Our gingerbread-ified home tour for Christmas
My favorite time of the year is Christmas blog hop season and seeing what everyone else has come up with. This year I’m participating in Jennifer Rizzo’s Holiday Housewalk again and I added some gingerbread Christmas decor to our home.
I hope you have some time to check out all the tours.
Today the Housewalk is starting with Sarah of Grace in my Space. She never disappoints and that outside view!!! So festive…
Our gingerbread-ified Christmas home tour
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Are you sick of seeing paper bag snowflakes all over social media and Pinterest yet? I know I have been using them for several years now and they are still my most popular Christmas post. I’m not sick of them yet because they make such a big statement. However, I wanted to change them up a bit this year and decided to gingerbread-ify them with the rest of our home. The puffy paint that I used to make my gingerbread Christmas ornaments were perfect for the paper bag snowflakes as well.
I bought a new flocked Christmas tree (check out my favorite faux Christmas trees) for the living room corner this year. Before I loved putting a real and much larger tabletop Christmas tree onto the end table but the mess has been a struggle and this year I just wanted something simpler. The needles falling into the cracks of the sofa and pillows were just too much.
You guys all know that I don’t like spending a lot of money on my seasonal decor and I like bringing back items that I collected or made in previous years. Every year I try to just buy one new item to add which was the Indian tin bells this year. They look amazing with some rust-colored ribbon to match our pillows. I also brought back my favorite glass icicles. They will come back every year because I love them so much.
The other new DIY ornaments I added were handmade and only cost me some bottles of puffy paint since the cardboard was free. I love doodling the patterns onto the cardboard gingerbread ornaments.
The plastic painted ornaments also made a comeback.
I also made new dried orange slices again in my food dehydrator.
my gingerbread Christmas decor
I love how the little flocked tree looks at night! I tucked the gingerbread ornaments into the trees instead of hanging them. I love filling gaps with them.
And you can see how I glued one of the gingerbread snowflakes onto a paper bag snowflake.
As a reminder, below you can see last year’s dried floral Christmas tree in the corner that I made entirely from dried grasses and flowers like thistles that I found on the side of the road. It was almost free. I only had time to make a small one for the fireplace this year. Same color palate but a different look regardless. Which one do you like better, last year or this year?
I also brought back my favorite German Christmas decorations (like I do every year) which are my German smokers! I know they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but I love them very much. The rest of them is sitting on my bookshelf. Every year I bring one home from Germany which I did this year again too.
I also had fun making some flat gingerbread home fronts. One of them is sitting on the side table below.
In case you are wondering if the trees make a mess? Yes, they do when setting up and you can see some flocked debris on the rug by the chair that I forgot to clean up but it’s not nearly as bad as a real tree with all the needles. And our robot vacuum easily cleans the fake snow but has issues with the tree needles.
Check out how easy it is to make my honeycomb ornament for beginners. I have a couple of them hanging on my tree below.
Below is a close-up of all the gingerbread Christmas ornaments with free templates that I made. My husband actually made some too.
I mentioned above that I also made another pampas grass Christmas tree again this year for the fireplace area. I wish I could show you what it actually looks like in person because it is so much better. The Christmas tree is so bright and not that way in person. (Also check out my pampas grass garland)
If you are worried about the candles on the fireplace mantle with all the paper and cardboard, I can ease your mind because they are fake. Yup, they are my new favorite battery-operated taper candles. I also have the pilar battery-operated candles and love them too.
Below is the small pampas grass tree with the lights off so you can see it better. I just reused the floral foam cone from last year and I also saved the grasses from last year. They held up great in the attic.
Below is a photo of my original pampas grass Christmas tree. I like showing older photos as well to show you that I keep reusing the same decor items over the years and just slightly rearranging everything with bits of new pieces. I feel like social media puts so much pressure on us all to just keep getting new stuff all the time that it is beneficial to show that you really don’t have to in order to love your home and get a slightly different version so you don’t get bored.
The view from the hallway into the living room with my great-grandmother hanging above the bleached cherry wood secretary desk.
Last year right before Christmas I made this cute little macrame Christmas tree and I didn’t have much time to show it off on my blog. I loved bringing it out again this year. It’s perfect for small space living.
I love the little tree hanging in our green kitchen.
Our dining room is always the hardest to photograph with the light shining in from one direction. You can see the new dark green velvet curtains I added from Ikea. I felt like they were too dark for summer but now that it is winter, they add the perfect cozy touch and I love them so much, especially with the Christmas tree, antique velvet settee, and original oil painting. The painting is still one of my all-time favorite auction finds. I bought it 20 years ago and still love it.
Check out my DIY jute pendant light tutorial. It was so affordable.
I just wanted to show a close-up of the faux dining room Christmas tree with my German wooden Christmas ornaments, orange slices, tin bells, copper spray-painted plastic ornaments, gingerbread tree topper, and plug-in fairy lights. I like the copper wire of the fairy lights so much better than the regular Christmas lights.
Using plain brown packaging paper for gift wrap is still my favorite.
Where to get the look
And as always, I’m giving you the option to get the look if you don’t feel like DIYing the pieces yourself like I did.
And that’s it for today, my friends.
Now hop on over to Redhead Can Decorate who is up after me. Love her home. But don’t forget to check out the entire week of tours for some great inspiration.
Tschüß,
Absolutely stunning, Julia! So warm and inviting…and the kitty omg…such a cutie!
Thanks so much Julie!
Hi Julia – Your gingerbreadified paper bag snowflakes are just AMAZING – the detail you added to each looks so pretty and so unique. They look good enough to eat. I always enjoy seeing how you decorate each Christmas and seeing your German decorations. XO
Thanks Diane, I had fun making them.
You are so talented, those snowflakes and the gingerbreads are just beautiful. I tried making the snowflakes about a week ago, it didn’t go over too well. lol Always love seeing your gorgeous home!
XO Kristin
Thanks Kristin!
Julia, every year, you create something more wonderful than the last. You have outdone yourself this year. My favorite of all the houses I’ve seen on my many holiday tours!
Awww, thank you so much, Nancy! I really appreciate it. Happy Holidays!
I love everything!! Of all the holiday home tours in all the blogs and magazines, yours is the one I could picture myself relaxing and laughing with friends and family. It’s perfect. ❄️🎄🍷🤍
Thanks Annie! You have to come over so we can have that wine, relax and laugh. Miss you!
Everything looks absolutely fantastic!!! I love your gingerbread mantel.
A lovely fresh take on Christmas decor. Your gingerbread accents and ornaments add the perfect complement to the wooden pieces. We have quite a few German Christmas pieces as well including smokers, pyramids and ornaments. They always feature prominently in our decorating.
Merry Christmas
Thank you Susan. The German Christmas decor is very special to me and I hope I will pass that on to my kids. Merry Christmas to you too.
Julia!
You took those paper bag stars up 10 notches with the puffy paint and I love that you used your cardboard gingerbreads as tree and gift toppers! I am in love with your smokers (I had one in my room when I was a kid). As usual, you created a warm and welcoming home that Santa will never want to leave!
Thanks Kelly! My fingers still hurt from squeezing that puffy paint bottle LOL but that might also be a good thing or I wouldn’t have stopped making more.
The neutral and warm colors make your home look so cozy. And I adore your beautiful German decorations!
Thank you Susan!
It’s beautiful Julia, love the combination of the brown paper and pampas with your macrame.
Vielen Dank Maggie 😉 I hope macrame won’t go out of style any time soon because I love making it. Merry Christmas
The house looks amazing! I love the gingerbread accents, and how accessible it is. The oranges everywhere are also such a fresh touch.
I hope you’ll laugh to know that I pinned your Schweboggen (sp) maybe 5 years ago, and I go to your post to look at it every year. I’ve tried to find it, have bought and given away several similar, but that is the ONE. I really hope to come across it some day.
Thanks so much for sharing your great ideas and cozy home.
Oh I hope you find one like mine! I know I look for the same one all the time and haven’t found one since. Happy Holidays Cassandra!
Love.It.All. Tired of the giant snow flakes? NEVER! and yours are the prettiest I’ve seen. I think I’m gonna add your gingerbread designs to my to do list. I might even move them to the top of the list!
Haha, glad you aren’t tired of them yet. You should definitely make them too.
Julia – your home tour made me so happy! I love all of your gingerbread ideas and the way you painted them and the snowflakes is magical. I also love your nutcrackers. I pinned your home to my holiday board to share. Love it!
xxo
Thanks so much Jen!
Your home looks so lovely! I love seeing your German treasures at Christmas time! Thought of you this past weekend, we went down to Würzburg to the Christmas market. Have a wonderful Christmas!
Oh I’m jealous. My sister-in-law was there last weekend too in Würzburg 🙁 Thank you and Merry Christmas to you too.
Merry Christmas, Julia, I so enjoyed seeing your home decorated for the holidays. I always love your pampas grass trees – they are spectacular!!! I love that you and your hubby made the gingerbread ornaments – adorable, and that sweet macrame tree is lovely. Adore the green velvet curtains in your dining room too. Hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Thanks and Merry Christmas to you and yours too Danielle!
WOW Julia, I am checking out your new snowflake pics and you readlly did an amazing job. Mine look like a 3 year olds next to yours….LOL . Oh well, next year I try harder to copy you. Greetings from WA State und FROHES NEUES JAHR!!!!!
Christine from Little Brags
xoxoxo
Vielen Dank und ebenfalls ein frohes neues Jahr.