Finally...the Christmas tree post.

I've been meaning to write this post for over two weeks.  I'm finally finish with the final exam madness...now if only my professor would post final grades.  That would be so lovely.

Back to the topic at hand, though.  Our Christmas tree.  Back at the beginning of November, I made a crazy, hasty, "I'm poor and need money" decision to sell almost every stitch of Christmas decor.  It was a bold move, I will concede.  But I'd been contemplating a change for a while.  For a while after I purged, I had these horrible "OH NO, WHAT HAVE I DONE?" feelings.  I mean, what if I couldn't afford to buy new Christmas decor when the time came?  All of Christmas hung in the balance.  (<--- That is sarcasm, right there.)

To make a long short (hopefully), it worked out and I LOVE my Christmas Jesus tree.  And all of my Christmas decor for that matter.

I got the idea for my Jesus tree from a local Barn Sale, and I actually bought the tags there along with several of my ornaments...It's been such a fun experience, though, to look for things that symbolize all these names of Jesus.  I thought I'd share some of my favorites.  I know this tree will be a work in progress for many years to come.  (There are 60 tags! Only a fraction of those are actually on my tree this year.)

Love these "pearls" to symbolize the PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.

 I scored this little church ornament at the barn sale for HEAD OF THE CHURCH.

Another barn sale find...I love this vintage ruler for RULER OVER ALL.

Also from the barn sale, my sweet new tree topper.

I haven't seen these in ages, and I love using these green stamps to symbolize Jesus as our REDEEMER.  (Also found at the barn sale.)

This burlap/lace light garland was a spinoff of a Pinterest find.  I saw something very similar at a local event...so I decided to give it a try.  I love the result, but, let me tell you, this thing ended up being VERY time consuming and expensive.  I underestimated the amount of eyelet lace I would need for my 100 light strand.

 My THE WORD paper chain...easiest ever.  I looked for pages in my bible that meant a lot to me, and laid it out on the copier.  I LOVE THIS.  I think it might be my favorite element on the tree.

Dollar Tree toy for LION OF JUDAH.

Okay...so I saw this amazing ruffle no sew tree skirt on Pinterest, and, feeling ambitious, decided I would tackle it.  I bought all the supplies, and immediately cut the canvas the wrong way.  Ruined the entire project, or so I thought.  I decided to play around with the materials I had (burlap and muslin), and this is what came of it.  I like it.  I would like it more if it was a perfect circle...but oh well.  Also, to all you Pinteresty friends, those ruffles are a tedious nightmare.  At least they were for me.  I might feel this way partially because I burnt a huge hole in my finger in the process.  Yeah, that might be why I feel the way I do about the ruffles.  Probably.

I wasn't sure how these would turn out, and I 'm still trying to decide if I like them.  I bought these at IKEA for the fabulous price of 2.99 each.  But I did so when my plan was to go with a black, white, and silver theme...so I wasn't sure how to translate them to my new theme.  I think I like them with the burlap initials.  I think I do.

Another little element of decor that makes me happy.

I'm officially obsessed with bunting.  I'm trying to restrain myself from covering the entire house with it.

This picture doesn't do these justice.  I scored these at the Dollar Tree and added some of the eyelet from the light garland project.  Super cute.

This is a view of my tree late at night after the kids have long been asleep.  I love to sit on my "new to me" FREE couch (that's a whole other post in the making) with all the lights out except for my tree...with a hot beverage in hand.  PURE BLISS.

 I reused this ornament from years past for MY SONG.

Used a green army man I snuck out of my son's room for WARRIOR.

I saw a version of this bunting banner on (of course) Pinterest....this is my version using the stuff I already had and I LOVE IT.  I used felt, leftover muslin strips from the tree skirt, pinecones and pompoms from Dollar Tree.  Cheap and cute!

That's just a bit of our decor for Christmas....I would love to hear all about yours.  What do you do to make your home festive for the holiday?

P.S. I have another post coming tomorrow about more of our decor PLUS my VERY first GIVEAWAY!
Yeah!  Excitement!