The other day I asked my followers on Instagram (@drjuliemarshall) about when they prefer to remove their Christmas decorations. Surprisingly, 83% said they like to wait until New Year’s Day (or later) to do so. I am definitely in that camp and I am married to Mr. G.Q. who cannot tolerate the Chicago cold. He wanted to come out to sunny California on December 28.

I usually reluctantly head away from my midwestern winter wonderland, frequently leaving up everything to deal with in May when we return home! Well this year I decided to employ a different strategy.

Since we came out west in November to open up the house for a few days, I decided to decorate this home as well. It turned out so cute, that I was actually inspired to put away ALL of the Chicago stuff December 26-27! A Christmas miracle! Now I can show you (and my youngest son with his darling girlfriend, Rachel) the fruits of my labor.

My arched wooden front door is sporting a darling artificial wreath from Homegoods that has bunches of red berries. Then my front hall chest has sweet topiaries on which I tied tiny red bows.

My mudroom has a topiary print and on that, I popped a red bow which I affixed to the glass with a bit of museum putty.

On my oven door I placed a sweet Santa dish towel. And on the counter I actually made a little centerpiece with a red platter, several mini bottle brush trees and fake snow. The snow was from Hobby Lobby.

In my kitchen I have multiple red utensil containers all year round. In the one below I placed several artificial frosted green branches from Hobby Lobby.

More Homey Christmas Decorations

In the powder room, I placed red hand towels (Homegoods), winter-inspired paper hand towels, and a great red striped container filled with branches and pine cones (Homegoods).

In the master bedroom, I recently purchased red toile chairs (fabric and upholstering from Calico Corners), and then placed a silk ficus tree in the corner on which I put white lights. I also placed a fun ornament garland on the dresser (Homegoods, last year).

The family room has a huge cream sectional with an ottoman which lends itself to seasonal decor. I’m frequently changing the pillows (much to Mr. G.Q’s chagrin) each season. Now I have placed a collection of wintery pillows. The solid green ones are several years old and are from Etsy. I bought them to coordinate with the deer pillows which originated at Pottery Barn several seasons back.

The two softest pillows are the two cream fake fur pillows from Homegoods this season. They’re sooooo soft. Lastly, I love the pretty cream and tan Pottery Barn Christmas tree one. In addition, I have a Homegoods basket on the ottoman with two hurricanes from there, branches from Hobby Lobby and great Martha Stewart glass ornaments that were really cheap from Homegoods.

Behind my sofa in the same room, I have a cool sofa table. On it I placed two red lamps (all year long) and then added two tabletop trees from Sur la Table. And on the mantel, I put a Crate and Barrel garland with white lights.

So folks, there you have it. Clearly, I am writing this post for the 83% of you who keep your decorations up until after New Year’s! I hope you enjoyed a peek at my crazy California home and I know many of you think I clearly had too much time on my hands when I was here in November. But I have to say, I am so delighted to have put all this stuff up. It looks sooooo cozy. I think my son, Jake and his wonderful girlfriend Rachel are enjoying it all as well.

Happy New Year to all of you! Hopefully, I’ll post some of the fun recipes we’re making this week as well as my New Year’s Eve tablescape. Stay tuned…

XO

Dr. Julie

PS This post contains affiliate links. When you shop through my links, it helps support my business (at absolutely no additional cost to you) so thank you. Dr. Julie