Decorating for the Holidays Cottagecore Christmas Inspiration

Well it is almost unbelievable to me, but it is already time to start thinking about the holidays. Now I know plenty of us love to wait until after Thanksgiving to do our decorating. That's typically my choice. It is always a good time to start planning even if you're not quite ready to put your actual decor out yet. I always just enjoy sort of getting my ideas together and get my plans for like what I want to make and all of that fun stuff. I thought that today I would share with you some of my personal favorite holiday decor inspirations for this year. These are sort of cottagecore inspired, but there's definitely a few different types of styles mixed within that and it's always sort of a take what you like, leave what you don't sort of situation. Let's start with one of my personal favorite pieces of holiday decor and that is garlands. There are so many different options when it comes to garlands and you can do anything from really expensive ones to really affordable ones. When it comes to greenery garlands I love the look of cedar garlands. Now you can get those live. Most farm markets will sell them this time of year as well as get faux ones. Last year I did invest in one or two faux cedar garlands that I can use year after year, but in years past when I really did not have like any sort of budget for holiday decor I used to go out into our yard where we had some evergreen trees and just cut off big branches and use those on our fireplace mantle and I feel like those looked so lovely. Of course they made a little bit of a mess, but in the end they were so beautiful and obviously I could just take them right back out into the yard when the holidays were over. Beyond green garlands there are plenty of really fun options to both mix in with your green garlands or just to do by themselves. So I really love and I'm excited to make myself some paper chain garlands this year. I feel like this is such a classic look that you know when I was a kid we made paper chain garlands like every single year and of course dried orange sliced garlands are always a great option. I make them every year and I always you know put them all over and now I don't know about you guys but last year I did try making the cranberry and popcorn like classic garlands. That's not one that I had made before but I gave it a try but I found that it all went bad so quickly that it just wasn't realistic to like make it and be able to actually enjoy it. Maybe I messed it up. If you have some tips for making the cranberry and popcorn garlands that you know maybe last a little bit longer and don't get funky, leave those tips below because I love the look of them. I just could not get them to last more than like a week. All right let's talk stockings. So if you don't already have stockings and you're looking to invest in some this year, consider going homemade or handmade. I especially love embroidered stockings. I really kind of want to make my own handmade stockings this year and do some hand embroidery on them to put our names on them because I just think it is such a classic beautiful look and you just have them for like the rest of your life. And with that I also really love the look of mixing and matching patterns so like I would like to make ones that are all in slightly different patterns that kind of go together instead of doing this sort of like each one like matches perfectly. And I also really love the look of quilted stockings. Now I have actually thrifted some in the years past that I think are just so charming, but you could also make your own. You could of course make them completely from scratch, quilting and putting them together, or you could even find maybe a quilt that has seen slightly better days at the thrift store and give it some new life by turning it into some stockings. And of course we cannot talk about the holidays without talking about trees. Personally I have been really leaning into the maximalist vibes when it comes to trees. I have been collecting vintage ornaments. Each year I try to like add just a little bit more to our collection. Personally I find a lot of really great vintage ornaments at estate sales. I feel like they're almost always a goldmine of really fun different vintage ornaments that you just don't see anywhere else anymore. And of course I also just love the look of bows. I loved last year seeing so many like bow trees. I think they were just so fun. And that's sort of a more low-cost option as well. As long as you can get some ribbon for fairly inexpensive, then you could just add a ton of bows all over your tree. Especially if you're still building out your ornament collection, I feel like doing some ribbon bows is a great way to sort of like fill up your tree and not rush yourself to find, you know, all the ornaments that you want to have. You know, I really do think that ornaments should be sort of like a lifelong collection that you're building and you shouldn't rush it. So if you're not quite there yet, maybe just fill in with some bows for now. And while we're talking about ornaments, some of my other favorite options are making ornaments. I am really excited to make some of my own ornaments this year. I've seen some really pretty options for making like hand-sewn ornaments that I really would love to try, as well as the classic salto ornament. Really fun to make your own salto ornament. So I'm excited to make some myself this year. And I love the idea of also making some all-natural ornaments. So I saw a great idea for making really beautiful ornaments out of pine cones that I want to try, as well as making them out of bird seed. This way, whenever you're done at the end of the holidays, you can just take them outside, kind of throw them in the yard, and let the birds go to town. And if you don't have the space or money for a big old tree, because let's be honest, they can be quite expensive, consider going with a mini tree. Personally, I love mini trees. I get one almost every year, whether or not we're putting up a big tree or not. I started this tradition pretty much when we first moved into our house. We really, at the time, definitely didn't have the money for a big tree. And with all renovations, we just didn't really have a good spot to put a tree anyway. So I started getting these little mini trees that usually I would just put in like a little pot. And a lot of times you can just plant them after the holidays, and they can go on to live a beautiful life. But they're also super duper cute. I almost think that the mini trees are like even more fun than having a big tree. So go ahead and get yourself a little mini tree, have yourself a little holiday cheer, have fun with it. When it comes to wreaths, I really love the opposite. So I love either really maximalist wreaths or really minimalist wreaths. So when it comes to the maximalists, I love the really, really fluffy ones that are full of all different types of greenery, as well as like branches and dried florals, and you know, all sorts of fun different stuff to add in there. But then I also really love the very minimalist classic wreaths, like dried orange wreaths, star anise wreaths, pine cones, and I've even seen some really beautiful wreaths made out of gingerbread or clay ornaments. And of course, don't forget about mini wreaths. I feel like mini wreaths are just extra fun. And you can just kind of sprinkle them all around your house to really add a little bit of holiday cheer all over the place. I know that bows were a big trend last year. I feel like I still love to see bows. Bows are still such like a classic like holiday look, and I especially love the look of sort of the very oversized handmade bows. I think that's just like so much fun. I would love to make some myself this year and just make like nice big plaid bows for all over the house. Now I know most people hate gift wrapping, but personally I love gift wrapping. Let me know if there's any of you crazy people out there who also really love it, because it's genuinely one of my favorite parts of the holiday. But since I love it so much, I am always really excited to sort of like plan out my holiday gift wrapping, and I always try to like pick a theme or just like get different wrapping papers that all go together. And this year I'm really extra loving sort of a mix and match look. Now this isn't decor, but I personally get so excited for holiday baking, so I thought I would share some of my favorite things that I'm excited for this year. I have really been loving like fun sheet cakes. I feel like you don't see sheet cakes that much. I feel like growing up in the 90s, like sheet cakes were like the thing. You know, if you were having a birthday party, you had a sheet cake. But then the last couple years we see a lot of tiered cakes, and all of that stuff, and those are beautiful. But I love a fun decorated sheet cake for the holidays, and it it can be a little bit more simple than doing a big cake. So I think that that would be super fun to do. I also love gingerbread cookie cakes, where you sort of decorate a more simple tiered cake using gingerbread cookies. I think that's just like so much fun, such a cute look. And an absolute classic is bundt cakes. You can never go wrong with a bundt cake, but I feel like a lot of people don't bake them all that much anymore. In fact, I don't even have a bundt cake pan, so I am determined to find a bundt cake pan, probably at the thrift store this year, and make some bundt cakes. And of course gingerbread houses. Last year I made sort of like my first gingerbread house, or my first like real gingerbread house. Of course when I was a kid we used to take the graham crackers and make gingerbread houses, but last year was sort of my first real baked gingerbread house. And I had such a great time making it, even though there was a big fail. But we got through it, and we actually, I feel like we were pretty successful. So I have been wanting to make that a tradition every year, to sort of learn the art of gingerbread house making. So I'm really excited, and I've been pulling some inspiration for what I want my gingerbread house this year to be. So super super excited for that. I hope this gave you some new ideas for this year, and you are excited, and I know that the holidays can be a really tough time. I personally have experienced that myself many many years, and so I hope that you are taking care of yourself, slowing down the best you can, and enjoying this time. Find some beauty in this season. I hope you are having a lovely day, and I will see you next time.