. Why not. 🙂
We always head up to the northwoods for Christmas and go decoration crazy there, so in the meantime we don’t really do it up here, especially when we were in our teeny Chicago place!
I am obsessed with Christmas and everything about it!! 🙂 My boyfriend and I usually decorate the day after Thanksgiving, but this morning he was smelling our candles from Bath & Body Works (Winter & Fresh Balsam!!) so he was like, we are decorating tomorrow! And I can’t wait! We are in an apartment so we only decorate the inside, but I love it! We also put out our advent calendar and make ornaments for our families every year – this year we are doing glass ornaments with baby’s breath inside. 🙂
Is one of those presents for your sister under the tree?? I can’t wait to wrap my sisters! 🙂
I LOVE the Fresh Balsam candle!! It smells heavenly. And I’m pretty sure MOST of those presents are for my sister. She’s my all-time favorite person to shop for every year! 🙂
Oh wow! Your home is beautiful even without the Christmas decor!
We decorated the inside over the weekend. The outside will be Saturday. We are good rednecks and like to tacky it up as much as possible. We even got inflatables this year! 🙂
Hey Julie,
I’m just wondering, what is the brand and style of your sofa? Are the cushion covers removable?I have an older but very similar sofa, however the fabric is linen. It peels and picks horribly. I would love to buy replacement covers like yours.
Thank you!
I was wondering the same thing! It’s similar to what I am looking for…
As it was a warmer weekend in TN we also got all our Christmas decorations down and put lights on the roof of the house. We haven’t done anything inside yet. We usually wait till the day after Thanksgiving to start that. We have to go cut down our tree before we can get that all set up!
We love the colored lights on the house as well as we put light up reindeer and gift boxes out front too! My goal is to eventually get those big round bulbs for the outside so our house can look like a gingerbread house! 🙂
Your house (especially while Christmasified) = <3. Enjoy the holiday with family!
Growing up, my interior designer mom would only allow white lights on the outside! It was always a fight, because my dad preferred color. I think I’m torn between the two. I will say that I’ve very picky about how lights are done – like if they are wrapped sparsely around a bare tree, it’s not happenin for me.
I decorated last weekend, everything but our tree because we are waiting to get our real tree at beginning of December. For Canadians, I think we decorate a lot earlier because our Thanksgiving is over long ago. I like that our holidays aren’t so close together.
We started decorating last weekend. I can multitask-holidays and celebrate Thanksgiving with a Christmas tree in the background at the same time, you know?! 😉 I was just too excited!
We always decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving. Have a great holiday!
Your decorating looks great! That picture of Sadie under all those blankets is hysterical. I love reading about her.
I used to decorate Thanksgiving night but it always fell on the same weekend as ‘the big game’ so I’ve been doing it the weekend before Thanksgiving and it takes off SOOO much stress! Our lights are red, white and green with big candy ornaments in the windows so we look like a gingerbread house! 🙂
Love your Christmasy home Julie! We decorated inside and out on the weekend too. I love the magical feeling a home has when it is all Christmased up!
We decorate every year for Christmas, even if we are going to be out of town. I have never decorated before Thanksgiving, but it always makes me feel good when other people do it (it’s like giving the green light).
My husband and I are planning to head out to our normal Christmas tree cutting spot next weekend to play in the snow and cut down our Christmas tree! It’s one of my favorite traditions! We usually put up white lights and icicles outside of our house, but may switch it up at some point.
I love where you put your tree! It looks like the *perfect* place for it! I got to work on the Christmas decor this past week, and it was a little early for me too…usually I do it the weekend after Thanksgiving. I think part of it was definitely my excitement of being in our new home. I’m also just feeling extra festive this year AND we have a lot going on from here on out until Christmas, so I figured why not?! We’re all about the white lights too! I would’ve never said that as a kid (“white lights were boring”), but as I’ve gotten older, I love the classy look of white. 🙂
I plan on decorating once I get back after Thanksgiving! This will be my first Christmas in a different apartment, so I have a lot of thinking to do this time around. I bought all my decorations to fit a specific purpose in my old apartment, but everything’s totally different in my new apartment, so I’m going to have to get creative!
I love your decorations…I am a Christmas lover as well and can’t wait to start decorating our place. We are moving to a bigger house beginning of December so that will put a hold on Christmas until mid December…but I am ready!
I like your couch, where did you buy it?
~Erika
I love your white couch!!
Your tree looks perfect in front of that window! We are all about the white Christmas lights here too. I can’t wait to start Christmas decorating. Usually we do it the first weekend of December!
What a perfect little place for a tree! It looks gorgeous! I grew up with a colored lights tree, but I’m all about white lights now. I like the simplicity.
Since I live 3 1/2 hours away from my family now, my mom came to visit me last weekend to decorate for Christmas; she wouldn’t have time after Thanksgiving to make the trip. I haven’t plugged my tree in yet…I’ll wait until after Thanksgiving for that! I usually start decorating December 1st. As for outdoor lights, I’m a fan of white, but I try to mix it up every year!
We put up our lights last week as well. I just couldn’t wait anymore, when the sun doesn’t rise until after 10 am Christmas lights are needed!
I dont really decorate my place since im not here for the holidays, but we decorated my boyfriends’ place and my parents should be decorating the house after my birthday in mid december! They always like to wait until theyve celebrated that!
We’ve moved to a much smaller house, and we don’t have room for our original Christmas tree. There’s been talk of hanging out ornaments on garlands around the house (my idea), and putting our regular tree up outside, next to our giant inflatable Winnie the Pooh, but nothing is set in stone yet. I’m looking forward to getting out house decorated, though. Maybe the new place will really feel like home after that. 🙂
And I live in Iowa. Cocoa has been on my radar since October! 😉
I love your Christmas decorations! Josh and I are buying a tree the day after Thanksgiving and then all bets are off as we make our apartment as Christmas-y as possible!
Do you get a real tree or a plug-in tree? Love the smell of the real ones but hate the mess 🙂
fake tree all the way! 😉
Your home is adorable!!
You have so much more willpower than me, I can never wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate! I always like to enjoy the tree WHILE I’m eating my Thanksgiving dinner 🙂
I started decorating this past Sunday, I couldn’t wait until this weekend! We go on the Friday after Thanksgiving to this tree farm only a couple miles down the road from where we live to cut down our own tree. We make sure to wear our plaid shirts ands puffy vests :). Oh, and classic white lights for outside for us. We can’t wait this year to decorate with our baby girl.
That hot chocolate is SO good. I’m hoping it will cool down a bit in Florida so I have an excuse to drink it soon!
Sadie’s face is soooo sweet under those blankets!! I bet she misses them warm weather 🙂
We wait until after Thanksgiving. We just bought a fake tree-sigh-I always get the real thing but it is a pain to clean up afterwards. Even my pitbull, Annie, gets into the Christmas spirit-she has her own Christmas sweater that she wears to keep her warm 🙂
I’ll be decorating tonight if I have time!!! Normally it’d already been up for two weeks, I’m so behind!! Also, is that a green pickle ornament?! We have one too!!! And if not, maybe we’re just weird 🙂
I LOVE the colored lights that are mostly blue hues. But we stick to only lining our windows in white lights. We live in a new neighborhood so our front lawn doesn’t have any bushes and our tree is too tiny to support any lights. Worth it though for not having to own a rake 🙂
I have my tree up too. It’s not decorated, but it’s there. #sorrynotsorry.
Also, Ryan looks so little in that pic!! He’s definitely put some muscle on throughout the years!
I’ll probably start decorating this weekend. We finally have a house to decorate, so I’m so excited! I can’t wait. We’re hosting Thanksgiving, so I didn’t want to decorate for Christmas too soon.
I’m not sure if I’ll be decorating at all this year. We may get some sparkly lights for the RV but it’d be hard to put up any other kind of decoration since things fall down as soon as we start driving again… 😉
Love this!! I wish my family would start to decorate sooner. I know that when I move out { next year finally! } I will be probably decorating in November hahaha let’s hope I don’t do it November 1st though.
Such pretty decorations! My husband and I will probably start decorating next weekend; we usually wait until right after Thanksgiving just so I don’t have to toss out all of my pumpkins and gourds a day too soon! As for theme, that made me laugh because my husband thinks he’s a Griswald and therefore our decorations are all over the place. The inside stays fairly sane looking but we do have 1 fake white pre-lit tree that I cover in “kids” ornaments ie Care Bears, Harry Potter, and Rainbow Bright. We actually have neighbors that stop us when walking the dogs and ask when everything is getting put up. Last year we had white, colored, AND flashing regular and icicle lights lining the house AND ROOF (and by that I mean he stapled the wires to the roof in zigzag patterns), about 6 inflatables in the front yard, light up snowflakes hanging in the trees, giant light bulbs lining the sidewalk, and those spiral Christmas trees scattered around the inflatables. It took us an entire day last year but was embarassingly worth it. That’s NC for you!!
I always wait until after Thanksgiving to do anything Christmas related as well, but this year we decorated the second week in November… whoops! I agree that owning a house makes you want to decorate sooner. There’s just something about Christmas decorations that make the house feel so much more homey! 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving!
We also bought our first house this year so I’m so anxious to start decorating for the holidays. I’m holding out until this weekend but first thing on Friday, we’re going out to get our tree!
I LOVE the ornaments around the light fixture. How did you do that?
Looks great! We usually wait until about the 6th or 7th here!
I am SO excited to decorate our new house for Christmas! My husband won’t let us get a tree until almost right before Christmas, but you better bet that the rest of the house will be decked out soon 🙂
You already opened a gift? That’s hilarious, but impressive. I haven’t even thought about Christmas yet, outside of buying a plane ticket to Florida for my husband and me to visit my family over the holiday! Stay in the spirit. Love it!! 🙂
Your decor looks great- so festive! I always wait until after Thanksgiving too, but something about this year just makes it seem okay 🙂 I started putting up a few things here and there but I’m feeling guilty about it! 😉
Your house is gorgeous! And I have to agree, WS Peppermint Hot Chocolate is the BEST!
I slowly started decorating 2wks ago! My daughter is 16mo and I really wanted her to enjoy the lights and tree this year. I decided to forgo the normal ornaments and decorated the tree with 128 indestructible race medals that my husband and I have been collecting over the last 10 years.
White lights all the way!
We decorated our house this past weekend! I always wait until about Remembrance Day (Nov 11th) to decorate and then it’s fair game! Your Christmas Tree looks gorgeous 🙂
We beat you to it!! My Christmas crazy wife “justified” us getting our tree and decorations up on November 8 this year! Well, since we’ll be in Minnesota for Christmas, let’s just put up the tree early and then take it down before we leave for MN…there…justified. Hmmm…alrighty then. We’ll just have a needle-less tree once Christmas arrives! Have a good one!