Tuesday, December 11, 2012

mid-century minimalist christmas decorations

Last weekend was our gitter done weekend for house decorations and other important Christmas tasks (I warmed up a bit the previous week). I finally banged out the Christmas cards and got them mailed.

Christmas cards

I love the Christmas card tradition. I enjoy and appreciate every single card we receive. So I send a fair amount. Then, as my reward, Albert brought in the tree and the boxes of Christmas decorations.

I was shocked to see there were only three cartons of Christmas crap (was that my outside voice?). Albert reminded me last year I went through all the decorations and ornaments and got them down to my very favorites. Everything else was packed away to be given to our son, to start his Christmas traditions. Good for me!

A fake Christmas tree from Roger's Gardens takes center stage. Do you like fake or real?

Christmas tree mid-century modern



You are loving that elegant green velveteen sequins skirt? Target a few years back.

green christmas tree skirt



"Yay! They brought it back." Best cat toy. Ever.

cat under a christmas tree


I like groups of ornaments. Many of the groups tends towards children's stories or Disney. We live only a few miles away from Disneyland so of course it has an impact. I love the look of a House Beautiful cohesively themed and decorated tree. But I'll never do it.

Alice in Wonderland.

alice in wonderland ornaments


Winnie the Poo.
winnie the poo ornaments


Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

snow white and the seven dwarfs ornaments


Proud owner of a Shiny-Brite tree topper.

shiny brite tree topper



Christmas mantle scene.

mid-century modern mantle


Stockings with Jack Skellington (Nightmare Before Christmas). Stockings are also from the Target run a few years ago. A-Albert, A-Alex, B-Becky (they were out of R's) and C-Cats.

mid-century modern fireplace mantle


Lenox all white nativity. It is a replacement for the FULL SET of the Lenox Renaissance Nativity that I painfully collected piece by piece. We were awakened one morning around 5AM to a dreadful crashing sound. A certain cat had skidded through the set like bowling pins, breaking half the pieces. I didn't cry. Much. I sold both the broken and whole pieces on eBay and used my proceeds to buy this small set that I now keep on a high shelf.

white lenox nativity


I added a little to my buffet console arrangement. I spotted the metal trees on the Corona del Mar Christmas Walk. They hold candles (a two-fer)! So after pairing down my Christmas stuff, I immediately began building it back up (which is half the fun of throwing things out).

mid-century modern christmas buffet decor



mid-century modern christmas buffet decor

mid-century modern christmas buffet decor


I ordered one more thing on eBay and it should be here soon.

At work, we are having a pole decorating contest (structural poles in 60's office building). Here is my pole below (decorations by Target).

office pole decorating contest

My pole is BY FAR the least decorated pole of them all. I promise an office pole feature in the near future (with the artists' permission).

Don't you love a tree lit up at night, with all the lights in your house out? I do.

christmas tree at night



Check out all kinds of amazing Christmas decorations at The Inspired Room and The Cottage Magpie.

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14 comments:

  1. The tree is beautiful. Nothing better, I agree, than a lit up tree at night. Well done!

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    1. Thank you Brooke. I really do enjoy Christmas trees. What a wonderful tradition.

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  2. Looks great, Rebecca! I love the bright greens. So sad about your Nativity (*sniff*). Your replacement is lovely, though. :-)

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    1. Julia,
      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. If you are wandering through this blog, make sure you go to hookedonhouse.net. Best darn house blog EVER! She has some great Christmas decorations posted today.

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  3. Love the pole--it includes some of the green you favor--hard to find that in Christmas decor.

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    1. Yes, I did manage to sneak the green into work. I wanted all green but couldn't find it. Thanks for noticing!

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  4. When you said pole, the first thing that popped into my head was OMG! She's a pole dancer!
    (I do not know why...)
    It was a relief/disappointment to discover you were talking about the structural poles in your office.

    Your tree looks v.nice, and gorgeous lit up.
    Ours is still not up, waiting on some internal stairs to be 'plywooded' - going to make a mess, no point putting tree up til after.

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    1. Haha. We make a lot of fun of the pole contest. When I post the poles, you will see what one group did with the reindeer "Vixen." Kind of in the spirit of what you are talking about. We can put the tree up early because of the fake thing. I am sort of in love with our fake tree. After real for years and all the hassles, the glorious simplicity of fake is refreshing.

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  5. I can't believe you live so close to Disneyland!! One of my favourite places in the whole world (it's right up there with Hawaii for me). I love the groupings of Disney decorations - very sweet. I am a big fan of the tree lit up at night too with the lounge dark, some good tv, a cup of tea and a treat! (Old woman trapped in a young-ish womans body me). Looking forward to seeing the other pole decorations. x

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    1. Yes, we get to grow up with Disney here. You would think with all my mid-century modern I would do a cool turquoise and chartreuse tree. Nope. We do a tree covered in Disney ornaments. I do love the tree at night with a decent show on. Like "Breaking Bad" or something Christmasy. See you later!

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  6. I envy you your nice quiet kitty. I haven't had a tree for seven years - ever since I acquired 3 three-month old kittens who did speed and agility trials through every room in the house every morning (and still do). I knew any ornament on the tree would have a very short, but exciting, shelf-life and just wasn't up for it. Yours looks lovely. Sigh.
    Christine

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    1. Christine I am giggling reading your comment. We have two kitties that chase each other around the tree. The green skirt is typically wound up into a ball when I come home everyday. And there are chairs normally sitting next to the tree in the corners. Sometimes you here ping ping ping because a cat is batting an ornament. The fake tree also makes a great way to scratch ones cheek. I have several bell ornaments that act as cat alarms so when I am home, I can stop the gay goings ons. BUT, for the most part, since they are four years old, they leave it alone. More so this year than any other year. I honestly think I am lucky. If we get one or two broken a year, it is okay. So not so good, just caught Miss Annie towards the end of her day resting. Plus she really likes to get in pictures.

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  7. I love that you have the exact same sets of Pooh and Snow White ornaments for your tree that we have! Same era, I imagine as I haven't seen that size there in years. We also have a section of "special" ornaments that the cat likes toward the bottom for him to play with. For the most part, he sticks with batting those around and sometimes shooting them across the room. Love that you have boxes set aside for "the kid". Our pile for our "kid" is getting pretty large as the time gets nearer! Can't wait to get it out of the attic!

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    1. Cathy, of course we have the exact same taste in Disney! I am living dangerously this year don't have kitty safe ornaments at the bottom. Annie and Jack are only batting gently for some reason. It was neither of my current two kitties that destroyed the Nativity. George did it. He was an outdoor cat who adopted us. He was a bad, bad boy except when he was good. RIP George.

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