Our home at Christmas

During the month of December I have gradually added more Christmas decorations and touches to our home. Mr C and I are going to be at home for the majority of Christmas this year, and rather than being with family on Christmas day, we are spending it with friends. We are waking up on Christmas morning in our own home for the first time so I wanted to make things a little more special for us. I'm so used to seeing my parent's and Mr C's parent's gorgeous decorations and Christmas touches in their homes over Christmas that I wanted to make our home feel a little different. I wanted to start our own new traditions during December, and put a little bit of extra Christmas joy into our home. I've shown you our tree, so here are the other touches of Christmas round our home this year, a mix of old and new.

In early Autumn I bought these NOEL letters from poshgraffitti.com. I love the arrangement with my corkscrew hazel twigs that I sprayed white earlier this year. The wooden letters are a real investment piece that I will have forever and will always enjoy displaying. I've waited a long time to get them and they are really worth it.

This week I bought a small poinsettia to add a traditional Christmas plant to our home. I've never had one before, I've only seen large poinsettia plants and we don't have any where to display it in all it's glory. This small one from Waitrose is perfect and looks really pretty on our blanket box. I love the delicate leaves and elegant shapes they create.

I normally add this red snowflake decoration to our tree but this year I wanted to make more of a feature of it and remind myself of a project I wanted to make. One of my earliest memories of primary school was making paper snowflakes. I love the intricate shapes that you can cut from paper. This year I was planning to create white crochet snowflakes for our home that I could display every year in our window. However time has run away with itself and the project hasn't started. Hopefully by next Christmas I will have the crochet skills and confidence to tackle the project.

This year I was kindly given some holly from a friend's garden that I have added to the top of our mirror. I love the natural textures from the wood and holly with the pretty white cotton lights.

This year I decided to invest in a wreath for our front door. I have always admired wreaths on doors, it sets the scene and welcomes you in from the cold. For a number of years I have wanted to make my own wreath but I decided to take the pressure off and invest in a beautiful Gisela Graham berry wreath with a reindeer wreath hook. I added the gingham bow myself. I love it and it makes me smile every time I enter and leave the flat. Next year I may add some little bits of ivy and a few sprigs of holly to make it a little different. It is something I will always display in our home, even if in a couple of years I decide to make my own..

This week I added my Christmas cross stitch to the wall above our tree. I finished stitching it last December and wrote about it in a blog post. I followed a pattern from CrossStitcher magazine (issue 244) and this is the second year I have displayed it in our home. I always had the intention to frame it in a white frame and mount, however have grown to love it being displayed in a plain embroidery hoop. This year I added a gingham ribbon bow to the top of the embroidery hoop. I love this handmade decoration, it reminds me that these special handmade projects really add an individual touch to our home.

This week I'm decorating my Christmas cake and have spent quite a bit of time this month looking for cake tins that will suitable to store and transport it in. I treated myself to these gorgeous Emma Bridgewater tins in the Starry Skies pattern, which is one of my favourite patterns (along with the Pink Hearts!). I wanted storage that I loved, that would match our home, and be really practical to store the cake, my home made mince pies and future baking projects for many years to come.

When I lived at home one of the traditions my Mum and Dad started was to use Christmas patterned plates. I decided earlier in the Autumn that I wanted Mr C and I to have some special Christmas themed plates of our own to start our own tradition for December. I wanted to have something that we could use throughout December and so after putting away money each month I invested in some more Emma Bridgewater pottery (I'm a little bit addicted!). I bought us two mugs, two plates and a Christmas tea towel in the Christmas Town pattern. I love them and use them everyday.

I love all of our touches that we have gradually added to our home over the past month. This year is a different Christmas for us so I wanted us to use this time to start making our own traditions and make even more of an effort around our home.

I've used my week off before Christmas to get organised. The cards are posted, the gifts are wrapped, mince pieces are made and the house is tidy. I'm planning to ice our Christmas cake today and thi is the last big job to complete. I hope to spend the run up to Christmas making a few handmade things for our home, preparing a few things for Christmas day and continuing with my December Daily album that I started as a new tradition this year.

I hope that you are having a good December and are enjoying your Christmas decorations and Christmas touches around your home.