Slowly but surely our house is getting decorated for Christmas. I used to do it in one (long) Saturday, but in the past few years I have been doing bits and pieces from day to day. My favorite thing this year are these battery-operated candles. (Finally, battery-operated candles that “flicker” realistically and don’t look fake.) I bought mine in Fulton, IL at Sweet Woodruff. Cutest little gift shop with no website! I did tell her that if she ever decided to sell things online, I’d be a good customer. 🙂 I bought both 
red and white candles there. She has been using hers in the shop since May, using the same (2) C batteries. And the thing I like most? They have a timer. You can have them run 4 hours on and 20 hours off (or 8 /16 ). That means that I don’t have to go around each night to turn them on and off. They come on at 6:00 and they go off at 10:00, like clockwork. I’ll have to keep them around after the holidays. They look great flickering away on the mantel and in the dining room.
This window is another one of my favorite things this season, because it was fun to decorate. Is this an odd thing to have in the dining room? It fits right in with the old teak/oak/pine furniture in our house. I found it at an antique store for $15. I keep thinking I will re-finish it, but we hung it up as-is for awhile. I’ve seen old windows for sale before, but I liked this one because it had a ledge for stuff.
The corner cabinet is one that has been in our family for a long time. My grandparents bought a couple of these as kits from Sears back in the 1930’s and put them together. It provides another shelf for me to decorate! I found another battery-operated candle at Target for that corner. Not as nice as the Sweet Woodruff ones, which are made from wax and look like a real candle, but still a fun one for the holidays.
Did you find anything new (or old and repurposed, like my window) to use in your holiday decorating this year?
Sheri triednewholidaycookieslastnight,recipeonFriday!
It looks beautiful Sheri!
All of my decorations are old. As long as I can remember, if I received a Christmas decoration, I would take out my Sharpie and write who it is from and the year on the bottom. I don’t know what made me do it, but now, many of the gift givers have passed away and I am thankful that their names are on the bottom of their gifts.
Unfortunately, I did drop an old Christmas ornament this year. It was from my late great-grandma and I was sure upset with myself!
Huh, do the electronic candles with timers have a brand name on them anywhere? The fact that they have a timer makes them sound really useful!
I love your window! It certainly is NOT odd in the dining room. It is perfect. I have never seen one with a ledge. You are lucky that you found this.
That window is fantastic!!! I love it!!! And no, nothing really new this year. Though I am going for the Christmas tree tonight. Might be repurposing the kitten as an ornament. 😛 She and the big cat are up to something, and it’s making the dog nervous.
I love the window w/ the ledge – I wouldn’t finish it, it looks lovely the way it is and fits in perfectly with the room 🙂
I found the battery operated mini tea light sized candles during Halloween, but I should find those pillar candles that flicker. I love that they have a timer!
I have two ivory wax battery operated pillar candles with timers and LOVE them. I have one in a dining room window and the other one in the living room. I have them set to go on at 4:30 when it gets dark so I have nice candle light to come home to. I want to get more – I love the timer feature. The one in the living room “tells me” when it’s time to stop knitting and go to bed 🙂 I can see it go off out the corner of my eye and know what time it is 😀 The only new things I have for decorations are a small raggedy ann type angel doll and a scruffy teddy bear that I will just keep out year round as they aren’t “really” Christmas decorations. I like to look for decorations I can use year round in different rooms of my house. One year I bought tree decorations that are a black metal heart and also a barn star but I keep them hanging on shelf peg racks with hand dipped candles and an old key. I LOVE your little birds!!!!!!
I do put some of the old shiny but scuffed red ornaments from my childhood in a glass bowl. I used my large Longaberger Holly platter this year with 3 red martini shakers that I got free someplace and the mini martini glasses from Crate and Barrel. If I have one drink for Christmas season, I guess this will be it 🙂 Godiva white chocolate liquer with raspberries! I wish we could all see each other’s decorations!
I would also like to find the candles with timers….love that window. We seem to have some similar tastes. When we built this house, I put in a semi circular window (friends thought it was strange) in the dining room, so I wouldn’t need curtains and so I’d have that wide ledge on it. If I find the candles, I have the same candle holders and could use them there without burning the house down 🙂
Thank you for the window into your thoughts and your home. Blessings.
I have some old glass ornaments I found at an antique shop years ago. The paint on them is pretty worn, but I hung them in our front window this year, kind of staggered. Adds some festiveness there around the tree, which you can see from outside right in the middle window. I decided this year to try and just be creative with things I already own instead of buying new decorations. To that end, I decorated the top of our big entertainment cabinet with fresh pine boughs, wove white twinkle lights through them, and then sat some large, glittery Christmas balls among them…those balls are ones my mom made when I was little. They’re just styrofoam balls covered in beads and sequins affixed with straight pins, but I always LOVED how they shimmered on the tree…they’d spin around and catch the light. She gave them to me several years ago. We have a narrower tree now, so they don’t fit well on it, but I love finding ways to use them. They hold happy memories for me.
I love the red chickens dressed for winter! it all looks fantastic. window ledge is ideal as is. Love the idea of those battery candles, wish she would sell them online. my lone repurposed decorating item is a plain red frame that once held a mirror, broken long ago, now I drape greenery over the frame for an instant rectangular wreath.
New for me are the battery operated candles too. Mine look like pine cones but don’t have timers. Next year – a pre-lit tree. I’ve seen some really nice ones. It takes me a few days to decorate my house – tons of ornaments, an angel fireplace mantle. stuff everywhere. One of my faves is a set of those little angel candle holders that spell out NOEL. I have them spell out anything but NOEL and get a chuckle out of watching guest rearrange them.
so sweet! Not to many old decorations as a house fire destroyed family heirlooms but all are handmade by friends and family . Do not refinish your window shelf, it looks perfect as is! I have been planning on making one like it but with a mirror where the glass would be, someday!
I haven’t even started decorationg yet…yikes! I have been busy trying to get a room ready for my oldest son who will be moving back in with us for a while. The scary part is that I have to have everything ready both for his return and for Christmas by the 17th because that is when he comes home and my husband and I are going away for a few days starting that weekend. The screaming inside my head is ramping up a bit…can’t wait for all this to be done, because it is all happening during my busiiest time of the year at work.
Christmas trees (the fake ones) are so different now. When the kids were little, it was always going out to the great outdoors and finding that “perfect” tree, cutting it down, and then spending hours putting up the lights and ornaments. Nothing wrong with that, but I was the only person doing it. Everyone enjoyed the tree, but noone wanted to help set it up. We’ve also had an artificial tree which I really didn’t like very much, so it was only here for a few years. This year we invested in a 9 foot Blue Spruce artificial tree. I know, I know, it’s not real, but much less mess,….and it came in four sections with lights already on it. Plus my husband set it up (in about 10 minutes) and I put the ornaments on, so now everybody’s happy.
I haven’t even started decorating yet. We have one more room to paint this weekend (priming tomorrow, because I’m too tired tonight) and then I can move things around and clean and decorate.
You have a flair for Christmas decorating, just like you do for decorating Loopy Central! I love the battery-operated candles–may have to get some. But what I really love are the Sears DIY kit corner cabinets assembled by your grandparents.
I love those candles! I got two of them as a gift from someone a couple of years ago. They’re sage green, and are made of wax as well- and they have a wonderful eucalyptus/mint scent! Mine are from Brookstone.
I haven’t done much decorating this year, but my favorite decorative item is a ceramic Christmas tree with little peg lights. It’s really awesome- my grandmother made it in a ceramics class. The peg lights remind me of a Lite Brite from the 80s- but they look like tiny bulbs so they’re cuter. 🙂
Holiday decorating is only in theory right now.
Last month we decided to make the kitchen more efficient so we bought 2 big oak bookshelves to put the cookbooks on, as well as my heavy cast iron and the serving Fiesta ware. That is still in flux, and everything that was IN the old shelves is now in the dining room, so the plants that were in the dining room are in the living room.
But we have an Advent calendar. Butter is softening for cookies, and the Wigilia (Polish Christmas Eve 13 course supper) is starting to come together.
I like the way you decorate your house, as well as the simple furniture. Lovely.
Our Christmas goal this year is no stress, so I guess that is our decorating plan.
I’d like more info on those candles!
I haven’t found any old items to add to my decorations, but I do have 2 ceramic angels that were my grandmother’s. She used to work in a florist’s shop and I think that’s where she got them. I asked my mom if I could have them before she passed away a couple of years ago. They have coats on with hoods (one red and one white) and are holding wreaths and packages. I think they’re Norco? I’ve seen them on eBay-some identical and some similar.
Actually that would be Napco, not Norco, if anyone is interested in checking them out. 🙂
I love your window frame. That would be such fun to decorate all through the year.
I jsut wanted to say – if you ever find another window wit a ledge like the one in your dining room – please pick it up for me! How fun to decorate that for all the different seasons/holidays!
My husband and I moved into our house on December 21, 1996. I remember telling him if I couldn’t even figure out which box my underwear was in, there would be no chance of me doing any decorating for Christmas. The next morning, I bought a little 24″ tabletop tree at a discount store. It had colored lights, some gold beaded garland and cute little wooden ornaments. It was our Christmas tree that first year in this house. When my mother saw it, she went out and bought one for herself – this one having little apples and bells for ornaments. Three years later, she passed away, and I got all the ornaments which I packed up in big Rubbermaid containers with stuff I didn’t often use. I forgot about it all until yesterday when I decided to go on a treasure hunt and found those two trees. It didn’t take me long to have them set up – one on the cedar chest in our bedroom, one on the kitchen table. My husband, who is a fan of the dreaded colored lights, adores them. I adore them too, for now he can’t complain about my using only white lights on the “official” tree. 🙂
I make “Board Trees” for gifts. They are great for a dark corner or to put on a porch. I have three to deliver this weekend.
BOARD TREE
1 – pine board (5′ X 6″)
Green paint (dark like garland)
1 – garland
100 count Christmas light (small twinkles)
1 – thick board with slit groove to hold the tree
Cut the top of the board to resemble a tree top ( ^ ). Sand the board to remove the rough edges. Paint green on all sides. Unfold the garland and fluff it out.
Starting at the top staple the garland in place. Take the garland down the board stapling in place to hold the garland on the board. String the lights from the top to the bottom once the garland is in place.
Place tree in the holder and plug in the lights. Viola!
Terri
Love the window! I’ll have to check out the shop in Fulton! Since our house is in the middle some remodelling so minimal decorating this year. We are heading to the family farm this weekend to decorate the new house for Christmas for the first time. This should be exciting, since other family members have sent items for us to use and we are taking some of our own.
Love your decorations (and the cool window!). Beautifully done — I need to get decorating today — YIKES! Christmas is in 2 weeks—where DOES the time go?!?
Our decorating is done and I’m planning on just enjoying the next two weeks. I bought an ivory colored candle with the timer at Gretel’s in Lafayette, IN. I love it and plan on getting a couple of more.
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