Faking Christmas

So I'm still not feeling it.... but I've decided on the fake it, til you make it (AKA grit your teeth, and bulldoze, thru it) approach to this most WONDERFUL time of the year...

We put up the tree Monday, breaking with tradition of waiting until Alex's birthday. I felt like we needed an update and dejunking of our decorations...So I started by throwing out anything broken, lame or things I never liked ( I even turfed a few lame school ornaments, don't report me)....Man, we have collected a lot of stuff in twenty plus Christmas'....

I then only put up stuff we had room for...and only put about half the ornaments on the tree. I was only a teeny sad, as I set aside all of  Holly's ornaments her Grandma has made since her first Christmas...She'll have her own tree this year....It's not a bad thing, just different....

I then started making stuff (it's the only thing that keeps me sorta not crazy)... using materials I already had....I want to eventually have a more rustic/simple look to our Christmas ....

A banner...(for some reason I have only been able to find Dallyn's stocking??? oh well...I guess Christmas could be considerable cheaper this year ;)....

A table runner...I think it still needs something...maybe stamped or embroidered snowflakes....

A tree skirt...our other one had finally fallen apart...I'll probably change the trees some (next year)

Fabric scrap garland...it was super simple, used up a ton of my scraps, didn't take that long and was next to nothing to make (one half this size on Etsy was $42, are you crazy?)....

 

And this is a total pinterest hack, we wrapped plastic candy canes from the dollar store in fabric and added a twine bow....supper quick, although Bailey and I don't have finger prints left (hot melt glue guns are deadly)....

 

Not bad considering we are not even in December yet :) I still struggle with Christmas, but no one can accuse me of not trying, this year :)