French Country Christmas Decor: Holiday Home 2019

I’m a participant in Jennifer Rizzo’s Holiday Housewalk Linky Party 2019.

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I woke up this morning with Christmas music jingling around in my head.

I was packing my daughter’s lunch and making breakfast and cleaning up last night’s dishes….all while singing Feliz Navidad. At first it was just in my head, but it wouldn’t stay there. Pretty soon I was singing out loud. Please tell me I’m not the only one.

Tis the season to be jolly, right?

For the past two weeks, I’ve been sprinkling bits of Christmas joy throughout the house. I’d love to show you our home all dressed up in its French country Christmas decor.

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When you arrive, you will find a couple of Christmas trees and a chippy little statue flanking the front door.

The wreath (from Kirkland’s) is new this year. I added the three little bells (also from Kirkland’s) and a simple white bow.

Our French country Christmas decor:

~ Welcome to our home ~

The Christmas decorations in our entryway include: a narrow flocked tree, faux greens on the chandelier, and mistletoe hanging from one of the arches…

You will also find my most treasured Christmas decor….the nativity set that my boys made in their pottery class many years ago.

 

 

From the entryway, you head into the living room…

The mantel:

The mantel is probably my favorite area to decorate for all of the seasons, especially at Christmas.

I placed the three vintage mirrors on the mantel quite a while back and I’ve loved the look, so they’ve stayed. I just keep layering different things in front of them.

This year, I began with some new garland that I bought at an estate sale over the summer. This particular estate sale had a basement that was completely dedicated to Christmas. I picked up 5 of these Pottery Barn garlands (they still had the tags on them) for a few dollars each!

I also found some gold irridescent garland to drape across the greenery for some added interest.

After the garland was placed, I added some faux trees, a couple of white birds, and two brass candelabra.

The trees are simply dressed with some clear, crystal ornaments. Last year, I used actual chandelier drops. This year, I used some ornaments that look like chandelier drops. A couple of them are glass and the rest are acrylic. The plastic ones look completely real and are much lighter weight.

I stepped back and realized that it just needed one more thing….something a bit lighter.

I wanted just the barest hint of color…nothing too bright.

Hmmm, maybe just a hint of blush...

I came up with a fabulous finish for turning cheap silk flowers into faux dried flowers. I’ll work up a tutorial on them soon.

Update: See the faux dried flowers tutorial here.

 

A Joyeux Noël banner, a gold metal wreath (Target, last season), and our quilted stockings round out the rest of my French country-inspired mantel…

That sneaky elf finds his way into my Christmas decor photos every year! ?

Related: 2018 “Woodland Glam” Christmas mantel and quilted stockings

It looks so lovely with the glow from the tree!

The Christmas tree:

And speaking of the tree, we needed a new one this year, but wanted to wait until after Christmas. (Hopefully there will be some good Christmas tree sales after the 26th!)

So, my parents graciously let us borrow theirs. I buy my kiddos a new ornament (Olde World Christmas ornaments) each year. So our tree looks pretty similar from year to year.

I also have a lot of bird-themed ornaments. I don’t know what it is about birds that I’m so drawn to. Birds are an every-season part of my decor. In fact, a number of years ago, we had some friends over for dinner. Their sweet little daughter came up to me and said, “Mrs. Conley, you sure have a lot of birds in here. I just counted twenty-three.” ?

The snowy garland is faux fur (similar here). This was a new addition last year and I love it!

You can also see how I gave my inexpensive Christmas tree angel a makeover, here.

Other vignettes:

The bookshelves got a couple of wintery vignettes.

Sometimes some added greenery, such as this wreath or the sprigs of magnolia are all it takes to make things feel festive…

I rarely decorate the coffee table. If you have younger kids who like to play with the decor or older kids who like to put their feet on the coffee table, then you know what I mean.

But this year I decided to add a bit of Christmas cheer to the coffee table anyways; a deer with some extra fancy antlers and a wooden bowl with our Advent wreath and some gold vintage ornaments.

Continuing through the living room, you will find the dining room…

The dining room:

This was actually the first room I decorated for the season.

I went with a Christmas village centerpiece and some creative cork placemats.

You can see more of the dining room dressed for Christmas, here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of my French country Christmas decor. I especially hope you came away with a good idea or two to use in your own home.

My next task is to wrap some gifts. I think I’ll ask Alexa to play Feliz Navidad and get to wrapping!

Have a great weekend!