Christmas House Decorating ... Frugally

Hey Nerds,
Want to know what I loath?  Christmas music starting on November 1st, and Christmas decorations out while I haven't even bought Halloween candy.  But alas, that is the way things seem to be going.  We're bombarded with Christmas so early.  I for one, don't like it, and don't like decorating early.  To me it just feels like clutter.  Yes, this is where you question if I have a soul and if mean-spirited.  I'm actually so sweet, that I'll give you cavities... unless you get on my bad side...
My kids (and husband) have slowly gotten me to start decorating the house for Christmas right after American Thanksgiving (we're in Canada).  So, finally, when it was Friday, November 23rd, I told them we could do the non-tree decorating, and the next weekend, we would do the Christmas tree.  I think it's a good compromise.  You have to understand, that I grew up not putting up the tree and decorating until a few weeks before Christmas.

Enjoy some pictures of different "zones", along with explanations and/or where I got the pieces.
Also, these pictures were totally like "let's move the mess out of this picture"... so, next to me, or behind me is a mess, and I tried to keep it out of the picture.  #keepingItReal.

Let's pretend you visited me, so we'll start with the front door.  Something just typical, a wreath on the front door.  I picked this one up for $20 at Sears when they had their closeout sale

When you come into the foyer, I have a little vignette on a side table.  With the exception of the lantern, everything else came from Dollarama or Dollar Tree.  I think you can make dollar store items look really good together as long as you have a consistent theme between the items.  My theme here was red, tartan, gold, and lights.  I with the polar bear had gold sparkles, but only silver was available.  The string of lights are battery operated.  The lantern is also battery operated, and I picked it up at Red Apple for $20.

The stairways going upstairs are also in the foyer, and I did a sparkly light treatment running along the length of the stairs.  This is probably one of my favorite decorations I do.  I bought rolls of gold  sparkly tulle from Dollarama and a long string of white lights (with a white cord) from Home Depot.  I wrapped the lights with the tulle and then secured it along the stairs with twine.  To hide the areas where two rolls of tulle met, and to make it look nicer, I added some pine cone and pine sprig accents along the stairs. These were also from Dollarama.

After walking in from the foyer, you're going to get caught under the mistletoe (bought at Dollarama).  MUAH!  In front of you is the patio door, with just some simple colorful lights around the border.  I hold the lights in place with clear 3M Command hooks.  They're easy on and easy off when everything comes down.  Look closely on the couch, there's a cuddly teddy bear in a Santa hat.

You've lasted this long into the blog post!  way to go!  you either are enjoying this, or looking for something to make fun of.
I'll try not to drag on too much further, but we got three more areas to cover.

Next up in my Nativity scene.  I've had this set for 14 years and I bought it at Walmart.  They kind of look like those "Precious Moments" kids, but they're not.  I can't figure out though who's Joseph and who's the Inn keeper, so the guy I think is the Inn keeper is chillin' near Baby Jesus with a cow... just in case he is Joseph, he's not too far away.

I put together a garland for the fireplace using a plain pine garland, probably from Zeller's (whoa that's old), and added accents from Dollarama: gold leaf and pine cone garland + gold butterfly picks + white led lights + gold ball lights.

Aaaannnndd finally, the tree!

Some people like to go for a monochromatic theme, or like their trees to look very classy and stylized (imagine white lights and one or two colors of tree decorations).  My style for my tree is bright, colorful, and mixed.  Multi-coloured lights, gold and green ribbon, jewel-and-gold-toned balls, plus any ornaments we've been given, and there is another themed ornament in there... birds.  The tree is topped with a gold angel with multi colored fiber optic lights.  The birds were either gifted to us, or I purchased them on clearance after Boxing Day.  We've had this tree since we got married... sometimes it looks a little "charlie brown", but i put lots of decorations on it and wrap the middle with some garland; that's a little hack to make it look fuller.

Thanks for reading!

Tell me, when do you like to start decorating?