Neutral Christmas-decorate with me!

This Christmas, I decided that I wanted to move the furniture around to create a more open space because we have a long open area between our kitchen and our living room, and I felt that having the couch sort of facing the TV like this was kind of cutting that area separately from the rest of the space, and I thought it would be really nice to just kind of open it up for the holidays. I knew I was going to have to move the seat in the left-hand corner and that tree anyway, so I figured let's play around and just kind of change it all up. I love to move furniture around every now and then. It just feels super refreshing and a nice change, so I was excited to see this come to life. So mind you, I had to do this on my own, not because my husband wouldn't help me, but because I knew that if I tried to make this request, he would be a little hesitant to the change, and so I wanted to surprise him and let him see the finished results. So I was able to move it a little bit inch by inch, vacuuming as I went. No babies were harmed in this process, and eventually the couch made its way to my desired position, and I was very happy with the results. Also, I'd like to note that moving the couch to this position did kind of cut off the kitchenette play area that my daughters have there in the corner, so I ended up moving that kitchenette area to the downstairs playroom as well because they have additional toys there already, so I decided to move that and kind of clear out that space to open it up and not have it look so cluttered. This season, I really wanted to focus on keeping it a little bit more minimal with the decorations and focus on a lot of green and brown colors. This wreath I got from Target. These small little wreaths I thought were super cute from Hobby Lobby, and this long garland was from Hobby Lobby as well. The texture of it was amazing, and I just had to get two of them actually. This garland was from Target that's in the box. It's six foot, and I thought this would be perfect on my stairwell. One of the most important parts about putting out that tree is fluffing up all those leaves. They have been compressed for 11 months or 10 and a half months in storage, and so now the tree, to look fuller, the trick is to fluff it. I like to fluff all the leaves as I add each layer of the tree so it's not so overwhelming all at once. It just seems to help me mentally to not get overwhelmed by all the fluffing that needs to be done, but it's so worth it because it will make the tree look so much more realistic. I didn't end up using these dark green ornaments because they were shedding everywhere, so I just kept it to brown, gold, white, and like a taupe-y color, which ended up beautiful anyway. Are you gonna put it? I secured the garland with zip ties, and then I taped it in the middle, and I fluffed it up a little bit. It turns out that this garland was a little bit on the shorter side, so I ended up buying an additional garland that had a little extra, or sorry, pre-lit garland that was nine feet, which added more volume and extended all the way to the top, and then I added our little stockings. Since we don't have a fireplace, I ended up hanging them on the stairwell. I had turned this cookie jar into a candle by dropping a candle inside, and it turned out super cute. I had seen these little porcelain houses that you put a tea light in in several locations, and I just finally thought I really need to get these. They're super minimalistic design and versatile. You can really use them any time of year, although they do remind me of Christmas. I'm really pleased with them, and they just add a extra light ambience to the decor. I added these cute little bows that I got off Amazon. I'll link them in my description, and I added them to the candlesticks as well as a few other places, but it just adds such a Christmassy vibe. I found these stems at Hobby Lobby. I really liked them because they were simple. They didn't have any color, which I wasn't doing any reds this year, so I liked that it had the brown acorns and the green foresty pine. It was perfect for my arrangement, and this beautiful candle from Home Goods. I think it came together really nice. I have a small little coffee nook here. Most of the stuff is hidden away in shelves, but I have a little space here to add some Christmas decor. I added this little wooden calendar that I got from Target, actually, in the $5 section. I thought it went really well with my minimal decor. Then I had this cake stand here that I added one of those bows to and filled it with gingerbread mug toppers for a fun little festive addition to the coffee every morning. Decorating the cabinet in my entryway is one of my favorite places to add festive decor. It's just the first thing you see when you walk in, and it can just be so impactful. Here I added the book that's always been there, a beautiful dark green woodsy candle followed by this really cute gingerbread house that lights up. Then I added these little lanterns with the green bows, just keeping it cohesive with the dark green there and the contrast with the white and dark green. Then, of course, my little candles here, which add another fun little element. These are the box we have to work with for the Christmas decor. I'm going to put the tree up. I think probably going to do the tree right here in between the TV and the bar because I feel like it's a perfect focal point right there. We'll move the chairs around a little bit and it's going to be perfect. So let's get to decorating.