Our new sparse artificial Christmas tree and Christmas tour

Welcome to all of you coming from my friend Stephanie’s at Casa Watkins Living. Her home is always so cheerful and pretty. I love seeing what she comes up with.

I’m at stop 12 on the Housewalk. Welcome to all!

Our new sparse artificial Christmas tree

I had wanted a sparse Christmas tree for a while. We always have trouble finding a real tree that is the right size for that particular spot in our living room because there is limited space. So I thought I’d buy a cheap sparse Christmas tree and review it for you guys. This one is the HOMCOM 7.5 Foot Artificial Christmas Tree and was under $200.

Of course, now it’s sold out already by the time that I’m posting. I feel like I am so far behind this year which is ridiculous since it’s not even December yet. I’m not later than usual, everyone else is just so much earlier this year.

I’m not going to lie, when I unpacked the tree from the box, I was ready to cry LOL. It just looked so bad and I wasn’t sure if I could make it work. I mean look at it…

So here it is all fluffed up and decorated. Sigh with relief, cause it’s much better. Don’t you agree?

My husband asked me why I didn’t use a topper on the tree and truth be told I’m not the biggest fan of tree toppers and yearly skip them here and there.

RELATED: The DIY ornaments on the tree are DIY Mexican ornaments, DIY beeswax ornaments (tutorial coming up in the next couple of days), plastic painted ornaments using baking soda paint, and cardboard gingerbread Christmas ornaments.

Dining room and kitchen

Most people have a hard time picturing how our house is laid out. The reason we have limited room here for a tree is that there is only a small wall where I usually have my small secretary desk (now moved under my great-grandmother’s portrait on the other side of the hallway wall to the left.

Willy and Maya look like they are ready to order sitting at the bistro table with the sparse Christmas tree in the background. I still have my kitschy cat portraits from our furry family members who have now crossed the rainbow bridge. They are custom-made by Rachel Kozlowski.

The lunch bag snowflakes have been making an appearance for years now. I usually throw them in the trash after Christmas and then just make new ones because they are so easy to make. Last year I added some extra gingerbread decor details to them which was a bit more work. I just couldn’t throw them in the trash and hung them in the attic to reuse. I love how they look on my dark green velvet curtains this year. Last year they were in my living room.

RELATED: I wrote a blog post about the below vintage German Christmas pyramid and where you can find your own. We got ours for our wedding 26 years ago. Also, check out all my favorite German Christmas decorations.

UPDATE: I now also added handmade mushroom ornaments to this small dining room tree.

In the above photo, you can see a glimpse of the desk that I told you guys needs to be moved to fit the sparse artificial Christmas tree. And below is a full view to refresh your memory because I know that I’ve shared this view so many times already. Both pieces are cherished so much. And the Christmas decor will come back every year too. I just love my favorite German Christmas decorations.

The kitties move with me when I take photos and love posing as you can see.

I added a vintage spice rack to my kitchen and the story behind it is funny because it is an American-made spice rack and I brought it home from Germany. Yes, you heard that right. My mom brought this spice rack home with her on one of her visits to Pennsylvania before I was born. It hung in their kitchen ever since but was never used.

When I was just visiting them, I told them that I liked the spice rack and my parents told me to take it with me if I could make it fit. This is a John Wagner & Sons spice rack from Ivyland, PA with the original labels. It fit into my carry-on suitcase perfectly. The spices were never touched! Yuck! I cleaned them all and started adding fresh herbs again. LOL!

Living room and fireplace area

I recently bought an antique dough bowl at a local barn sale. I wanted a long wooden bowl for this coffee table for a while. To stop it from getting too country or rustic I added more disco balls.

There is also a story behind the antlers in the bowl. They were mounted to my childhood playhouse in Germany. My dad is not a hunter but found them on walks in the woods. My childhood playhouse was deteriorating and I wanted to take a piece to remember it since I can’t take the playhouse so my dad told me years ago to take the antlers. I’m glad that I did.

I love having a real Christmas tree as our tabletop Christmas tree. Last year I used a small flocked tree here that is now in our basement family room with all the annual photo ornaments. But I am not done with it yet to share.

Finally a photo of Walter. He’s not up for photos all the time. It’s like a Sasquatch sighting 😉

You might also like my favorite Christmas coffee table decor ideas and tips from over the years.

I updated this bowl right after I wrote this post with the same mushroom Christmas ornaments that I showed you in my dining room earlier.

UPDATE: I also made toilet paper roll stars to match my favorite velvet pillows and stuck them in front of the clip-on candles on the tree.

The fireplace area on the other side of the living room

Of course, my large woodbead garland had to stay. It is displayed all year now and just love it.

Check out my blog post about how to make my beautiful lacy paper doily snowflakes.

The dark brown doily snowflakes are my favorite.

I have been using brown packing paper for years instead of traditional wrapping paper. This started actually in my late teens because I love to doodle. I draw designs on the paper and this year I drew the same pattern with Sharpie as I did for the above-mentioned DIY faux burnished pottery ornaments.

I also like adding unique gift toppers and made a pampas grass ornament with old glass ball ornaments.

Check out the tutorial for these cute boho pampas grass ornaments.