Ultimate Cozy CHRISTMAS Home Tour 🎄 2024

Hey there! Welcome to my home for the holidays! Come on in! If you've been following along this season then you know the theme in my house this year is Santa's house and you cannot get to Santa's house without first going through the North Pole. I decided to turn my entryway this year into a scene from the North Pole and I started with these beautiful, beautiful flocked nine-foot Christmas trees from Fraser Hill Farm. You can find them on Amazon. I will link them below in case you're interested, but I love these trees. They're so cool. They actually have a bunch of different light settings which is really fun. You can change them from clear to color. You can do a mix. You can make them fade. You can even sync them to your holiday music. So love these trees here and they just turned out exactly how I imagined them to turn out. I put a bit of fake snow around the bottom of each tree. I also did a really cozy white rug in the entryway to just mimic the look of a snow white scene from the North Pole. We also have our great little polar bear friend here. He's from the at-home store. I found him there this year. And of course you have a sign here to guide you to all of the important places in the North Pole. I found this at Kirkland's this year. I thought it was the perfect touch to this entryway. One of my most favorite pieces this year. It's a new piece. It is this grand nutcracker. I have shared him with you in a few videos this season, but if you're just seeing him for the first time, here he is in all of his grandeur in the entryway welcoming guests in as they come in during the holiday season. All of the large nutcrackers that you see in my home are from Sam's Club. And this guy is holding a snow globe with Clara and the nutcracker dancing around the Christmas tree. So it really sets the tone and sets the scene, I think, for the rest of the house. And I really like that. Come on in to my living room here where we gather during the holidays. This is the space that I like to start with often. However, this year I did start with the kitchen. But this followed very shortly after. And this is where I keep my main Christmas tree, the family Christmas tree, the tree. You know, we have a lot of trees in this house, but this is the tree. It's just lovely. This is a noble fir tree by Balsam Hill. It is their flip tree, which I love. It is like the Cadillac of Christmas trees in my opinion. So easy to set up. Wonderful quality. This is the second year that I've had this tree and it is just as beautiful as the first year. All of the ornaments that you see on this tree are also by Balsam Hill. And the candles, the ribbon, everything. I love Balsam Hill because I'm always able to bring my visions to life each season with their products and their pieces. And they are things that last season after season. The tree looks very collected, very traditional, a little bit grand, but understated. And that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted it to be a tree that was beautiful and elegant, but also just looked realistic. That's always my goal with these trees each year. I love this Merry Christmas ribbon. This is the second year I've used that as well. I like taking things that I've had in years past and then reimagining them. And that's what I've done with these ornaments this year on this tree. So it's very similar to last year's tree, but it is in a lot of ways very different. And I'm very happy with how the tree turned out. We of course also have Santa back here. If you watched last year's holiday videos, if you haven't, I'll link the marathon below for you. This guy was the find of the century. I found him at Home Depot for $50 and I could not believe that he was $50. But lo and behold, he was. I did not see him there this season. I tried to find him just so I could link him for you just in case and I didn't see him there. But I'm still just so proud of that guy. He's really cool. If I had to assume one thing about Santa's house during the holidays, I am almost absolutely certain that he has a train under his Christmas tree. I just, I feel like he definitely has a train under his tree. The dogs tend to love it. Minky especially this year has really enjoyed the train. But they like to bark at it, chase it, all those things. I feel like the star of the show truly this season is probably this rug, which I think was such an exciting find. I found this rug on Amazon this year. It is so festive. It was inexpensive. I'll have it linked. I've had a lot of questions about the rug. So don't worry, I will link it. Hopefully it's still available. It's washable, which is really great. But I just thought it was so fun. It adds such a bright, vibrant festive touch to this room. Definitely the type of rug Santa and Mrs. Claus would have in their living room. 100%. I think the mirror in here is a really nice holiday moment in this room, especially because I was really leaning towards tradition and timeless Christmas decor. When I was imagining my theme and thinking about what Santa's home would look like, how it would be decorated, I always think very classic, but also very collected over the years. And so I tried to bring in elements from different eras and different times that have been carried through season after season. I found this beautiful banner from Magnolia Home. It's new, but it looks old and classic and worn, and I like that about it. And I thought this was the perfect place for it. It just really finishes out this space. This mirror I get asked about often. This is actually an antique mirror that used to sit in my great aunt's home, and I have it now. So I don't have a resource for the mirror, but I do get asked about this mirror very often, and it is an antique. I decided to trim it this year in this garland. This is from Hobby Lobby. I've had it many years, and I really like it. It's got a nice mix of berries and holly. I just added some ribbon to finish it off. My favorite red velvet ribbon that I talk about probably way too much, but it's just my favorite. When you find something you love, you stick with it, and it's inexpensive. It's so easy to work with. It is like a dream, honestly, to work with when it comes to wired ribbon. And then here on my table, I just kept it really simple with this really great candle find, this ornament that I found at the at-home store this year early in the season, and just some picture frames of me and the pups throughout the holidays. These pictures just remind me of really good times, really good memories. Seeing my puppies in these frames every day makes me smile. We also have our friend Meringue over here, who we lost this year, but we love, and he spent last Christmas with us, so seeing him here is just, it's a nice, nice reminder of the beautiful soul that he was. We miss him. Okay, I could use some caffeine right now, so before we move on to the rest of the house, let's go grab a quick cup of coffee. Okay, I'm taking a little bit of a decorating break. I just made a fresh cup of coffee. I figured I needed a little bit of caffeine, and I thought I would just sit down and enjoy my coffee and have a little chat with you, maybe a little heart-to-heart about the holiday season. You know, on my channel, we talk a lot about all of the joy and the excitement and the fun things that the holiday season brings, but there are other emotions and things that come with this time of year that I just think it's really important for us, especially as women, to chat about and be real about and open about. I feel like this time of year, especially this time of year, that extra bit of stress and that extra bit of loneliness can definitely creep in. Oftentimes, we don't address those things, and I don't know, but I've had it on my heart just to share that lately. I know over the years that I've shared here on YouTube, a lot of you in the comments will share with me the struggles you're facing during the holiday season. It's so easy to get lost in the decor and the surface level stuff here, which is always fun and always wonderful, but at the same time, it's so much more important for us to be here for one another and check in and make sure that we're all doing okay. I just want to do that today. I just want to check in with you. I want to say that, you know, if the holiday season is a time that you struggle a bit with things, you're not alone. I understand how you feel. The stress of the season definitely can creep up on you. It creeps up on me just about every single year. Not only that, but ever since I lost my grandfather back in 2015, and I know that's been 10 years now, but ever since then, Christmas has just never really been the same. I enjoy my family. I'm so fortunate to still have my grandmother who's 91 years old, and it's amazing, but even watching her celebrate Christmas with all of us without him, it's just, it brings a little bit of sadness. So, I just want you to know that if you have those feelings during the holiday season, you are definitely not alone at all, and there's always things that we can do, things that I do to help manage those emotions and that stress this time of year, which is why I am so grateful to have BetterHelp as today's video sponsor. BetterHelp is an online therapy platform that I personally use, and they are on a mission to make therapy easier to start and fit in to our lifestyles, which I really appreciate. I know that I don't show it a lot here on my YouTube channel, but balancing everything for me during the holiday season, work, YouTube, family life, all of the things, is very overwhelming, and I do not know how I would get through it without my therapist. I also feel like my therapist helps me just get into a better mindset overall, even during this time of year, because it's very easy for me to get lost in the to-do list, lost in the hustle and the bustle and all the things, and not really check in with myself. I'm a very organized person, but I can often shut down when it comes to anxiety and stress, so my therapist has definitely helped me in that regard. So I just wanted to talk about it here with you today, because if you're watching YouTube and you're seeing all of these videos and these happy holiday moments, and you're sitting at home thinking, that's amazing, I am stressed, I feel lonely, I feel overwhelmed, you are not alone. So if you're thinking about therapy, this holiday season might be the perfect time to just try it out. BetterHelp makes it very easy, you just go online, answer a few questions, and they will get you matched with a therapist within 48 hours. I do have a link for them in my description box, or you can just go to betterhelp.com slash brittanyblaine, and it will give you 10% off your first month of therapy. Just wanted to share that with you today, make sure you're taking care of yourself, because I care about you. If you've watched my other videos, then you know my living room area here is very open concept. So you have the front area that I just showed you, and then you have this seating area here, that's almost an extension of that. It's a little more casual, a little more cozy. I always like to do something special here, especially for the holiday season. This is a gathering place for family and friends around the living room area. I like to do something eye-catching, something that brings people in and makes them want to sit down and cozy up. I do get asked quite often about my fireplace. It is a working fireplace. I just keep candles in here for whatever reason I always have. I'm in Texas, so we don't have too many cold winters, although I know some of my neighbors the past few days have been turning on their fires. But I don't know, I've just always kept candles in there. So for those of you that have been curious, yes, it is a working fireplace. No, I don't use it often, although I probably should. This year on the mantle, I decided to use this Norfolk garland that I found at Kirkland's. It is two strands of 15-foot garland. I could not be happier with how this turned out. I know this garland has been viral for a few years now, and I just hadn't invested in it because I thought, you know, I have so many pieces of garland, so many different types of garland that I've collected over all of these years of decorating. I did decide to try some out, get some this year, and I'm officially hooked. I love it. It was the easiest garland I've ever worked with. I also got the Norfolk wreath to match. This is from Kirkland's as well. I just decorated it a bit with some red ribbon and a red ball ornament. I also decorated the garland with red ball ornaments. I really wanted to keep the color palette in here very traditional, very red and green, so I just let the greenery shine through on its own and added all of these different beautiful ball ornaments in various sizes to the mantle top, also to the garland, and then to the two beautiful cathedral balsam hill trees that flank each side of this fireplace as well. Since this is Santa's house, his portrait had to be somewhere in here, right? I found this one at Kirkland's I thought was really lovely. I didn't want something too large, a painting of Santa that could possibly be in his home or have been in his home for many years. I really like that about it. Again, Kirkland's, so it was a nice find. These three tapered candle holders here are also new this season. However, I feel like you could use them any time around the home. These two are from Magnolia, and then this one is one that I found on Amazon. Magnolia actually had one that looked similar to this, but it was sold out, and I thought, oh, bummer. So I took to Amazon to see if I could find something that was at least complementary to these two, and I think I found a pretty decent dupe. It's not exactly the same, but the quality is nice, and I'm happy with it. Another thing that I do each season and holiday is refresh this credenza here. It's definitely having a festive moment this season. This sleigh was given to me by my grandmother. She used to have this in her Christmas decor, and when she was finished with it, she passed it along to me. I found these bells at a local boutique a few years ago, and then these naughty and nice lists that you see here, I actually made. It was a DIY that we did together here on my channel a couple of seasons ago, so I'll have that linked if you're interested. And then I have a couple of ornament candles here, and then some old books from my collection. This really neat brass countdown, also from Magnolia Home. I think it's unfortunately sold out now, which is such a bummer because I think it's really cool. I did buy it as a countdown for the holiday season for Christmas, but I'm looking forward to using it on my desk in my office just as a calendar. And then I also have these two precious vintage deer that are from a local boutique a couple of years ago, Farmhouse Market, one of my favorite places to shop. On the coffee table in here this year, I thought I would just keep it simple and add a few of the old books that I have from my collection, all in this nice burgundy color to complement the color scheme in here. And then my Santa bust, which I get asked about very often, and unfortunately I don't have a resource to share. He is from Hobby Lobby many, many years ago, and I have not seen him there since. My mom and I both have him, and hers looks beautiful in her home. She puts hers on her piano every year. Hobby Lobby, you've got to bring this guy back. People want him. We have made our way to the dining room where I plan to entertain this season. I am hosting a Christmas dinner before Christmas, so I have the table set. And I know a few people had asked me about my Christmas menu over on the dining room videos, so I will be sure to share that in an upcoming video this month. I'll share my menu. It's pretty simple. It's just a three course. It's a dessert, a soup and salad, and then the main. But I will share it with you if you'd like to see it. You may notice right now there's an orchid in the shot, and this is just real life. Honestly, I move this orchid often just to film, but this orchid that you see here is about seven years old, and she's my oldest plant, and I love her dearly, and she likes this room the most. This is where she thrives. I keep her in here, and I'll be honest, I just didn't want to move her out of the window right now. I usually move her when I'm sharing my holiday decor with you, but in reality, she lives in here. One of my absolute favorite holiday traditions that I hold most dear is getting out my Christmas tree spode collection that was once my great aunt's Christmas tree spode collection. I just feel so fortunate to have it and to be able to continue the family tradition of setting the table with it every holiday season. If you had to ask me what my favorite part of holiday decorating is, it's a very, very hard answer because I would probably say about 12 different things, but in reality, getting out the spode and those pieces that are very sentimental to me is my absolute most favorite part. It's the part I treasure the most about the holiday. I have her collection here, and then I also have her beautiful Christmas tree, which I know some people had mentioned that I'm missing the star at the top, and I didn't. I never realized, so I guess I'm gonna have to go in search of a star, a star for my tree. You need to find one. If you are familiar with the Christmas tree spode collection, then you know that there's a lot of holly detail on quite a few of the pieces, so I thought it would be nice to add these holly wreaths as accents on the back of the chairs just to kind of complement the spode, so that's what I did. I found these wreaths at Hobby Lobby and these sweet little red bows on Amazon and just attached these wreaths here with a pin. Very simple, very easy to do, and then we also added this tree in here this year. This is a Balsam Hill Silverado Slim 9-foot that was in my entryway last year. I think this is the perfect size tree for this back window. Really just finishes out the decor in this space. Again, this is a very open concept area, so if you walk in the front door, you really can see all the way to the back of the home here, and if you look through, this is what you see. These red velvet curtains that I like to hang each holiday season and this beautiful tree. I'm looking forward to loved ones in here this season and for them to just come in and enjoy and us to eat and then all sit around this table and play games because that's the best part, I think, of holiday dining or the board games that come after. I'm quite competitive. For my long dining room table here this year, I really just did my go-to, which is this garland that I have been using for many years. Long before I was on YouTube, I've had this garland. I think it is originally from Hobby Lobby, but this has kind of always been my dining room table garland, and it's seen a lot of love. It's kind of getting worn at this point, but I think it's still going strong. I just put it down here. There's two pieces, and then I added some simple gold tapered candle holders from Amazon. They come in a set, and then these tapered candles from Target. I know some of them are crooked right now. If it's bothering you, I'm sorry, but I promise to fix them before people come over for dinner. I just also added in some red ball ornaments here to keep that design, carry it through from the living room to here and to the breakfast area back there as well. I think that's something that really completes design and really makes it nice and thoughtful when you keep that consistency and that flow through, and it really just needs to be one or two elements, whether it's using the same ribbon all throughout the house or just using an element like red ball ornaments all throughout or certain types of greenery, things like that. Whether you're doing a very simple minimalistic design or you're doing something more maximalist like I like to do, I think it just really elevates the look all around, no matter what your style or your taste, when you pull those elements through your space and keep them consistent room to room. All right, we are in my kitchen. Well, let me rephrase. We are in Mrs. Claus's kitchen right now. My theme for this year being Santa's house, I could not miss the opportunity to decorate the kitchen as if it were Mrs. Claus's kitchen. So that's what I did, and I really let my imagination run wild in this space. I thought, what does Mrs. Claus's kitchen look like? It is probably full of amazingly beautiful and delicious gingerbread houses and cookies and pastries and all the things. I really embraced the gingerbread theme in here this year from the shelves where I have all of these fun gingerbread houses I found at the at-home store to the cookie jars that I have in here. I get asked about these jars just about every season. I usually have them on my hot cocoa bar. I haven't done a hot cocoa bar this year, and I wasn't really planning on it. I asked you all on Instagram if I should, and a lot of people said yes. I don't know where I would actually put my hot cocoa bar in the house this year. If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments below where you think I should do a hot cocoa bar in the house this year, because I don't know where I would put it, but I would love to. I would love to share that. So let me know in the comments below if you think I should add a hot cocoa bar and where it should go this holiday. But back to the cookie jars, these are originally from Walmart. They were such a good find, but it was several years ago that I found these, and they haven't had the same design since. But they do have really adorable cookie jars this year. I saw, I think I saw a snowman for sure. It was really cute. I was just in there the other day. I think some of the most fun pieces in this room are these gingerbread cookie wreaths, and we actually made these. We did a DIY in my kitchen decorating video. So if you're interested in learning how to make these cookie wreaths, they were so fun, and I think they turned out really, really great. I will have that video linked in the description box for you. Something I get asked just about every time I decorate my kitchen for a different holiday or season, because I tend to go pretty decor heavy on the countertop here. But I always get asked, where do I cook? Where do I prep my food when I fill my countertops like this over here? And it's a very good question. And I always forget that I don't often show my island. So I have a very large island here, as you can see from me to you. It's quite large. I usually keep it clear just like this all the time. Sometimes I do an arrangement or something fun down at the end over there, some apothecaries with snacks or treats or something. But most of the time, this is all very, very clear and clean and ready. I think my kitchen scale is even out right now. I did not clean the counter off. I didn't plan to show you any of this. But to answer the question, where do I, where do I prep and where do I cook? This is a really good like cookie baking area, you know? But in case you were curious, that is the answer to that question. Okay, let's head upstairs so that I can show you the rest of the decor that I have out for this season. I was about to take you upstairs when I realized I did not talk about this area, which is one of my favorite moments down here, especially this coat rack. I love the coat rack with Santa's coat. If you've been here for a couple of seasons now, you know Santa helped us decorate in 2023. So I have his coat and his hat hanging here. And then some reindeer bells. They didn't make it in my video. I ordered these from Amazon to hang on my coat rack and I've hung them here because they've arrived. But when I filmed this area, I didn't have them yet. So, but I thought that would be a fun little element to add. And then of course, we have the key to the North Pole here as well. Santa drops his keys like the rest of us at the end of the day and takes his shoes off, his coat and his shoes. I need to get some boots and put them right down here and that'll really finish it out. Moving on the railing here, I don't have two grand of a staircase. So there's not a lot of railing to decorate in this house, but I do like to add a little bit of garland and jazz it up a bit. So this year, since I went with the Norfolk on the mantle, I decided to just continue that through here on the stairway as well. The mantle garland is from Kirkland's, but this is from Amazon. And I think it's also a really great garland. I did double it up though. I believe these are nine foot pieces. I'll link what I purchased down below. And I think it was nine feet if I'm remembering correctly, but it comes in a set of two. So I bought two sets of two. So there's four pieces total. And then the ribbon that you see is just a simple, beautiful velvet from Walmart that I found. Hopefully that's still available to link. Whatever I do on the mantle in my home, each holiday season, I try to mirror that here in some way, shape or form. So whatever garland I use there, I'll use here again. So it keeps that continuity throughout the space and throughout the design. Okay. Let's head upstairs to my little winter wonderland. Come on, let's go. We are in my bedroom, which this season is a bit of a little winter oasis. I really had a vision in here and the vision was just peace and tranquility with a little bit of winter magic thrown in. This is my most favorite tree in my home, which is a very bold statement because I think I have, let's see, eight trees, but it truly is my favorite tree in the house. The tree itself is just beautiful, but I love all the ornaments. Everything you see here is balsam hill from the topper to the tree collar down at the bottom. It has been so incredibly peaceful this season to wake up in this room, turn the tree lights on, see the sun come through the window and just have some quiet, beautiful winter moments with, with my pups. It's been really, really nice. I do feel like the tree in here is just extra special because it's kind of just for me. This is my private space and setting something up like this in your bedroom for yourself is just, I think, such a form of self-care and self-love during the holidays because we decorate for our families and our friends that we welcome into our homes and we make everything magical. And I just think sometimes it's so important for us to give ourselves a little bit of that love too and do something for us, something just special. So this tree I did just for me and I really love, love how it turned out. A few things I get asked about, uh, the giant ornament at the foot of the bed that is from Fraser Hill Farm. I also have these ornaments from Fraser Hill Farm on my front porch. The quality is just incredible. They're beautiful. They're made for outdoors, but we all know that I like to put outside things inside. So white deer at the foot of the tree are from Kohl's, I believe, quite a few seasons ago. These deer here, I've been asked about a couple of times, these beautiful glitter deer on my nightstands. These were from my grandmother when she changed things up and she was going to get rid of them. She asked if I wanted them and the answer is always yes. The bedding is a home goods find. The sheets are new, sent to me by Bella Coterie and I mentioned them in my video and oh my goodness, they have been a dream. And it's so nice because this bed is so fluffy and cozy and warm, but these sheets because they're made of bamboo are quite cool and nice and light. So they're the perfect combination in my opinion. This blanket, which is the throw blanket that I have at the end of the bed, I took it off to show you up close because I didn't mention this in my bedroom video, but the quality of this blanket is incredible. This was just an Amazon find. It's a style blanket, but it is cozy and soft. I've actually pulled it off the bed several times for movie night and used it. I feel like it's a dupe of some very expensive blankets, but again, it's from Amazon. So it wasn't very costly at all. I'll link it for you in case you're interested. This would be fabulous Christmas gift for someone. But look at this thing. It's got a nice weight to it too. It's a little heavy, but not too heavy. You know what I mean? It's got a little bit of a weight to keep you nice and cozy and warm. I don't think my winter wonderland bedroom would be complete without continuing the concept on into my bathroom this season. So let me take you in there and show you how I decorate it. So this is my winter bathroom. I did set it up with the intent of making it festive for Christmas, but it's really turned into something more that I think I can enjoy throughout the entire winter season. I decided to use these birch trees in here that I've had for quite some time. They're originally from Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately, I have not seen them there the past couple of years. It's been hard tracking these down and something similar. So if I can ever find anything, I will always come back to the description box and update you with links. They twinkle at night and it's just so calm to come in here and take a shower or a bath and just unwind at the end of the day and take my makeup off. And it's just, it's a really nice, nice experience in here right now. I'm enjoying it. If you're wondering what this is, because you missed my bathroom decorating video, this is my little holiday spa and a personal treat tree. I just decided to decorate it with some spa items, things I could pull off the tree and just have a fun spa night. I really think this is a fabulous idea for a teenager, a teenage girl or a preteen that loves self-care and all those things during the winter months, especially. What a fun surprise for Christmas. If you're curious about all of the spaces that I've been sharing here today, I do have dedicated decorating videos to each one and they will all be linked in the description box below for you. So you can always check out more there if you have any other questions about the space. Hopefully those videos answer them for you. Okay, so that's about it for the home tour. But before we go, I thought I would show you the front porch really quickly because I don't think I've shared it here yet this season. I didn't do too much here. Well, I kind of did. I threw a nutcracker and a couple of giant ornaments here. But other than that, I just kept it really traditional with some garland trim, a few simple pre-made bows that I found at Walmart this season, and then a couple of my seven foot pre-lit. Maybe they're seven and a half foot. I don't know. I put them in some urns so they sit up a little higher. But these are just pre-lit inexpensive trees from Walmart that I've had for many years that I stick out here on the front porch. They seem to do okay in the elements. We also have a couple more beautiful large ornaments from Fraser Hill Farm, like the one in my bedroom. This is just like the one in my bedroom. And then this one is a little bit different. But these are absolutely beautiful. They have LED lights on them, so at night they're even more beautiful. But I love these out here. They give my very small front porch a very bold statement. And then, of course, I have one of my nutcrackers. This is actually the very first nutcracker, that large nutcracker that I ever purchased from Sam's Club. I've got him out here. He's very loved. He's still dusty from last year, I think. But thank you so much for visiting me in my home today and this holiday season. I just want to take a moment and tell you how much I appreciate you for being here on my channel, being part of this community. It would truly be nothing without you. So thank you. It is such a joy to be able to bring you in and share a little piece of my world with you. And I'm just so appreciative that you allow me to do that. So thank you. I will, of course, see you again very soon in the next one. But until I do, happy holidays, merry Christmas, and happy decorating!