Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal!

This is part 1 of a series on how I decorate for Christmas.

I. LOVE. HOLIDAYS. Naturally, Christmas is my grand finale! Its the prettiest outfit I own and I wear it every day from December 1st to January 1st. 2017 was our first full Christmas season in the cottage. We bought our home on December 16th, 2016. That first Christmas saw a few Santas on the mantle and a handful of pine scented candles. That was all I could manage during a major move. When Christmas 2017 arrived, I was READY. Our current home is double the square footage of the house we rented previously, and I was thrilled to fill up the space with new decorations! I bought lights, Christmas trees, Santas, stockings, and hundreds of ornaments. My Mom, who is a lifelong Christmas collector, brought me treasures she had found throughout the year and even some of my childhood decorations. I have had so much fun building out our Christmas display over the last two years, and I would love to share with you how it's coming along.

Part 1: Storage & Organization

This photo was taken on November 19th, 2018. I pulled out all of our Christmas boxes and began mentally preparing for the task ahead. Since then I have added six more boxes, 9 wreaths, and another Christmas tree.

The new grand total is... drum roll.. 21 boxes. 12 wreaths. 4 Christmas trees. 12 strands of lights outside, and 10 strands inside. All of my Christmas storage boxes are from Target, and I do my best to stick with the red/ green theme. This way I can ask sweet husband, "will you bring down the Christmas boxes?" and he knows exactly which ones to grab. With this many boxes, I want to eliminate as much confusion as possible.

Thankfully, our second floor (which is actually a finished out attic) is accessible from a well-lit staircase and hallway. The door in the background of the above photo is the room where all the holiday decorations are stored. Easy peasy!

Each box is labeled with a specific room and what is in the box. I have found that unpacking the decorations is 100% easier with these labels. We know without opening the box which room it goes in and if it has ornaments, decorations, lights or all three!

Another trick I use is making my own labels. It's tempting to just to grab stickers or write directly on the box, but I have found that using a small square of paper or card stock and then covering it with clear packing tape is just the right amount of permanent. Bonus: I don't have to worry about it peeling off in the hot attic.

Christmas light storage boxes are an absolute MUST. It is so easy to see what I have and when its time to string them up you just grab-and-go! I can not say enough about how necessary these are. I have seen several versions of this concept, but I believe the plastic tote with plastic dividers is the most durable and does the best job of protecting the light bulbs.

When organizing the inside of the boxes, nothing beats a ziplock and a sharpie. The more I am able to separate like-items, ornaments and small decorations the easier it is to pull out of the box and make a decision about where it will live. I also use small jewelry boxes (Kendra Scott boxes are my favorite) and coffee mug boxes. Another life saver I use during the holidays is plastic zippered bags from linens. I have saved just about every bag from buying sheets, pillowcases, and comforters over the years. I keep them all in one of the larger zippered bags and store on a high shelf in my husband's office. It may seem excessive to keep them all, but I have never gone through a holiday without needing at least one. The cardboard labels that come with the bags can be flipped over, written on, and slid back into the clear pocket. I keep ornaments, nativity figurines, lights, and small greenery stored in these bags. I will say, keep your ornament boxes if at all possible! They are created to protect the ornament, so you know it will be safe in the bottom of a stuffed storage tote. Sometimes I find ornaments at thrift stores or garage sales and they don't have the box. In these situations, I find boxes I already have or wrap tissue paper around it and add to a zippered bag.

One thing that makes the holidays so special is that you get to see and do things that you can't experience any other time during the year. I apply this concept to my decorations. Christmas mugs, hand towels, and oven mitts all get packed away at the end of the season and won't be seen again until the next year. I think it's important to pack away anything that has Christmas imagery so that when you see it the next year, it's exciting and new again! I grabbed this mug box from Target's website this year, but it doesn't fit all of my mugs, and the slots are a tad bit too small for the Rae Dunn mugs. I will be on the lookout for a better solution this year!

We have four full-sized Christmas trees in the house, and two of them are quite large. The 8ft tree and the 6ft tree are stored in Christmas tree bags purchased from Amazon. I have eliminated all cardboard boxes from our house, and I immediately recycle all Amazon boxes. Cardboard attracts bugs, it breaks down over time, it's not waterproof or critter proof! Because of this, it was a no brainer to get rid of the Christmas tree boxes and use something more protective. These bags have labels on the side and convenient handles on either end. The handles make it super easy for husband and me to carry the trees up the stairs and into the attic storage.

The 5ft tree has removable branches which fit into a plastic tote, and the base is stored upright next to the box. The 4ft tree breaks down into two pieces which fit perfectly into an extra wreath bag I had on hand.

Speaking of wreath bags, I am a BIG fan! I found these bags on Amazon, and each one fits four to five 22 inch wreaths or two 30 inch wreaths. We have wreaths on 9 outside windows and the two columns on the front porch. These wreath bags protect the wreaths from bugs, dust, and anything that might wander into the attic through the year. They are easy to carry and even help maintain the shape of the wreath.

If you've made it this far - you're a rockstar. Thanks for following along with my organizational holiday obsession!