The Henderson’s Needed The Holidays To Start So Here Is What I’ve Purchased So Far…

I know it feels early. It is. The kids are on to me now and are like ‘wasn’t it just Halloween yesterday?’ and I say, yes and shove a candy cane in their mouths, put on Mariah Carey, and guess what? They get SUPER INTO IT. I actually waited till Thursday because of the election, even I didn’t want to engage in my favorite activity of the year yet without knowing how this was all going to turn out. But with the shoot scheduled for Monday, I actually had to start thinking about it. This isn’t the reveal, guys – that’s coming in a couple of weeks, this is a ‘what I bought early because everything is selling out in case you also want to start thinking about it’ post. The photos are kinda ugly, like the state of our country, but perhaps you can see what it’s going to look like and get some ideas for what you might do. Some holiday hope? Holiday denial? Let’s go.

Last year we decorated for ‘winter’ with Target in September and it was so lovely to have some elements really early. But we didn’t have a tree or anything ‘too Christmas’. We came up here a couple of days before Christmas, set up the tree and ornaments and it looked so pretty but we never actually shot it. It was super neutral and glowy – all wood, white and green with lots of faux candles, garlands, and sparkles. I set it up in ONE DAY which blew my mind because normally in LA it takes so much longer. Why? Why was it so easy up here? I realized a couple of things:

1. Faux greenery is just SO MUCH EASIER. I truly never thought I’d be such an advocate, but having a faux tree and faux garland is easy, not messy and once it’s layered with ornaments, etc you can’t really tell. Also GET PRE-LIT trees, garlands, and wreaths when you can. My favorite garland doesn’t come pre-lit, but we just add battery-operated glowy lights.
2. There are less surfaces here to decorate and a clear focal point (fireplace + tree) so it’s pretty easy.
3. Only 2 trees. Go ahead you can laugh. We normally have, oh gosh I’m embarrassed even writing this because I don’t want it on record, but we have historically had (in our last house) FOUR Christmas trees – living room, dining room, and one in each kid’s room. Here we have the pretty scandi, neutral tree in the living room, and our more personal family fun crazy tree in the family room with all heirloom or family ornaments. Still over the top and I’m not at all condoning this behavior, but I really, really love Christmas so this is me. But yah, cutting the rooms that we are decorating in 1/2 obviously cuts down on time to set up.

This year I added a bit more up here than last year since we are actually living up here and I wanted to have more personal elements (our ornament collection has gotten pretty epic). But it still took us only one day to set up a tree in living room + family room, and some pretty elements in the dining room and kitchen. To be fair I have a pretty intense holiday inventory to pull from so I didn’t need to buy much (and already having the trees made it easy).

I didn’t want to really buy anything, but I did want to add some small touches of red in the main living room so I started shopping and of course, I found some other things I liked as well as decorations that are still available that I bought last year but never showed you (lots of cute scandi wood stuff).

1. Pom Pom Felt Stocking | 2. Scandi Icon Wood Micro LED Battery Operated String Lights | 3. LED Curtain Rain Lights | 4. Dark Green Ingrid Bowl | 5. Metal Merry Christmas Hanging Sign | 6. Wood Snowy Nordic House LED Light Up Decor Set Of 3 | 7. Ho Ho Heart Gift Wrap | 8. Unfinished Wooden Star Ornament | 9. Modern Lacquer Nutcracker | 10. Flameless Wax Candles with Remote | 11. 12 Pack Wood Snowflake Boxed Ornaments Set Of 2 | 12. Plaid Throw Blanket | 13. Snow Day Snowflake Ornaments | 14. Embroidered ‘Merry’ Decor Pillow | 15. Wood & Enamel Church Decorative Figurine

For my small hits of red, I bought these stockings but they aren’t arriving til after the shoot, so I ordered these instead with the red pom pom stripe which is such a cute dose of red.

Last year I bought this faux tree, which at first without the ornaments I didn’t like (and it was VERY expensive, now sold out) so I almost returned it, but the scale of it is perfect for this room (its 9′ but not too wide, as to not take up the entire seating area) and once ornaments were on it it actually looked pretty great. Hearth and Hand came out with a faux tree that you should absolutely snatch up if you like this scandi look but it’s not tall enough for here (and I already had this one). I wanted it for our family room tree but getting things shipped up here is proving to be such a problem and it wouldn’t arrive for a couple weeks so we bought this one in store instead which is actually great.

This is us setting up last year, it will look kinda different this year.

Here are some of the things I already had from last year that are still available.

1. 2pk Bottle Brush Christmas Tree Set | 2. White & Brown House Christmas Stocking Holder | 3. 6′ Faux White Berry Pine Garland | 4. Santa Gnomes Pattern Christmas Tree Ornament | 5. 24″ Faux White Berry Pine Wreath with Bell | 6. Nutcracker White Christmas Tree Ornament | 7. Wooden House Candle Noel Christmas Stocking Holder | 8. 3ft Pre-lit Artificial Christmas Tree Potted Balsam Fir | 9. Dressed Winter Animal Christmas Tree Ornament | 10. Wooden Ornaments 3 ct | 11. Pinecone Christmas Tree Ornament | 12. LIT Ceramic Traditional House Decorative Figurine

I know you might not be in the mood yet but because of covid there is a big supply chain issue right now and inventories are lower than ever. So I didn’t want to reveal my Christmas and have everything that’s available now, be sold out.

One last hot tip if you like this scandi look of white and wood I bought a ton from a craft store downtown LA (Moskatels if you are in LA) and they are super cheap.