I added a little detail to the gold cloth on the mantel by using the hot glue gun to attach a bead trim to the hem. It added a nice extra detail.

The only thing left to do in the living room is the large tree. It has to wait until we can make popcorn and cranberry strings. We usually do that the week of Thanksgiving, so we can decorate the tree Thanksgiving afternoon. I do have eight bags of cranberries in the fridge, ready and waiting!

~~Rhonda

By the time I had printed my storage list and made it to the living room, the girls already had the mantle decorations down, wrapped and stored in the box. One down…103 to go.

Here’s a picture to show how we use books to create varying heights under the nativity display. After the books are placed, all are covered with a large piece of gold, star-spangled tulle. Of course, this picture is working backwards…we’ve taken the nativity down, the tulle has been removed and the books are on their way back to the library shelves.

The nativity set is stored carefully wrapped in bubble wrap.

We separated the 16 boxes into stacks…those needed for the tree, those needed for the garlands, and those needed for the rest of the room.

Then it was time to remove the tinsel from the tree. This year we had trouble finding tinsel, so we saved a box full for next year, just in case.

We took a break at 3:00 and met again at 4:00. The living room tree is the biggest part of taking Christmas down in the living room. The tinsel had been removed, so we moved on to taking the ornaments from the tree, sorting them onto storage box lids on the dining room table. The ornaments that belong to DH and to me were placed on two lids, then DD#1′s, DD#2′s and DD#3′s followed down the row.

From there, we turned to DH for help. He’s the ladder climber. He finished the top of the tree…took off the last of the ornaments, removed the beads and popcorn strings. Then he moved on to the garlands over the arches and the windows.

All that’s left of Christmas in the living room is the big tree with the lights still on it and the small tree on the box grand piano.

Feels good to have so much done!

~~Rhonda

We hang our stockings on the staircase in the front hall. Family members at our house on Christmas morning get a stocking. All are expected to provide some stocking stuffers for everyone else. Family members who are not home on Christmas morning, receive a small gift-wrapped present to be placed in their stockings at home.

The newel post on the staircase…I hot-glued all the fruit, berries, balls, etc., on the garland.

To the left, as you walk into the living room from the front hall is the nativity set on the old box grand.

The large angel watching over the nativity was a gift from DH several Christmases ago.

The nativity was given to me by my mother years ago. It was painted by her brother’s SIL.

For the mantel, I framed Christmas cards that show the events of Christ’s birth.

Standing in front of the fireplace, looking into the dining room…

The dining room table was set with Christmas china for the house tour. We folded napkins into elfin boots. So cute! I’ll have to take pictures and write a post with directions for you. Here are directions for another elf boot found online.

Later, more pictures from the rest of the house. ~~Rhonda

We switched the office rug and the living room. The office rug looks great with the sofa. And the living room rug looks great in the office! Worked out well!

~~Rhonda

It’s all organized by box and by room. Each box decorates a particular part of the room. For the living room, two boxes hold the decorations for the top of the old square grand piano. One box has the mantel decorations in it, two have garlands for the arches, and there are four boxes of ornaments for the tree.

DH also brought down the living room tree. I put lights on the top part of the 9′ tree. DH will have to lift it onto the trunk, then I can begin on the middle branches. Last year, we decided this was the year to put all new lights on the tree, as several strings were very old and faded.

The lights on the top of the tree will stay on the tree when it goes back into storage after Christmas. The rest of the branches come off (with lights removed) and are stored in large black garbage bags. We have a room in the attic dedicated to the storage of the trees and branches. DH takes some of the trees to storage intact (with lights still on and decorations removed), but the 9′ trees are too wide and too heavy to take up the stairs and through the doorways.

I’ll put more lights on the tree this evening. It takes about six WOman hours to put all the lights on each of the two 9′ trees, one in the living room and one in the library.

Today I make chocolate creams, chocolate raspberry truffles, and baked Sugar Cookie Crisps. I also painted two coats on the laundry room door. One more coat and it can be installed.

~~Rhonda

I didn’t know I could use tinsel on an artificial tree until my sister Margaret told me five or six years ago that she always uses it on her own tree. We had a cut tree in the living room until I found that out. Then we went to artificial, which I had wanted to do for some time as we decorate so early and leave the tree up so long. I had stayed with using a cut tree so I could use tinsel.

In this picture, I’ve started taking the tinsel off the bottom of the tree…grabbed it by handfuls, saved some just because it came off so well, and the rest went into the trash.

After the tinsel was removed, I took off the ornaments. I store plain balls in a cardboard box without wrapping them in tissue. I’ve never had a problem with this method. I used a storage box lid to hold the other ornaments as they were removed. Then they were carried to the dining room table where they were sorted.

At the table, I had a lid for each of the three kids and for my and DH’s ornaments. When they came from the tree, I sorted them onto the ends of the lids…DD#3 at the far end, then DD#2, DD#1, and DH and my ornaments at this end of the table. After sorting all the ornaments I had carried from the tree, I stopped long enough to wrap the ornaments in tissue paper and place them into cardboard boxes which were also sitting on the storage lids. Each cardboard box has the name of the child whose ornaments are in that box. They have always enjoyed putting their own ornaments on the tree, so I have always kept them stored separately.

I don’t wrap unbreakable ornaments with tissue. I like to have a box or two of ornaments I can hand to children who want to “help.” They like having an entire box of ornaments they can put up without constantly being told “be careful!”

I did tier one – what I could reach sitting down, and tier two – what I could reach standing up. DH did tier 3 – what had to be reached from the ladder. BTW, we love our Little Giant ladder! It’s a wonderful tool for “this old house.” I gave it to DH for Christmas several years ago and we are constantly commenting on how glad we are to have it.

Once the ornaments were removed, we took the red beads and the popcorn and cranberry strings off. The beads are stored in a large zippered storage bag. They are thrown in together and never tangle, so they are easy to store. The popcorn and cranberry strings are pitched. We tried putting them outside for the birds a few times, but never found any interest in them, so now we throw them away.

Then it was time to remove the lights. Most years, we remove the lights from the lower four branches, remove the branches for storage in black bags (because the tree is too wide to fit through the attic door otherwise), and leave the rest of the tree intact. This year, we removed all the lights because many of the strings are old and fading. They need to be replaced. We were able to buy the commercial grade of light strings after Christmas for 75% off. A great deal and we will use those to replace the lights on this tree and the library tree next year.

I wrap the lights around my hand and store each string in a plastic shopping bag. I begin wrapping at the female end (the end without the prongs) so the male end (prongs) are on the outside of the roll. That makes it easy to plug the string in next year to check it, without unwinding the entire string.

This year, we took the tree completely apart, then replaced the branches. Some were obviously out of order (not sure how that happened!) which gave the tree an odd shape. As we removed each layer, I lined up the bundles in the front hall, with layer #1 at the front door and coming down the hall in order. We checked each layer to be sure all the branches were there and that all the branches in each layer matched. Now the tree is in good order and looks better.

With the tree down, DH was able to remove the window garlands and that was the end of “undecorating” the living room.

This is the two foot tall box DH made for the 9′ tree to stand on. The round things are sliders which make moving the tree across the floor very easy.

And now the living room is back to “normal.” It looks bare after all the decorations are removed, but now we’re ready for our 4H meeting tomorrow evening!

~~Rhonda