I hope you’ve found time to take a peek at this year’s holiday tour video of

The Seasonal Home’s 2016 Christmas Inspiration!

If not, let me make it easy for you…

click below & enjoy!

(Don’t forget to fix yourself a nice, warm beverage first & turn up your speakers before watching!)

This year, the theme was

“THE COLORS OF CHRISTMAS!”

I have wanted to try this theme for a long time

because it uses what you have, grouped by color, to create a statement.

And by popular request and to answer your questions in advance,

I’ll be sharing how I either made or where I found

my budget-friendly decorations… prices included, at least on the ones I can remember (LOL).

This will, hopefully, encourage you to do even more bargain shopping!

And if you see something you like, please feel free to COMMENT!

I know it requires a little bit of effort to do this, but this super short process keeps those awful spammers out of my comments section and

I do LOVE TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS – they actually keep me inspired too!

The first Color of Christmas is “Mixed Metals”… a combination of Silver, Gold, Champagne & Copper

displayed on the front porch to create a warm, “JOY-filled” welcome for all holiday visitors who stop by.

Hopefully, you can see that I created the word “JOY” across the front door.

To accomplish this, I spray painted two 16″ wood letters ( “J” and “Y”) silver & gold, that I found at Hobby Lobby.

and hung them alongside my front door wreath (the letter “O“).

Inexpensive, mixed metal-tone ornaments as well as a few (Dollar Tree) champagne-color stars were perfect & simple garland accents.

DECORATING HINTS:  If I want to place the focus on a large decorative element,

I keep the surrounding elements more simple so they don’t compete with my focal point,

in this case… the word JOY.

And you may notice that I didn’t bring the garland elements throughout the garland.

I purposefully kept them near the top to bring even MORE subtle attention to the word JOY.

Also… rather than decorate the front door wreath with individual ornaments and ribbon,

I saved time & money by simply adding a pre-made/pre-lit mixed metal ball wreath

to a pre-lit greenery wreath by twisting a few of the green wreath’s pieces

around the back of the metal wreath to keep them together… DONE!

And wrapped gifts (use “better” gift wrap because it typically has a weather-resistant coating),

mixed-metal lighted bells (Valerie Parr Hill/QVC.com) as well as a few candles, greenery & ribbon

on side porch black benches coordinated with and completed this theme perfectly!

   

The second Color of Christmas is “Merry and Bright”… a mixture of all the fun colors of Christmas

so basically, anything colorful goes!

It was so much fun how a few of my Crayola ornaments helped to bring this color (combo) to life.

The third Color of Christmas is “Green” (with brown & champagne accents)

and I featured it in the Living Room, along with a Nature theme, spotlighting Reindeer as well as the Holy Family.

   

I love how these champagne stars (from the Dollar Tree this year) accented

my tree (including using several as a tree topper) AND fireplace screen so nicely and inexpensively!

By the way, those are faux birch branches, made from foam (like pool noodles)! LOL

Craft & Christmas Shops typically sell them… also, check on line.

Once I discovered that I have the makings of a pillow obsession, I was relieved to

cut a little cost by using pillow sleeves that just velcro around an existing pillow and save on storage space too!

THE TREE!

Who doesn’t love mixing natural touches into their Christmas tree and decor?

Um, this girl sure does!

Focusing on the color green this year provided me with the perfect opportunity

to bring out my light green Poinsettias… another post-Christmas bargain ($1 each) from years ago.

And these champagne reindeer were another Dollar Tree find this year.

The (remote-controlled) pillar candles & clip-on metal trays supporting them on the tree

were Dillard’s Dept. Store leftovers (90% off) a few years ago.

Here’s a closeup…

2 more 90% off post-Christmas bargains… the tree and tree stand.

You can probably tell that I love bargains.

Little known fact…

I have purchased 95% of my decorations at 75-90% off.

I love to purchase Christmas leftovers as long as they have a “theme” potential

and there is still a quantity of them leftover.

It’s fun to challenge myself to create a design using them.

Many times, a group of dark green or brown ornaments won’t sell well in stores

but as you can see (this year), I put them to good use!

Can you believe those battery-operated pillar candles were leftover too?

This year, I decided not to display the entire Nativity set,

choosing instead to bring more focus on the core of The Christmas Story… the Holy Family.

    

On the wall near the Living Room garland,

my lighted, wooden Reindeer art (from a few years back) was the perfect accent.

And all of those green trees and berry rings, here & on the mantel, were yard sale finds and brand new!

DECORATING HINT:  If you don’t want to put your everyday decor away for the holidays,

simply add a holiday enhancement to blend it in!

Using small lengths of red ribbon,

I added 3 mini wreaths (another 90% off Dillard’s Dept. Store purchase)

to the tops of my rustic planter,

to create “Instant Christmas!”

And before we leave the Living room, here are a couple of closeup pics of the garland…

Picking up leftover bargain-priced berry, leaf, fruit or pine cone floral stems/picks

will provide you with a lot of texture variety to add into your garlands, wreaths & trees.

And don’t forget grapevine (especially artificial if you can find it)

because that adds width & volume to your holiday designs!

If you’re like me, you probably don’t like to see lights or electrical cords exiting from garlands.

To avoid seeing these necessary mechanics of holiday decorating,

simply set larger trees on the floor (in front of them) to hide them.

And because I had a 2nd tree, I placed it on the table to coordinate.

These trees are a great large size and perfect to hide cords with.

They were originally $80 (Dillard’s Dept. Store),

but I picked them up for $8 each at the post-holiday sale!

The fourth Color of Christmas is (Tiffany) “Blue” with white & silver accents

which created a cool, winter feeling in the Family Room.

So, as we turn around (from the Living room) to face the Family room,

you can see the garland, from both rooms, at once.

The fireplace is graced with two 9 foot frosted garlands

(another garage sale find – $75 price tags still attached – for only $5.00!),

 that are dripping with Tiffany Blue finial ornaments

(a find at only $3.99 each – The Incredible Christmas Store, Pigeon Forge, TN)

Propped up on the mantel is a HUGE wooden sign, also featuring the Tiffany Blue color (Home Goods – $27)

and white cone trees ($2.99 & $3.99 from The Christmas Tree Shops)

back-lit, using a strand of white lights.

Instead of displaying the wreath above the mantel,

I hung it on the fireplace doors.

I ran the extension cord up & behind one of the hanging finials in the garland above it.

(I angled my photo below so you can slightly see the extension cord)

Of course, my trusty white polar bears made a return appearance this year

because where there’s snow, they go! LOL

This room was simple and quiet, which sets the perfect mood (for me) where I hang out most evenings.

Look at the coziness that one strand of background lights provides!

And here’s a daytime view,

including my bargain comfy chair!

(Helpful Shopping Hint… always, always check the scratch & dent area of furniture stores because sometimes,

they include furniture colors that haven’t sold well, like a red or yellow leather chair.

My sincerest thanks to all the folks who passed up this cutie a few years ago!)

This is the perfect place for a snack, of course!

Although I do also love a little bit of whimsy & twinkle

so I nestled my 4 (Hallmark) Caroling Cottages on the shelf below a lighted snow scene.

I hope you’re not tired of seeing these because they’re one of my favorite decorations

so they’ll probably always make an appearance.

And if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you’ll probably remember that little red truck on the shelf.

It was one of my quick & easy, make-ahead summer “Christmas” projects,

where I removed the base from a miniature Christmas tree so it would tuck into the back of a red, toy truck… DONE!

The fifth & final Color of Christmas is the always dramatic “Red” (with white accents)

It was a fun color that coordinated perfectly with my vintage Christmas Snowflake Dishes and of course, SANTA!

I gift-wrapped a box with HO HO HO paper to create an inexpensive & “easy-to-sweep-around” tree base.

And on the tree, the Santa & Snowflake ornaments abound!

The magical (Hallmark) “Here Comes Santa Claus” Tree Topper

displays snowflakes on the ceiling.  Ok, THIS was a splurge 2 years ago, but worth it and by the way, they have lay-a-way!

The curtains were a $9.99 summer bargain from The Christmas Tree Shops

–  outdoor curtains that went on sale.

Just one more way that coming up with a theme early in the year (“The Colors of Christmas”) helped remind me to purchase these.

    

Don’t you love these Possible Dreams Santas… they have the cutest faces!

I’ve collected them, one per year, when they go 75% off at Dillard’s Dept. Store.

And by the way, they are sold with dark & light skin tones, which is awesome…

something for everyone! 🙂

  

Do you remember (over the summer) when I showed you, on Facebook & Instagram, how I created this

CANDY SHOPPE sign out of a decal that I adhered to a $2

unfinished wood sign from Michael’s Crafts clearance?

Look at how nice it looks hanging above this FREE console table!

If you missed my blog post about how I got this table for free, click here.

I saved one snowflake ornament to decorate my rooster lamp with.

Adding little holiday touches is all it takes to add a little holiday spirit to your everyday items.

I know it probably seems as though I am constantly visiting yard & estate sales

to garner so many bargains,

but I only stop maybe 3-4 times each year when my instinct tells me to,

so the lesson here is to trust your instinct! 😉

Adding the Santa hats to the back of my chairs was a last-minute epiphany on the day of filming the video.

And lucky for me, my hubby was willing to stop by the Dollar Tree to grab them for me.

To my surprise, they were even embroidered with “Merry Christmas”.

WOW!  That was a lot for $1.00!

This is not only a fun, decorative chair accent,

but a great way for your guests to get into the spirit of Christmas, if they so choose!

And here’s the rest of the kitchen, spotlighting the color RED…

   

I’m always ready to serve up coffee, cocoa or tea at The Seasonal Home!

Do you recognize this shelf-unit conversion project from last spring?

I feel very lucky to have such a deep kitchen window sill!

The 3 side shelves on the end of my kitchen cabinets…

   

Here’s a fun idea….

if you want to hang something from a cabinet, but don’t want to damage the cabinet with a nail hole,

use a wreath hanger!

 

And check out how my other summer project turned out…

I purchased a piece of large (24″ x 36″)  wall art from Hobby Lobby’s summer clearance for $10.

I removed the print it came with & replaced it with this beautifully whimsical Mary Englebreit print

that I purchased on the internet (as part of a book of her art) for only $7.

This huge, framed holiday art would have cost me $80-$100 in a store

but I created it for only $17.00!

I feel badly that I never got around to uploading last year’s photos for you to enjoy,

but processing them is such an incredibly lengthy task that I just never found the time, thanks to an overwhelming workload.

So I wanted to be sure and gift you with this year’s photos

to use as inspiration and help with your own holiday decorating, either this year or in the future.

I also hope you enjoyed this year’s video and thank you for sharing it with family, friends, neighbors & on your social media.

I hope your holiday season turns out to be wonderfully merry & bright!

Thanks for your friendship, once again, in 2016 and

MERRY CHRISTMAS!