I just love how cozy our house is at Christmastime.

We kept our decorations really simple this year, only putting silver/gold/white ornaments and beads on the tree, snowflakes on the windows, and my favorite Christmas print up. Our apartment doesn’t have a ton of storage space, so we can’t have too many seasonal decorations. The beads on the tree are all ones we have caught at Mardi Gras parades here (most are from our first Mardi Gras in New Orleans).

This year, in addition to small, normal tree lights, we also added some bigger globe lights as well, which gives the tree a really pretty effect. I saw the idea on Vintage Revivals. We used these bulbs from Target. The glass jar candle luminaries on the TV console are from our wedding.

My glittery, metal snowflakes that I hang from the curtain rods might be my favorite part though. I did that last year too (you can see them a bit in this photo from last year). It is the closest thing to falling snow that we get in New Orleans!

On one side of our French doors, I’ve been taping up our Christmas cards (we’ve gotten a few more since I took these pictures). I had visions of clipping them up onto a string with pretty gold, glittery mini clothespins, but that never happened. Maybe next year. It is strange. This is the first year that I haven’t had a Christmas break/vacation. I get a couple days off work, but that’s it. I’ve never worked right up until Christmas Day before. It is definitely different. I miss having those weeks off before and after Christmas to decorate, bake cookies, shop, drink hot cocoa, spend time with family, wrap presents and sit by the fire and crochet. There was always a peacefulness surrounding the slowing down during that time (often because we were snowed in at home). I feel like Christmas this year is so much more rushed without that down time.

In front of that door, I pulled out a basket (that usually lives behind the door with magazines in it), and made it into a mini wrapping station. It is holding all our wrapping paper, boxes, tissue paper, etc.

Speaking of wrapping presents, my wrapping has also been simple this year. Paper from Target and simple stick-on name tags. This doily wrapping I did a few years ago would have been pretty with our simple, neutral decorations this year, but that didn’t happen. They are all just going to be ripped open anyway (and we have to transport most of them back to Illinois with us), so I’m not losing sleep over the fact that there aren’t any bows.

Wrapping up the tour is my favorite Christmas print from Lindsay Letters (she now has it available in white/gold too, here and a canvas print here).

I only put up decorations in our living room, since that is where we spend most of our time when we are at home in the evenings. In past years, I’ve also put decorations in the foyer and some in the kitchen as well. I like the simplicity of our house this year though. Are you a whole-house decorator? Maybe one day when we have our own house and more storage for decorations I’ll decorate more rooms.

Here are a few other past Christmas posts:

Merry Christmas 2010! (the Christmas we got engaged) and Christmas Eve that year (Here is our engagement post in case you are interested)

Christmas Shortbread Cookies (from before I was Gluten-free)

Christmas Decorating (our first year in this apartment)

Doily Christmas Wrapping

Our First Rowland Family Christmas Card (last year)

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P.S. Linking up to The Nester’s 2013 Christmas Tour of Homes