Part 2 of my holiday home tour is up (see part 1 here)! With our living room newly refreshed from the One Room Challenge, I wanted to keep our holiday decor simple and uncomplicated this year. I loved the idea of having a smaller tree potted in one of the baskets I typically use for the kids’ toys and so I asked Ballard Designs if they’d be willing to partner up to help me get the look. Graciously they agreed and a beautiful potted Suzanne Kasler tree (sold out; similar) was sent our way along with some beautiful preserved boxwood garland (as well as the ginger jars and JOY wreaths in the breakfast nook, which we shall forevermore refer to as The Nook of JOY).

I made all these boxwood wreaths to hang over the fireplace (see the tutorial here) and used my red striped ribbons to hang them. I’ve been counting the days til I can display these vintage Japanese reindeer thatI found in a local antique shop. 

I kept the tree simple on purpose; less temptation for little hands to destroy. It’s set up on a table so it’s visible from any corner of the room.

As an aside, Internet, I gave in.  That’s right, I got us another Elf on the Shelf. I KNOW, I KNOW. But! I’m sticking it to the man by refusing to make the elf do anything naughty. Our elf moves (maybe) to other locations, but that is it. No shenanigans. No nothin’.  But the very first night, I completely forgot to move the @#$#!#^&%$#Q! thing and Jude came into my room at 7:04AM and indignantly whispered “THE ELF DID NOT MOVE.”

I will spare you my response. Ha! So I made extra sure to move the elf the next day and OF COURSE the child did not notice until I pointed it out that the silly thing was no longer in the same place.

But yet again, I forgot to move the elf from his location in this photo:

And the Elf Police was all over me again. ::SIGH::

Big thanks to the lovely folks at Ballard Designs for helping me out with creating my Christmas vision this year!