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Spreading Real Holiday Cheer {with Traditions and Decorations}

ByBrooke

I love this time of year–celebrating the season of Christmas and revisiting some of our favorite family traditions. For me, a huge part of what makes the holidays special is decorating our home! I get all giddy when we bring up the Christmas boxes from the basement–it’s like Christmas morning to open the boxes and put up the tree and hang the stockings and light the candles and string up the garlands.

When we put up our Christmas decorations it brings a sense of coziness and comfort, and helps to fill our home with love and warmth and an extra sparkle and energy that sets it apart from the rest of the year! It reminds me of the reason for the season.

We decorate our tree as a family, cranking up the Christmas tunes (my favorite is the Frank Sinatra Holiday channel on Pandora—so good!) and planning out the activities we want to do in December (including decorating a gingerbread house as you can see in the photo).
One of my favorite things is turning on the lights at night. Their glow helps to settle everyone down and helps soothe some of the frantic-ness that can be a part of the holidays, don’t you think?
We have an assortment of ornaments gathered through the years, many reminding us of warm memories or milestones in our family. Our tree is kind of random but I love it! 🙂

1. I’m loving red glitter!

2. Also loving vintagey silver sparkle.

3. A souvenir from our Christmas spent in Hawaii a few years back.

4. Blue baby booties from our first Christmas as parents!

5. A precious scribbled ornament from our toddler.

6. Loving the way the lights reflect in the red ball.

7. Our first Christmas as a married couple–2000.

8. Another handmade gift from our son–these homemade ones from our kids are my favorite!

Another tradition and an important part of our decorations is our advent tree. Well, we have a few advent trees I should say! 🙂 The top advent tree is one I made a few years ago, using tins and inserts I made in Photoshop, filled with small treats and activities to do each day of December. Our kids always look forward to opening them daily to see what’s inside.
This advent is fun too. Each day one of the kids gets to open the little door and put a tiny ornament on this tree. The last one, on the 25th day, is a pretty star to finish off the tree.
But perhaps what brings us the most special feelings at Christmas time is my favorite decoration—my olive wood nativity set I brought home with me from Jerusalem. After all, it’s the whole reason we celebrate Christmas—the birth of Jesus Christ. We carefully unwrap each piece and talk about the importance of each one as it completes the sacred scene. To me, this is how we spread real cheer in our home and with our family.

Now I’d love to know, how do you spread real cheer with your holiday decorating? Show me with your photos! Click “Add me” in the Cheer Tree below to upload your holiday decorating photos and share them with your Twitter followers and Facebook friends. Be sure to click on “Special Offers” to unwrap the hidden coupons and deals exclusively from Sears. Keep checking throughout the holidays–new deals are unlocked every day! As another heads up, this week Sears is running a deal offering up to 40% off the entire Christmas Shop! For all your holiday decorating needs and solutions, don’t forget to visit Sears and discover real deals, real cheer!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sears. The opinions and text are all mine.

 

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