Bright, Shiny, Rustic Christmas Tree

Happy Holidays!  Hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season!  Welcome back to Day 6 of the 12 Days of Christmas!  If you’d like to view the other 12 Days of Christmas posts, you can start here at Day 1.

Today I’m sharing our Bright, Shiny, Rustic Christmas Tree from our Living Room.  I’ll also share a few of my Christmas tree decorating tips along the way.

This living room has changed just slightly over the last year.  I changed out the drapes for the Fall from an ikat print to simple ivory pleated drapes.  So, this year, I changed up the tree décor just a little bit.  You can see the way the tree looked last year, here.  The tree isn’t drastically different, but this year, it has a little more of a rustic feel.

I decided the wood touches to the tree after I found this wooden tree topper star at Target.  My son loves stars on the top of Christmas trees, so I looked to add one to our Living Room tree.  I loved how this one matched our wood sofa table from World Market. But, I wanted to add more wooden touches to the tree, too.

I found these adorable wood arrows at Michaels for a steal and new that they would be perfect on the tree.  I also pulled a few of the wood ornaments that we had on our dining room Christmas tree.

To decorate our tree, I first set it up and checked all the lights.  After that, I added the Christmas “snow”.  I love the look of flocked trees right now, but I just haven’t decided to actually purchase one.  I’m not sure that I am ready to spend the money for one since we already have several artificial trees that I love.  So, to get that snow covered look, I added a little “snow”, which was actually just poly-fil from Joann. One bag of the poly-fil was enough to do two trees.  Simply pull apart chunks of the poly fil and stuff it into the tree.  I did mine in rows and it definitely filled out the tree!

After adding the “snow” to the tree, my next step was to add ribbon and beads.  I cut my ribbon into about 5 foot sections, then place it randomly on the tree.  I prefer that look to just winding it around the tree.  It makes it easier to place on the tree.

After adding the snow and ribbons, then I start to add the ornaments.  I usually have at least 6 of each type of ornaments for the tree.  I add all of each type at once so it’s easier to spread the different types out around the tree.  Once the unique ornaments are all on the tree, then I add the ornament balls onto the tree.

The rest of the room has some bright, shiny & rustic touches, too.  For the bright, I chose brightly colored blue and green ornaments balls to place in bowls and glass containers around the room.  Shiny was covered with our sequin Merry Pillow and blue glass mini Christmas tree.  A few glittery bottle brush trees also were added.  For rustic, I added a live boxwood wreath from Traders Joes, with a burlap ribbon and a greenery garland for the mantle.

Thanks for joining me on a tour of our Christmas Living Room.  And, do not forget to come back for Day 7.  You are going to be blown away by what I have planned for you this week!  Let’s just say I’m going to be joined by some amazing talent that you won’t want to miss!!