Christmas Song of the Day: Imagine

Today's song needs no explanation.

Happy Christmas - John and Yoko

Christmas Song of the Day: Here Comes Suzy Snowflake

Today's song is a family favorite. My aunt breaks out her recording of this song when she sees the first snow in upstate New York. She even calls my cousin and plays it through the phone. I hope all of you in the midwest can appreciate this right now.

Suzy Snowflake - Rosemary Clooney

Holiday Traditions When You're Fresh Out of the Nest

Making holiday traditions isn’t easy when you’re a young renter recently out on your own. You probably don’t have a collection of meaningful decorations, and you might not have the time or funds to decorate your house to your liking. There’s one tradition from my parents house that I’m particularly excited to adapt to my house this year: the Christmas wreath for our front door.

I’ve always liked the idea of Christmas wreaths on the front door much in the same way I enjoy candles in the window. Hanging on your front door, the wreath welcomes visitors and passers-by and lets them know Christmas lives at your place. You can personalize it with a few decorations, and it’s a lot cheaper to change the look of a wreath every year than it is to change the look of a tree. And a wreath combines the care put into a tree plus the handmade work of an artisan, so you could make the super cheesy statement that it was made with twice as much love.

For as long as I can remember, my family got our Christmas wreath while visiting my dad’s family for Thanksgiving outside of Syracuse, New York. My grandparents would buy for my dad and each of his three siblings a Christmas wreath from a Henderberg’s Christmas Tree farm on the outskirts of Rome, New York. The Henderbergs went to church with my dad’s family, and my dad still remembers going to their farm when he was a kid to get milk and eggs on Sundays. The next generation of Henderbergs started a Christmas tree farm, and Mrs. Henderberg makes the wreaths. The wreaths are gorgeous, last over two months easily, and only set you back $25 each.

Even though our family has changed quite a bit in the last five years, my dad’s siblings carry on the tradition of the wreaths. This year I knew I wanted a wreath for my house, so I had my family order one for me too. My dad, his siblings, and Grandma all went to pick up the wreaths together and visit with the Henderbergs for a little while. I sent my camera along with my dad so he could snag a few pictures of the farm and workshop for me (I’ve visited the farm in previous years).

Henderberg's Christmas Tree Farm in Rome, NY

The Christmas Trees!

Pile 'O Wreaths

Mrs. Henderberg aka the wreath making master and my uncle holding a decorated wreath (I didn't get any decorations on mine because I wanted to make my own)

I’m pretty thrilled with my gorgeous/cheap artificial tree and my outdoor garland, but I think my wreath is by far my most sentimental decoration. Whenever I approach my front door, I will think about the great times I had with my cousins, the new additions to our family, the people that we miss dearly, and the many wonderful times to come.

To decorate the wreath, I laid it flat on a table and attached a simple red bow and a few ornaments left over from my garland project so that the wreath tied in with the garland. Initially, I thought about covering the wreath in ornaments the way I did with my garland, but then I realized that 1) the wreath really did look beautiful in its undecorated state and 2) my whole front porch was so covered with ornaments that the wreath needed to be slightly understated in order to stand out from the rest of the decorations.



My gorgeous undecorated wreath

I made my own bow using some $5 wide, wired ribbon from Michael’s and floral wire, and also used wire to attach it to the wreath. Bows are actually quite easy to make, and I plan to post a tutorial on making them in the next few days. I used floral wire to secure a cluster of three ornaments and a cluster of two ornaments on either side of the bow.

My beautiful wreath on our dog ugly door (oh the joys of renting)

Whether you have a strong connection to a Christmas wreath or not, a wreath can be a nice alternative to a real tree if you lack the room/funds for one, or you just don’t want to deal with a real tree. There are many opportunities to get one from a Christmas tree farm or a local tree lot.

Even if a wreath isn’t your thing, think about one of your family’s small-scale traditions and tailor it to your life and your home – it will certainly help you feel at home during the Holidays, especially if you’re away for the first time.

Christmas Song of the Day: Well Hello, Nick Lachey

In honor of tonight's season premiere of the Sing Off, today's Christmas song features host Nick Lachey and the rest of his late 90s beloved boy band crew serenading us to a catchy pop tune.

This Gift - 98 Degrees

From Regular to Rudolph in 5 Minutes

When I saw this reindeer at Michael's, I fought the urge to buy it. But after the third trip to Michael’s seeing this guy, I couldn’t hold back any longer. I picked up this dapper fellow and brought him home with me. It wasn’t too bad since he was only about $4.  

Before: Regular Reindeer

When I sat him on our coffee table, I couldn’t help but think he was looking, well, kind of lame. To solve this cheese-ball reindeer problem, I removed the bow and bell from the deer’s neck. Then, I cut a red ornament and wire from a cluster of small ornaments and stuck the wire into this guy’s nose.

Instant Rudolph!

After: Super fun Rudolph

I think this guy is looking more contemporary sans silver collar and bell. I love how he’s a playful addition to some of our other tinsel elements that I’ve included in our holiday décor.

If you see something at the store that you love but see one small thing that you’d like to change, don’t hesitate to buy the item and change it at home. It could easily become one of your favorite pieces!

Christmas Song of the Day: One for the Chilly Weather

It's gotten awfully chilly here in the DC area, and considering western New York and the Midwest are currently being burried under pretty thick blanket of snow, today's song is meant to warm you up a bit.

I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Gorgeous Garland on the Cheap

Let the Christmas decoration posting begin! I've been hard at work crafting and decorating my first grownup pad, and I plan to post as much about it as possible.

I absolutely love the Outdoor Ornament Pine Garland from Pottery Barn, but at $59 for 60”, that wasn’t happening. So, like I do when I see something I love but can’t afford, I decided to try to make it myself for a more affordable price.  

Super beautiful garland via Pottery Barn

Like the inspiration garland, I chose to use the type of garland with branches on it so that the ornaments could nestle among the branches. I actually decided to put my own spin on the garland by choosing to use pre-lit garland, so that my creation would illuminate our house at night.

A few tips on selecting artificial garland:

•  A forest green color tends to look more life-like than the bright green stuff. Not that trees can’t be bright green, but I find that that the bright green color makes the texture of the artificial material more apparent and thus less lifelike. 
• Garland with flimsy branches will be in expensive, but if you’re planning to attach anything to the garland or even put it outside, you’re better off finding garland with sturdy branches. You especially don’t want the branches themselves to come off of the garland. 
• If you plan to wrap your garland around something, you should probably select the rope-style garland without branches because pine garland can be too wide to wrap around the spokes of a railing.
• Pre-lit garland saves a lot of money and ensures that the lights are attached to the garland with slightly more depth.
• If you prefer not to purchase pre-lit garland, garland lights will illuminate your garland far better than a regular string of lights will. Garland lights have are a string of light clusters, rather than a string of one light after another.  

Craft stores and nurseries often sell very nice garland, but since I wanted mine for outside use and I was on a budget, I headed to Target and Walmart. I ended up selecting Walmart’s 9-foot pre-lit pine garland for because it frankly felt sturdier and looked more realistic than Target’s. And at $10 each, it was significantly more affordable than Michael’s 9-foot garland that was selling for $25.  



Walmart 9 ft Pre-Lit Garland -- $10

 While I prefer the solid color ornaments on the PB garland, I was hard-pressed to find sets of solid plastic ornaments at less than $5 for 18 ornaments, and I knew that I would need quite a few ornaments for each one. I found this set of 101 red, white and silver shatter-resistant (read: plastic) ornaments by Martha Stewart for Home Depot. The ornaments have kind of a candy cane theme going on, but at $21.95, it would work for what I was trying to create.

One of my favorite parts of the PB inspiration garland was the mixture of different sized ornaments. To give my garland a little more interest, I bought two boxes of larger red ornaments from Home Depot and four boxes of little red and silver ornaments from Walmart.



To make the garland, I first “fluffed” the garland, bending the branches away from the garland to make it look fuller. You may want to wear garden gloves for this process because working with nice garland can really cut up your hands. I then plugged the lights so that I was able to consider the placement of the lights while attaching the ornaments.

To attach the ornaments, I threaded a 4-inch piece of floral wire through the end of the ornament, secured the wire tightly around the branch, and wrapped extra wire ends around the rest of the branch. I used a pattern of one larger ornament and two medium-sized ornaments to start the process. After I completed the garland with the large and medium ornaments, I went through the entire piece and randomly attached the small ornaments. This process of working with this floral wire can also scratch up your hands.

Here’s the breakdown of materials I used for each piece of garland:

Garland

• Railings – 2 pieces of Walmart 9 ft pre-lit pine garland
• Door – 1 piece of Home Depot 25 ft pre-lit pine garland

Ornaments

• Large red ornaments: 1 box of 18 matte, glossy, and glittery Home Accents Holiday ornaments from Home Depot
• Medium ornaments: about 1/3 of a 101 piece set of Martha Stewart Living Ornaments from Home Depot
• Small ornaments: a little less than 1 box of 16 Holiday Time Mini Shatterproof Ornaments
• Floral Wire from Michael’s

I used two lengths of garland on each railing on our front walk. Since 18 feet was way too long (I really needed about 13 feet), I swagged the garland and let the end of it hang along the railing.  I used one long piece of floral wire to attach the garland to the railing in each place, and secured it tightly by crossing the wires over each other and twisting them. After the garland was secure, I folded a longer piece of floral wire in half and wrapped it around the garland and the railing to hold the weight of the garland.

In addition to the garland on the railings, I made another length of garland to put around our door. For this project, I used 25-foot pre-lit garland from Home Depot. It was in a box when I bought it, and I found it to be disappointingly flimsy when I started working with it. But I actually think the flimsier garland was better for over the door because it was lighter and slightly more narrow, making it easier to attach securely.

To attach the garland over the door, I placed a large nail on each corner and one in the center of the door frame. Then I took a long piece of floral wire, folded it in half, and wrapped it a few times around the nail before securing it to the garland. After wrapping it around the garland a few times, I wrapped the excess around the nail. I also took a long piece of wire and looped it loosely around the bottom of the garland through a spoke in the railing to prevent it from blowing around too much on in windy weather.

I am so thrilled with the result! I especially love that the house looks festive during the day and night.

The total cost of this project was:

• Garland:
• 4 pieces of 9-foot garland: $40
• 1 piece of 25-foot garland: $20
• 1 set of 101 medium ornaments: $22
• 3 sets of 18 medium ornaments: $15
• 3 sets of 16 small ornaments: $9
• Floral wire: $2

Total: $108 for 61 feet of garland

Brace yourself: The same amount of the Pottery Barn inspiration garland would’ve cost nearly $720 without tax and shipping. Even when it was on sale (according to my catalog) it would’ve cost $665. So even though $108 sounds like a lot, when you consider it’s over $600 cheaper than the inspiration garland, I’m deeming this one a success.