Okay… We are a week out from Thanksgiving, I know — Insert freak out emoji! We are over the moon excited for Thanksgiving this year, because many-many moons ago Jose and I dreamt of hosting Thanksgiving at our home with people from all different areas of our life. HE has curated that exact dream this year and we have some very special people joining us at our farm for the big feast day & we cannot wait to share all the laughs and food from our cozy little farmhouse. With that said… also comes the looming Christmas countdown clock in our heads. The holiday season of late night shopping trips, gift list loosing, and tired fingers of gift wrapping is coming down the chimney. Just thinking of all that comes with this time of year is overwhelming, so I wanted to share a super simple way to decorate those little corners in your home, without needing to deck your halls and go Christmas crazy. This post isn’t so much a tutorial or a finished space reveal, but just inspiration on how to make your holiday decor effortless & fresh on a budget. We have so so so many areas that are half finished in our home & some like this one that are still under construction, but we wanted to make them cozy & ready for our guests to feel cozy next week when they all come over….

This year I’ve decided to sell or give away every single piece of our old Christmas decor & so in this room for Christmas decor I’ve only brought in fresh greens for Christmas decor. This is a great alternative to another decorated space with a Christmas tree. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Christmas trees around every corner, but I had to do a complete Christmas decor refresh. The amount of Christmas decor I had tucked away into our Christmas closet was unreal and somewhat embarrassing. Key the thought of that Friends episode where Ross and Monica are cleaning out their grandma’s closet and all the sugar packets fall… except replace sugar packet with outdated christmas decor! I had to get rid of it, and start over. I want to make it a point to curate my decor with where I am now with design. As we cleaned out our Christmas closet, I promised I would not let this happen again. A great way to do that is to find ways to use real stems and decor from your backyard so you can get that fresh Christmas look every year. Though I think keeping those classic Christmas decor pieces that you love and use each year is great, I love using fresh Christmas greens and that classic Christmas vibe they give to our farmhouse. I know, we too share the love/hate relationship with real pine stems and trees… Nothing beats the look and smell of authentic, but those pine needles though! The pros outweigh the cons to me for sure so fresh is in here at the farm!

So we took to our backyard with the help of a local greenhouse for some real greens and used them in parts of our decor this year. Today I wanted to show you an area of our home that we used fresh greens this year. This is our front living room that I haven’t shown you guys yet. This is our TV stand that is unfinished & our TV is behind those sheep panels that I will be talking about later, but though this space is unfinished I wanted to bring it into the winter season with the rest of our house. Instead of a Christmas tree up here I gathered some pine branches from our farm & some other local greens from various pines & euculyptus from a local greenhouse in some vintage planters on each side of the TV stand. I love this alternative to a Christmas tree & how well it fits into our cozy cottage farmhouse. I of course included some of my sheep figurines and a cozy candle from our shop, The Found Cottage, & our new chairs from Painted Fox make a debut here as well. Overall… finished or not, this space is so cozy & now with these winter greens it feels so fresh and ready for the holidays & all our guests this coming week. I explained it more on Instagram, but there is something in me that had to get rid of all of our old Christmas decor & after seeing this it solidifies my decision & I’m so thankful we are starting fresh.

I hope this post inspires you to go out and gather some greens from your yard or visit your local greenhouse or floral shop to bring some fresh winter greens in to your home this holiday season. You can even mix some fresh greens in with your faux greens to enhance them. Want to know how I arrange my winter greens or some tips for them? Let me know & I will try to do a post on here and on my social media with some tips and tricks on arranging winter greens. Thank you guys SO MUCH for stopping by the blog today & I pray that you are inspired after seeing this post!! xx