A Christmas tour

I've noticed that this time of year that a lot of blogs I read take their readers on a holiday tour of their Christmas decorations. They all seem to link back to other blogs and everyone's pictures look to me like they came straight out of a design magazine.

My home clearly doesn't look like a designer had a hand in any of the decorating, but it is a pretty good reflection of our family. And while I have no plans to link my blog to any of those other ones, I kind of like the idea of logging my decorations here so that I can remember what I do from year to year. I have a terrible memory & every year when we break out the Christmas decorations I wander around & try to remember where everything goes. Those people with skill at home decoration may view this memory lapse as a chance to mix things up a bit, but for those of us without that particular talent it's like reinventing the wheel every year.

I figured if I actually record what I did this year, it'll help jog my memory a bit for next year. So if the thought of looking at Christmas decorations bores the pants right off of you, please feel free to skip this post & return another day. You won't hurt my feelings, honest.


So with all that in mind, let's being the tour ...


Our good friend KK sent us this nativity set a few years ago. We all love it & it sits in our entry way every year. It's really the only Christmas decoration that you see when you first enter the house. It's small and very simple and is after all what the season is all about. I love it.

Our dining room is really the first room that is really decked out for the holidays that you see when you come to the house.

I think last year I hung a bunch of ornaments from the dining room chandelier. I couldn't really remember which ornaments I hung last year or even how I did it, so this year I scaled back (or maybe I was just lazy) and decided to just hang one ornament. It's working for me though.

The bowl of ornaments on the dining room table. These may or may not be the ornaments that hung from the chandelier last year. In a bout of confusion I decided just to place them in a bowl this year. Festive and lazy yet simple. It seems to be my theme this year.

My parents bought the kids the advent calendar gingerbread house and the train from Kohl's this year. They are a big hit. What's not to love? They are adorable and behind every door is a chocolate surprise.

In the past I always bought those cardboard calendars from Trader Joe's and after the first few days of Advent we'd start forgetting to open the doors each evening. I think there have been years where we threw away the calendars after Christmas and there would still be chocolate inside them. With these new calendars that is not a problem at all. They wake up and immediately want to know if they can have a chocolate. It's all I can do to hold off them off until after lunch.

This is perhaps my kids' favorite Christmas decoration...the nutcracker. He is played with constantly during the season. It may be the best $15.00 I ever spent at Target. Yesterday I had to rescue a small Calico Critters bunny from his mouth. K assured me that the nutcracker wasn't trying to eat the bunny, the bunny was just tired and needed a place to sleep.

One of our favorite holiday traditions is making gingerbread houses. My parents buy the kits every year and my kiddos along with my sister's children spend an evening after Thanksgiving decorating the houses.

Not surprisingly, the kids love eating the decorations as much as they like making the houses. It's the one time of year they have unlimited access to so many sugary items. All of the kids kept looking at us with wonder as we allowed them to eat whatever candy they wanted as long as they continued to work on the houses.

My sister finally had to cut my niece off. All of the other kids had finished their houses and had gone off to play but she had figured out that the longer she decorated the more candy she could eat. Once my sister saw that every ounce of house had been covered with candy my niece was finally cut off from her sugar supply and dismissed to the other room.

It's become our annual kick off to the holidays and we all look forward to it every year.

This is my favorite nativity scene. It was made by C two years ago when he was in Kindergarten. It's just 3 small pots, some wooden beads and three pieces of cloth. Simple. Beautiful.

I probably should have taken this shot when we had an actual fire in the fireplace. It would have looked a bit more festive. The lights on the wreath were the only lights that worked as soon as we plugged them in this year. (Of course now that I think about it, I replaced the light strand on the wreath last year.)

If you are wondering what is up with the piece of wood blocking the fireplace opening, let me introduce you to one of Mr. Crackers' latest inventions. He made it last year. It is a piece of pink foam insulation that is attached to a piece of wood to appease his wife who hated the concept of pink foam as a focal point in the family room. Add a couple of handles so it can be easily removed and ta da... you have a something that is both practical and attractive. It may not look as warm as a fire, but it sure keeps out all those cold drafts when we don't have a fire blazing.

I love these 3 little snowmen on the mantle. My Mom found them in a catalog. So whimsical. They make me smile. Their hats seem to be "wiggled wildly with excitement" (to borrow a line from the Rob Scotten book Splat the Cat).

This picture contains the favorite ornaments of both Mr. Crackers & myself. Mr. Crackers' favorite are the white doves. He found the white "love birds" at Target a couple of years ago. He always puts them toward the top of the tree right next to each other. "These birds are Mommy & Daddy" he told the kids as he put them on the tree. How could I not love this guy?

One of my favorite ornaments is the Christmas moose in the top corner of the picture. He reminds me of the felt ornaments my Mom made that used to decorate our Christmas tree when I was a kid. Well, except for this moose is a bit more goofy. He makes me smile. I'm not sure what it says about us as a couple that our favorite ornaments are so very different. It kind of gives you a glimpse into our lives doesn't it? Poor Mr. Crackers.

All goofiness aside, I also love this ornament. The colors and glitter look beautiful against the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree. And speaking of lights...

Our tree...it actually looks better in the daylight than it does at night. The dark mid-section isn't quite as noticeable. Mr. Crackers and I keep waiting for the bottom strand to burn out too. It hasn't happened yet, but I feel certain it will soon. The only new strand on the tree is on the top and I feel confident it will be the only one still glowing on Christmas morning.

A giant snowman and his many minions. The more I look at this picture the more disturbing I find it. They kind of look like a terrifyingly cheery snow army... I didn't even remember that we had a Christmas salt and pepper collection. I'm not sure how this collection even came into being, but the kids love it, so it's staying.

For the last item on our tour, I need to give you a little bit of a back story. Last year at Sunday school K made a nativity banner. It was made from just 4 pieces of felt on a white background. It very simply conveyed the meaning of Christmas & I loved it. I think though that K found the banner to be a little too simple. So, she corrected the problem this year with a Sharpie she found on the kitchen counter.

I like the smiles on Joseph and Mary's faces. Jesus looks a little bit toothy for a newborn to my eye though. But what do I know? I wasn't there now, was I?

And that (for anyone who actually made it to then end of this post) concludes our tour of the House of Crackers. You'll be happy to know that now that I've done it once, you won't be forced to go on this tour again next year. Since I've taken pictures of where all the decorations go, it will hopefully look about the same from year to year. So we'll all be spared from going through this again. See everyone wins!