Everyone decorates for the holidays at their own speed (and should), while some of us break Guinness records for being done with our Christmas decor…a FULL year early. Because while I love Christmas, even I would never decorate our living room in October (that’s for the guest cottage, lol). Here’s how it went down…

Better Homes and Gardens wanted to feature our house for their Christmas 2026 issue, but no one (including us) wants to shoot in August (magazines need three months between shoot and publication). So they usually shoot holiday content a year in advance, during the actual holiday, and then save the content for the next year’s holiday issue. But since I had already “revealed” our 2025 Christmas last November, I told them that we’d restyle with different sofas (totally normal) and shoot it again in December. Meanwhile (and here’s the real motivation), we’d get some early Christmas photos for the blog and social media for 2026 without actually having to have Christmas in our house until, wait for it, AFTER THANKSGIVING!!!! (I’ll still put up greenery and cozy lighting, don’t worry). So if you are wondering why the old rug and two green sofas are back, it’s because these photos were shot mid-December last year. Being a content creator is such a weird, fun, blast of a life, and boy do you need to love Christmas (and rearranging furniture). So let’s take a tour that isn’t THAT different than 2025, but with some decent tweaks along the way.

Gretchen’s DIY Burgundy Bow

If you thought that last year was “the year of the bow,” I fear that this year might reach much greater heights. I personally am still loving it, but you are about to see a lot of bows in this house, so get ready. We couldn’t find the shade of burgundy that I wanted for the living room, so Gretchen made this one, which cost about $60 in materials and took 4 hours (or more), so it’s not an easy DIY. She did a ton of troubleshooting and nailed it with chicken wire, wire for the ribbon, and a lot of hot glue. While I LOVE what she did, the only thing I would have done differently is a slightly more reflective fabric (like a thicker satin) that would just bounce the light around a bit more.

Curtain Lights | Kaleidoscope Glass Bauble Garland | Artificial Pre-Lit Alpine Firs | Tree Skirt (similar) | Burgundy Bow Pillow | Plaid Pillow (unavailable) | Blanket (unavailable)

The entry is always my favorite vignette. Between my favorite vintage rug, the vintage light fixture, and the huge window that was designed based on the original windows in the house, it just always twinkles. The MVP here is the curtain lights, which are splurgy but we use them every year, and they have the warmest, most twinkly glow (we put these up in November when it gets dark and take them down mid-February, btw).

Sofas | Floral Pillow (similar) | Paper Trees | Muli Colored Velvet Pillow (similar)

We really went for every surface for this shoot. Magazines don’t want you to be subtle or restrained. They didn’t say “take it to an 11,” but I know the brief – MAKE IT EXTRA. For the most part, it’s what I usually do, but that mantel is DRIPPING.

An Unexpected Color Palette (Again!)

Wood Bead Garland | Gingham Bow (similar) | Faux Wreath (similar) | String Lights (similar) | Stocking Garland | Flocked Reindeer (similar) | Green Wood Trees (unavailable) | Faux Garland | Blue Flocked Christmas Tree Ornament Set (similar) | Burgundy Flocked Ornament Set (similar) | Wood Nutcracker | Flameless Taper Candles (similar) | Stockings (unavailable) | Paper Trees | Snowflake Mug | Custom Mushroom Stool

I think I used every single color of the rainbow in this one (except red??!!!). The pops of bright blue make me so happy. For the mantel, we layered our super full mixed garland with plug-in globe string lights (from Anthro, no longer available, but I have these and LOVE them even more). But that wasn’t enough. We needed stockings from Schoolhouse (duh) and then a stocking advent garland (duh) and then lots of pops of color with vintage glass blue and burgundy velvet ball ornaments shoved in for pops. We styled knots of ribbons inside the wreath (over the mirror) and at both ends of the mantle (all just fabric cut into wide widths to look like ribbon).

I’ve had the green wood trees for a few years, and the nutcrackers are just from Michaels (natural wood, meant to be painted but we didn’t). It’s a lot – more than anyone needs to do, and yet so fun.

Sky Blue Velvet Pillow | Multi-Colored Velvet Pillow (similar) | Floral Pillow (similar)

The two green Alice sofas definitely helped it lean more Christmas (and we are shooting them in the guest cottage for a lot of holiday shoots – they represent so well). I didn’t really come up with a new color palette after that for this shoot. I mostly just started layering based on what I already had and found that I loved adding in these punches of cobalt and powder blue.

Burgundy Turkish Silk Satin Throw Pillow (unavailable) | Throw Blanket | Blue Round Pillow (similar)

A huge shout-out to Kaitlin Green, our photographer. This room is famously hard to style and shoot (you can see so many rooms from each angle, so it’s not a contained space). It always takes a full day to shoot. So we booked two full days to shoot this room, the family room, and the sunroom, but the days we shot were thunderstorming, with the thickest, darkest clouds all day. It was like night-time during the meager 6 hours of sunlight we typically get that time of year. It was the hardest two shoot days of the year, for sure, and she did such a great job.

My Favorite Ribbon Hack – Ribbon Clusters Made From Fabric

Lamp (unavailable)

There is a real hole in the market for patterned wide rigid ribbon. Anthropologie often has some, but it’s so expensive (buy mid-December as I do for next year). So I go to the fabric store and just buy patterned fabric and then rip it into 6″ strips to make “ribbon” for the window ribbon clusters. I started doing this a few years ago, and I just keep layering on new patterns and textures (just knotted altogether at the top, then zip-tied to the garland that is hanging on command strips). Add some bells (I love these) or some shatterproof balls (I love these for velvet – $60 for $60 different sizes!).

Small Wreaths (similar)

I low-key love my kitchen with those wreaths. Don’t look too closely at their height difference – it shows it’s not AI, lol. I’ve used the same ones forever (originally from Target) and just change out the batteries every year and layer on different ribbons.

This was the first year I put a wreath on my hood, and it’s certainly not going to be my last. Of course, the first wreath I put up there was the one I made out of all my vintage glass ornaments (mostly collected from antique malls, not sentimental). It was STUNNING and huge and so impactful. Too pretty to put anywhere else – it needed its own stage. So I hung it here, and within 15 seconds it fell and shattered allllllllllll over the kitchen. I cried (and I rarely cry about broken things – I break things all the time) and felt like quite the idiot, clearly not using a heavy-duty Command strip. Anyway, I put this wreath up and threw a bunch of mismatched bows on it, and I like it and have since recovered from my ornament grief.

Looking at these photos makes me so happy, and we have a lot more for you, too (the sunroom, the family room, and my favorite hot chocolate bar for the kids and tweens). It’s early, I know, but maybe you can glean Christmas living room ideas for decorating or bookmark for later.

*Photos by Kaitlin Green