Decorating My Victorian House for Christmas, 2025!

Hello everyone. It's time to start decorating this 200year-old house for Christmas 2025. So, please pour yourself a cup of eggnog spiked with rum or otherwise and come hang out with me. This year's Christmas tree is a 10-ft tall balsom fur that I purchased from a local farm store. Balsom fur emits the pleasant perfume that we all associate with the holiday season. Yesterday, after the tree was delivered, my beloved contractor John put the tree in its stand and then he and I brought the tree into the parlor. Today, John and I will string the tree with lights. Here, John is cutting a slice from the tree trunk. This way, the tree will be able to take up moisture when I pour water into the stand. Here comes the 2025 Christmas tree. Let's see how it looks in the parlor. I should probably mention that my house is not open concept. Every room is equipped with four walls and a door. To protect my Christmas tree and other parlor decorations from curious kitty cats, I simply close the door. My dog and cats are not allowed in this room except when I can supervise them. As you can see, my cat Goldie is fascinated by the Christmas tree lights. And now that the tree is all set up, we can head outside to the garden to collect greens that we can turn into garlands. In the comments below, let me know if you enjoy holiday decorating as much as I do. Just the thought of making the annual mantel garland puts me in the Christmas mood. For this year's mantle, I'm using boxwood, Texas hixai, hemlock, and holly from my garden. For the staircase, I will attempt to make a garland from long boughs of the taxis hexi. Little did I know that when I planted all of this greenery nearly 20 years ago, how valuable it would be at Christmas time. I feel blessed to have this garden. This is my first year using hemlock in Christmas decorations. We will see how it works out. I learned long ago that evergreens will remain fresh and beautiful for several weeks indoors if you first spray them with wiltproof. Wilproof is a natural organic plant protector or anti-transpirant that locks in moisture. Following the directions on the bottle, I will leave the evergreens outdoors in daylight for a few hours after spraying. While we wait for the anti-transpirant to dry, we can run over to the berry farm to pick up a couple of handmade wreaths. Although I make my own mantle and staircase garlands, I always buy handmade wreaths from the berry farm. I like to support local businesses. Now I'm selecting ribbons for the wreath. Here the choices are numerous. I decide the plaid ribbons will work best. I'm just getting set up here so that we can start making our mantle garland. But before we make that garland, I need to measure the mantle. And I'm going to use juke twine. So now I know how long my mantle garland needs to be. And I start by making little bundles of greens. So I have hemlock upright U or taxis hickside and boxwood and that will be one bundle which I'm going to tie with some green wire. I should mention that making holiday decorations is not something I consider a chore. I love doing the job. We are making excellent progress here. Now I want to see if I have made enough bundles to accommodate this juke twine. So I try to arrange the bundles so that each new bundle hides the stem of the previous bundle. And I will add the holly at the very end once the garland is in place. And now that we've come to the end of our rope, I'm going to turn the last bundle in the opposite direction. Let's see how this garland looks on the mantle. I think this mantel garland turned out rather nicely. Now we can add the sprigs of holly. I like to decorate this garland with fresh fruit, which means we need to make a quick run to the local supermarket. I was hoping to find green grapes today, but there were none to be had. And that's okay. We will make do with pears, apples, pomegranates, oranges, a pineapple, and some red grapes. We are home again. My fruit is washed. Let's go decorate the mantle garland. You might be appalled by the fact that I use fresh fruit on my mantle decoration, but I use it every year and it lasts a surprisingly long time. And of course, if any of the fruit goes bad, I will just replace it with other fresh fruit. And now that the mantle is taken care of, we can hang the wreaths. Next project is the staircase garland and we're going to use the taxis hickside that we cut earlier. Wish me luck, please. I normally use green wire to attach my staircase garland. This year, I decided to take the easy route and use black zip ties. The zip ties worked out perfectly. And of course, they will not scratch the antique staircase banister. Hey. Well, I think the staircase garland turned out just great and it was surprisingly easy to do. And of course, my new lamp, a concistador, needs a little decoration, too. Before we can decorate the tree, I want to make some hot chocolate. Real hot chocolate. Now, Lette is here and it is our holiday tradition to drink hot chocolate with whipped cream as we decorate the tree. I think holiday traditions are a very good thing. I need 2 oz of good quality chocolate. And I'm just chopping the chocolate so it will melt quickly. Then I need water. And the recipe for this real hot chocolate is on my website and I can link that in the description below. Then I need a bit of sugar and a pinch of salt. I need to melt the chocolate on the cook top. Three cups of milk. While we're waiting for the hot chocolate, I wanted to show you an adorable ornament that one of my subscribers sent. Her name is Donna Goodwin. She sent me an ornament of little Goldie. So, this will definitely go on the tree today. And thank you very much, Donna. So, this is how we do hot chocolate around here. Bonapeti. Let's go decorate the tree. Most of my Christmas tree ornaments are quite old. Some belonged to my maternal grandmother and others were collected during travels to Europe with my spouse. Every bobble holds a special memory for me. fall in. And from every window shines a light. Somewhere in the distance drums are calling, but no one call tonight. Christmas. Oh Christmas, how we long for you. Christmas, oh Christmas, let your me true. As I walk through the streets of my old home, I hear sleigh bells ringing in the air. There are Christmas. Tonight, love and peace are everywhere. Christmas, oh Christmas, how we long for you. Christmas. Oh Christmas, let your message again. Raise your truth. Well, I'm all for Christmas. All the happy smiles and the wishes. And I want it all from the lights to the mistletoe. Tell me one thing. Is there anything that you're missing? It feels great to have my staircase, my mantle, and my Christmas tree decorated. And now, since many of you have asked about it, I'm pleased to report that Tiara Farm has once again very generously offered to create the Kevin Lee Jacobs make your own granola gift basket this Christmas. And this is what the basket looks like unopened. So, this basket contains everything you need to make my special granola and it weighs a lot. It's very nicely packaged. So, you get a huge bag of glutenfree organic rolled oats, organic pumpkin seeds, organic hazelnuts, organic berry berry mints. This contains all kinds of dried berries, organic shredded coconut, organic coconut oil, nice big jar of it, a big jar of local maple syrup, and my own special blend of coffee. So, these are whole beans. It's a mixture of light, medium, and dark beans that I selected because I felt the combination made the best coffee. And Tiier Farm offers this only at Christmas time. The basket also contains my recipe for granola. And we are going to make this granola using all of these ingredients in probably the next video. But I think this makes a fantastic Christmas present either for yourself or for someone you love. And Tiara Farm is offering the basket at a serious discount. And there's free shipping if you use the code which I will put in the description box below. So, thank you so much for spending time with us today as we started our Christmas decorations. Again, it feels wonderful to have most of the work done. And in the comments below, let me know how your own holiday decorating is coming along. And I can't wait to see you next time. Bye for now, friends.