Kari Skelton

  • Shop
    • My Style
    • Kids Style
    • Gift Ideas
  • At Home
    • Recipes
      • Snacks
      • Treats
      • Meals
      • Cocktails
    • Home Style
    • DIY Projects
    • Gardening + Outdoor Design
    • Seasonal Decor
    • Everything Christmas!
  • Motherhood
    • Parenting Chats
    • Self-Care
    • Time-Savers
  • Local Love
    • Local Love List
    • Shop Local
    • Eat Local
    • Play Local
  • Adventure
  • About
You are here: Home / At Home / Enjoy The Holiday Season At Home

Enjoy The Holiday Season At Home

December 11, 2019 By Kari Leave a Comment

Why it’s so important to slow down and enjoy the holiday season at home!
Plus- peek at our Christmas decor and get details on a photoshoot giveaway!

Outside of ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy Holidays,’ I think the phrase we hear most in December is ‘ I’m SO busy right now!’. Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year (in my opinion), and yes, it is most definitely the busiest for so many of us. It’s easy to pack the calendar with parties, visits to light displays, and other holiday activities with the kids, but I believe the real magic happens at home. Of course, we still participate in festive fun around the city, but we’ve decided to put more of an emphasis on cozying up in the house we love so much.

My husband Ryan and I made it a priority this year to decorate early so we could enjoy the Christmas vibe for as long as possible. Christmas Day is wonderful, but the lead up is equally as magical!

When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things – not the great occasions-give off the greatest glow of happiness.        -Bob Hope

We were so thrilled to have Darren LeBeuf of House Stories Canada come into our home to capture moments (alogn with the Christmas set-up we’ll want to remember forever). Darren documents the familiar, personal details of your space, and uniquely captures candid moments of your every day. (Look for details on a giveaway with House Stories further down in this post.)

Front Entryway

There’s something about an old wooden staircase that sparks so many memories for me around the holiday season. I grew up in an old home with a wooden staircase narrower than the one in our home now, but the creaks are the same. On Christmas morning, my brother and I used to sit a the top of our staircase and wait for the cue from our parents to come downstairs to see what Santa had left. I think about that moment around this time of year when I’m on our stairs.

We typically have a holiday-scented candle or pretty Christmas bouquet on the Newel Post by our front door. It’s one of the first things we see (and smell) when we walk in the house. We wrap the faux garland with twinkle lights around the handrail and balusters. I added in a couple of festive cushions on our everyday bench where the shopping bags go right when we come home.

Main Level

Our dining room and living room areas are essentially one open-concept space, so all of the decor is complimentary and filled with meaningful pieces. These wooden Santas were made by my dad, a talented woodworker and stained glass artist!

This metal and glass shelving unit houses our records and record player, a few holiday serving platters, and greenery. I swapped out the faux flowers in the trio of mason jar vases for fresh water and evergreens, and lined the back of the unit with twinkle lights. I like to swap out photos in frames to share memories from previous Christmases. This piece sees lots of action year-round, as we’re often throwing on some music (especially around breakfast and dinner).

Dining Set

Our buffet and table are an heirloom from Ryan’s grandparents, which we refinished several years ago. I clear out everyday pieces from the inside of the buffet in early December, and store only items we’ll need for entertaining over the holidays. That ensures the unit stays easy to use, and not crammed with stuff. We have a few decor items on top, including Wyatt’s advent calendar, and we use this to hold all the food for Christmas dinner or treats and drinks for get-togethers.

The Tree + Stockings

Our stockings hang from two snowflake stocking holders (everything’s from Crate and Barrel). Closer to Christmas, I’ll put a curtain rod across the length of the mantle to rest on each holder with the remaining stockings. The gnome ornaments are homemade (by my mom!). I painted the wooden letter markers green, and dusted them with sparkles. As you can see, our puppy Monroe got to the ‘W’ when we were setting up! 🙂

Stockings typically take us about two hours to open, because on top of what Santa puts in there, we each buy several stuffers per person, and we go one by one until everything’s open. We really like to draw things out on Christmas morning!

Our tree is filled with a mix of filler ornaments, sentimental pieces, bell garland, and lights. There must close to 250-300 pieces on the tree this year. Next year, I promise to count! You’ll notice Wyatt’s First Christmas ornament designed by friend Justine Ma, and an angel made out of my nanny’s teacup set (made by my dad) among dozens more filled with meaning. I love when guests come over and we can share stories of each one.

Wyatt’s Room

Outside of our main space, each additional room of our house features small touches of ‘holiday’. The kitchen has a potted evergreen and festive tea towels, the bathroom has a small gold pot with a mini evergreen, and Wyatt’s room has it’s very own tree! I got this tree last year at Canadian Tire (almost the same one here). He decorates it with all the leftover ornaments from the big tree decoration. 🙂

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed and feel inspired! Please be in touch with any questions.

House Stories Canada Giveaway!

Our friends at House Stories Canada (who snapped all of these gorgeous photos) are gifting one lucky person a Christmas Mini Shoot valued at $450! You must live in the Edmonton area and have an Instagram account to enter. Here’s what’s included:

  • a 1.5-hour shoot capturing your family and your home.
  • includes a collection of 40 web-optimized images + a complimentary 5×7 print

To enter: go here!

Pin this to your Christmas Traditions and Home For The Holidays boards and follow me on Pinterest here.

 

Other Posts You’ll Love:

Inexpensive Christmas Tablescape

Our Christmas Movie Lineup

How To Pull Off The Modern Farmhouse Trend

 

xx

Related

Filed Under: At Home, Everything Christmas!, Home Style

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Stay in touch!

Get notified of

new posts!

Welcome to kariskelton.com! I would love to hear from you. Click here to email me.

My Pinterest

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

kariskelton

Lifestylist + Blogger: KariSkelton.com
Mom to Wyatt, Moses🐾 + Monroe🐾
Babe on the way! (06/22)
❤ @ryanjespersen
motherhood | style | recipes 👇

Kari Skelton | Motherhood
when you feel like you've hit your max bump but th when you feel like you've hit your max bump but there's still nine weeks to go. 😳

It's truly amazing what our bodies can do. 💛

#31weeks #sunsoutbumpsout #beachball
Life update. ❤ I’ll be keeping this piece of Life update. ❤

I’ll be keeping this piece of art forever. Wyatt painted this for me back in January, when I was isolated with Covid. I taped it up on the wall beside the bed during my stay in our guest room. If you zoom in, you’ll see me in the front with the big baby belly. (Wyatt calls me ‘big belly’ these days!)

Rainbows represent promise, hope, and new beginnings. 

It's been a rough past few weeks for our family, hence my absence online. Thank you so much for your messages of love, concern, and support. They mean so much to us. I know I share a lot with you on here, but I’m not going to get into details this time. Just know we're doing alright. Junebug is great (and kicking and rolling around non-stop!), Wyatt is awesome per usual, and Ryan and I are rock solid.

I had to take a break from work. My main focus has always been (and will
always be) protecting the peace, health, and well-being of our family unit. 

Social media can be a beautiful place where connection and inspiration happens. Unfortunately, it can also foster hurtful and harmful attacks. I’ve learned so much over these past few weeks, and have deeply reflected on my presence and future plans online. I’ll share more soon, but for now, I just wanted to check in, say a sincere thanks, and let you know we’re all good. ❤️
The moment I found out. September 22, 2021. I’ll The moment I found out. September 22, 2021. I’ll be honest - the first trimester wasn’t great. There were moments of joy (like this one) but it was filled with anxiety, scary moments, and a few hurdles. 

🤰I’m playing catchup on some pregnancy blog posts but I wanted to make sure this was up, especially for those who have been following our journey. 

👉 Head on over to KariSkelton.com for ‘Pregnancy Q&A: The First Trimester’ where I get into all of it. Link is in my bio.

❔️Please ask any questions. That’s the whole reason why I share about this. I believe sharing our experiences and personal stories helps all of us feel less alone and often validates what we’re going through. 

(If you can believe it, I took a video of the exact moment I found out but it disappeared from my files. Poof! Gone.💨 Of all the videos to lose…. 🙈 But very happy to have this photo).

#pregnancystories #motherhoodrising #motherhoodunites #Canadianblogger #Canadianmom
Contest Closed. Congrats to our winner @michelle_q Contest Closed. Congrats to our winner @michelle_quay! Thanks to all of you for entering! ❤

➡️ Giveaway! To celebrate @fresonbros first birthday tomorrow (Saturday, March 5), we’re giving away a $250 Freson Bros. GC! 🥳

You’re invited to pop down to the party between 11-5 to celebrate with us! 🎉There’s birthday torte, a whole bunch of perks, specialty tastings, and additional in-store giveaways, including a beautiful Camp Chef XT Wood Pellet Grill! 🙆‍♀️

To enter our $250 GC Giveaway:

👉 Make sure you follow me @kariskelton and @fresonbros.

👉 Like this post.

👉 tag some friends who would love this!

✨️ Bonus entry: Head to KariSkelton.com and leave a comment on my ‘Freson Bros. Turns One’ blog post (make sure to add your IG handle in that comment so we know who you are). 

*This giveaway is open to Canadian residents only and is in no way endorsed or supported by Instagram. The winner must be able to pick up the $250 gift card prize at Freson Bros. Edmonton 5139 Mullen Rd. Contest closes Friday, March 4 at 11:59 pm MST. The winner will be announced on this post before 9 a.m MST Saturday, March 5. 

🚨*PLEASE watch out for impersonation accounts that unfortunately sometimes pop up during giveaways. I will only reach out to you via DM from my account (@kariskelton) to confirm your win and then we’ll coordinate details via email only.
Load More… Follow on Instagram

kariskelton

Lifestylist + Blogger: KariSkelton.com
Mom to Wyatt, Moses🐾 + Monroe🐾
Babe on the way! (06/22)
❤ @ryanjespersen
motherhood | style | recipes 👇

Kari Skelton | Motherhood
when you feel like you've hit your max bump but th when you feel like you've hit your max bump but there's still nine weeks to go. 😳

It's truly amazing what our bodies can do. 💛

#31weeks #sunsoutbumpsout #beachball
Life update. ❤ I’ll be keeping this piece of Life update. ❤

I’ll be keeping this piece of art forever. Wyatt painted this for me back in January, when I was isolated with Covid. I taped it up on the wall beside the bed during my stay in our guest room. If you zoom in, you’ll see me in the front with the big baby belly. (Wyatt calls me ‘big belly’ these days!)

Rainbows represent promise, hope, and new beginnings. 

It's been a rough past few weeks for our family, hence my absence online. Thank you so much for your messages of love, concern, and support. They mean so much to us. I know I share a lot with you on here, but I’m not going to get into details this time. Just know we're doing alright. Junebug is great (and kicking and rolling around non-stop!), Wyatt is awesome per usual, and Ryan and I are rock solid.

I had to take a break from work. My main focus has always been (and will
always be) protecting the peace, health, and well-being of our family unit. 

Social media can be a beautiful place where connection and inspiration happens. Unfortunately, it can also foster hurtful and harmful attacks. I’ve learned so much over these past few weeks, and have deeply reflected on my presence and future plans online. I’ll share more soon, but for now, I just wanted to check in, say a sincere thanks, and let you know we’re all good. ❤️
The moment I found out. September 22, 2021. I’ll The moment I found out. September 22, 2021. I’ll be honest - the first trimester wasn’t great. There were moments of joy (like this one) but it was filled with anxiety, scary moments, and a few hurdles. 

🤰I’m playing catchup on some pregnancy blog posts but I wanted to make sure this was up, especially for those who have been following our journey. 

👉 Head on over to KariSkelton.com for ‘Pregnancy Q&A: The First Trimester’ where I get into all of it. Link is in my bio.

❔️Please ask any questions. That’s the whole reason why I share about this. I believe sharing our experiences and personal stories helps all of us feel less alone and often validates what we’re going through. 

(If you can believe it, I took a video of the exact moment I found out but it disappeared from my files. Poof! Gone.💨 Of all the videos to lose…. 🙈 But very happy to have this photo).

#pregnancystories #motherhoodrising #motherhoodunites #Canadianblogger #Canadianmom
Contest Closed. Congrats to our winner @michelle_q Contest Closed. Congrats to our winner @michelle_quay! Thanks to all of you for entering! ❤

➡️ Giveaway! To celebrate @fresonbros first birthday tomorrow (Saturday, March 5), we’re giving away a $250 Freson Bros. GC! 🥳

You’re invited to pop down to the party between 11-5 to celebrate with us! 🎉There’s birthday torte, a whole bunch of perks, specialty tastings, and additional in-store giveaways, including a beautiful Camp Chef XT Wood Pellet Grill! 🙆‍♀️

To enter our $250 GC Giveaway:

👉 Make sure you follow me @kariskelton and @fresonbros.

👉 Like this post.

👉 tag some friends who would love this!

✨️ Bonus entry: Head to KariSkelton.com and leave a comment on my ‘Freson Bros. Turns One’ blog post (make sure to add your IG handle in that comment so we know who you are). 

*This giveaway is open to Canadian residents only and is in no way endorsed or supported by Instagram. The winner must be able to pick up the $250 gift card prize at Freson Bros. Edmonton 5139 Mullen Rd. Contest closes Friday, March 4 at 11:59 pm MST. The winner will be announced on this post before 9 a.m MST Saturday, March 5. 

🚨*PLEASE watch out for impersonation accounts that unfortunately sometimes pop up during giveaways. I will only reach out to you via DM from my account (@kariskelton) to confirm your win and then we’ll coordinate details via email only.
Load More… Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2022 · Designed by: Mike Johnston (Mr. KitchenMagpie)