Home for the Holidays...

This post was written for Houseblogs.net as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by SC Johnson’s Right@Home.

Decorating for Christmas this year will be a lot different from previous years. We lived in our last house for 11 years, and have only lived in this one for 3 months. I had gotten in the habit of decorating the same way over the years, so it should be fun to figure out how to decorate our new house.

I guess our first step will be to find the decorations! The basement is not yet in any kind of order, although I can see some of our Christmas decorations amid the jumble!
Here are some more decorations. I used to gather all our Christmas-themed stuffed animals and some of the stuffed animals that the kids played with when they were little and I had a collection on the floor in our entryway by the front door.
DH has started to organize down in the basement. He bought 6 sets of these plastic storage shelves to put all the boxes on...
This December will be the third year in a row that I have hosted the women's dinner for our church. Last year I used a snowman theme for the party. I embroidered redwork snowmen on the dinner napkins and had snowman take-home ornaments and chocolates for everyone. The past two years we had 16 women over for the dinner. I had two tables set up in the eat-in kitchen for 8 of the women...
And the other 8 table settings were on the dining room table...
Here is a close-up of one of the place settings...
And another place setting...
This year's theme is a Santa theme, so I've started stitching the Santa napkins...
We have a new mantel to decorate this year. DH's grandmother made all of us felt stockings when she was still alive and we always hang those for Christmas. I think they will look good on our new mantel...
A couple of years ago I decided to gather together all the Santas that we have collected over the years, instead of having them spread around the house. They made a nice display...
Here is a close-up of some of my Santa tree ornaments...
The other thing I do to prepare for the holiday is to sew gifts. Here is a purse that I made for DH's niece a couple of years ago, along with a matching mirror...
And I made one for her sister also...
Of course, we have to decorate the tree! We haven't decided where to put the tree in our new house yet.
I posted this quilt a couple of days ago. I'm glad to have it done so I can use it to decorate the house this year...
And I have to find my Christmas purse, because it just won't seem like Christmas without it! The reindeer's antlers are lighted and flash on and off!
I know it isn't even Thanksgiving yet, but Christmas is coming (and I have to start early because I make so much by hand). What are you going to do to get ready for Christmas this year?