{decorating with style} Christmas Home Tour: Part 1 + $600 GIVEAWAY

Happy Holidays, friends! Have you put up your tree yet? We started decorating for Christmas about a week ago, and I still have just a little more to do, but today I'm really excited to show you how I've decked the halls on our main floor - including the entry, living room, and kitchen/dining room - with touches of red.

I am participating in the Very Merry Christmas Home Tour hosted by Lovely Etc.  Twenty-eight other bloggers are inviting you in to tour their holiday decor this week, and since we know that everyone can use a little extra cash for holiday shopping, we've teamed up to give you a chance to win $600! 

You'll find the giveaway entry form and the links to all of the other Christmas home tours at the end of this post, so grab a cup of hot chocolate and get cozy because there's a lot of festive beauty to enjoy!

The beginning is always a good place to start, so let me show you our entry way first. Just inside our front doors, you're greeted by a long console table and our vintage lighted letter R. 

Above the table hangs a large abstract painting, but for Christmas I wrapped it in black and white stripes and added the lyrics to one of my favorite Christmas songs. The three tall vases are on the entry table year round, but for the holidays filled the black vase with faux greenery and red berries.

I've always loved the holidays, but having kids brings a whole new meaning to the season. I find so much joy in watching my kids visit Santa, so each year I add a new white frame with the most recent Santa photo. It's amazing to see how much they grow from one visit to the next!

To the left of the entry way is the living room, which is decked out in black, white and red.

The large framed photo above the chairs is actually our television! We added the frame around the tv to give it the appearance of art. I have a DVD of famous paintings from the Museum of Modern Art in NYC that I play on the tv much of the time, but for Christmas I love this photo of snow covered trees.

I added a few red frames to our floating shelf photo gallery with photos of each of my boys on their first Christmases.

Our big family Christmas tree is in our basement family room, but I added a skinny, lodge pole styled tree in the corner behind our couch.

I have plans to create some fun new ornaments for this tree in the next couple of weeks, but for now, I have simply wrapped some black and white striped ribbon around it.

Since my boys are still a bit too young for glass ornaments on the tree, I hang some of my favorite breakable ornaments in the high windows above the tree.

 The large tic tac toe board on our coffee table is a family favorite, but for Christmas I have replaced the Xs and Os with two different styles of white snowflake ornaments for a festive twist on the game.

Around our house, we like to embrace Christmas with all of our senses. For the sounds of the season, I've added a handful of Christmas records to our 1955 Wurlitzer jukebox.

Around the corner from the living room is our kitchen and dining area. We painted one narrow wall with chalkboard paint, and it has become a family tradition to have a Christmas countdown on calendar on this wall. We'll begin on December 1st, and the boys will X out one number each night as we count our way down to Santa's arrival.

Last year, I purchased a bunch of paper mache cones {affiliate link} and painted them in shades or teal, navy, and red to create a simple and modern centerpiece. 

When I received my November Must Have box in the mail {courtesy of POPSUGAR}, I was thrilled to find a gorgeous Pehr color block runner {affiliate link} in a vibrant wine color. It makes the perfect addition to my Christmas table! If you're not familiar with POPSUGAR Must Have, it is a monthly lifestyle subscription box - in other words, it's happiness in a box. Each month POPSUGAR fills it with unique surprises, including fashion, beauty, and home products {and often a yummy treat, as well}. If you want to give it a try, or give a subscription as a gift, you can save $5 on your first box with code: SHOP5.

The HO HO HO letters on the sideboard are my inexpensive knock off version of similar letters that were sold at Crate and Barrel a couple of Christmases ago. You can read my simple tutorial here.

The silver tree is actually made to hold tea lights, but I love the way it looks with small glass ornaments in each of the candle holders.

We haven't had much snow in Denver yet this season, but I've created an indoor snow flurry by hanging felt snowflake ornaments in the window above our dining table.

At the other end of our dining table is our fireplace and small sitting area. The large monogram wreath above the fireplace is another easy DIY {tutorial here}. 

I am so smitten with the brand new overdyed area rug {affiliate link} in front of the fireplace! I've been thinking about buying it for more than a year, and finally took advantage of a great sale to finally make it mine! I'm also a pretty big fan of my new blue and red plaid throw blanket {affiliate link} which makes this little seating area feel even more cozy!

How great is my new wire bowl {affiliate link}?! It was another of the items in my November Must Have box from POPSUGAR, and it is perfectly industrial and modern. It looks gorgeous filled with sparkly Christmas ornaments!

A few years back we added a bench and hooks to create a "mudroom" in the corner of the kitchen adjacent to the back door. I enjoy swapping out the pillows on this bench for each season, and I was excited to find some blue and white snowflake pillows this year!

Last, but not least, I create a hot chocolate bar on our kitchen counter each winter. The folks over at Pastel Trail created that adorable "happiness is a hot drink on a cold day" sign for my fall hot drink station, but it's perfect for winter as well! It's now available in their Etsy store {affiliate link} in two different styles. My other favorite part of this drink station is the colorful stack of mugs {affiliate link}!

Thanks so much for stopping by today to see how we've decorated for Christmas on our main floor! Next week I'll be back with a tour of our basement family room, where our big Christmas tree is, and the week after that I'll share Part 3 of my Christmas Home Tour by showing you how I add small touches of Christmas cheer elsewhere in the house.

To show our appreciation for you visiting the Very Merry Christmas Home Tour blog hop, we want to give one of our lucky readers a chance to win big! Whether you want to spend the money on Christmas gifts for family, or perhaps something special for yourself, I really want you to win, so be sure to enter the giveaway before you head over to check out the rest of the home tours that are linked below!

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*more home tours will be added each day this week

An InLinkz Link-up