Christmas Through Story and Our 1907 Tour

Welcome friends and Merry Christmas to you! This year we were in a Christmas tour-of-homes for charity. I was very excited and happy to participate. We did a lot more decorating than we usually do because of the event. I am posting here in case you want to see!

I love using books as my “story” for decorating. Books make perfect vignettes (but that is my opinion as a book-lover!). For Christmas this is even easier as there are so many great books with Christmas themes! Let’s see the house!

First is our front porch with our “Christmas Story” leg lamp. (Can you see my Abbey-girl looking at me by the door?)

When you come in through the front door we have a large reception hall. At the end is an inglenook fireplace with benches and my parents’ nativity set. It’s definitely a favorite place for hot chocolate.

Right by the benches is our game table. On that is our Annalee nativity and our children’s nativity books.
Our hall makes an ell and that has a staircase on the left. Our tree looks the best here! There is white tape on the bottom step so people know it’s there- it blends way too well with the floor! Our tree has family ornaments on it as well as our original tree decorations form when we were newlyweds- our Santas and bows made by my mom so our first tree wouldn’t look so bare!

Our chandelier is not original although it is from an old house. The amazing lady we bought this house from had an old house that burned down. She saved as much as she could from it, including this light fixture.
I do love Annalee creations. My favorite here is baby Jesus. His sweet face is happy and full of great vintage character from the company. These are in-between the library and dining room pocket doors.

Our library- one of my favorite rooms and full of inspiration for decorating (ie: books!).

I love to put my children’s artwork on display too!

In the dining room I set the table with my mother’s Christmas plates. I don’t have a Christmas tablecloth long enough, but I just make whatever I have work!

-Lots of room for story vignettes in here with my DS’s nutcrackers, and my Peter Rabbit and Brambly Hedge china in the cabinet.

This Annalee mouse in the kitchen makes me laugh every time. We added the cork many years ago for extra effect!

Our living room is illuminated with Fenton glass Victorian lamps- a gift from my mother-in-law. A Grinch set I bought when I had my first apartment sits in a Victorian chair from my Mema. I used to sit in this chair as a girl and read and pretend I had a real Victorian house!

Here we are on our way up to the second floor looking back on the downstairs.

This is the window seat on the stairs. It and the windows are just one of the many little nooks that make me adore living in this house.

Here is the 2nd floor hall landing looking at the window seat half-way down the stairs. My DD let me use her tree here and decorated it for me. (My children’s rooms were not on the tour.) My Paddingtons are on display on a Victorian sofa that goes with the chair downstairs.

On that same landing is a big cabinet that holds our dollhouse. On top is my Playmobil nativity and the bunting is the nutcracker and mouse king. I made it by tracing the Martha by Mail cookie cutters.

The studio looked so splendid at night with the lights of the tree bouncing off of the curved window-glass.

Here it is- subdued and calm during the daytime. The tree was an English Winnie-the-Pooh tree with my Gabriel Designs Pooh animals. They “live” in the studio all the time.

Lastly, here is the mantle in our bedroom. I put Steiff mice in it for extra cute-ness. 🙂 “Tale of the Two Bad Mice” was one of my favorite books as a tiny girl. 

More mouse favorites on my bedside table.
The third floor wasn’t on the tour. It wasn’t decorated and the steep stairs don’t have a handrail right now so we didn’t risk it. Instead we parked a pram in front of the door and loaded it with Steiffs. Here it is with my children’s favorite Christmas book from when they were little.

The come-and-go tour went very well with many people enjoying the house and visiting with us. It lasted several hours so we got to hear lots of great stories about the old days and meet lots of people who appreciated all the work we have put into restoring and keeping the house looking good. We had several wonderful volunteers helping on the day and we couldn’t have done the tour without them! It was a lot of work but worth it!

Later I made gingerbread for gifts- here are my reindeer for this year:

As you can see they are very big!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Kansas Street to you!