The Gift of Christmas Decor

When Home Depot asked me to take part in their Holiday Style Challenge, I immediately thought of giving the gift of Christmas decor to my little sister’s family. My sister, Yun Mi (yes, our names are very similar) and her family have moved around so many times in their seven years of marriage. They have two small girls and, with a tight budget, decorations have always been at the bottom of the priority list.

Recently, they moved to an old home that they are currently renting and have finally settled down for a bit. When I mentioned the idea of flying up and decorating her house for Christmas, her whole face lit up and that’s when I knew it had to be done. If you know anything about my sister, you know she is the funniest person you’ve ever met but she’s also one of the kindest, most genuine and generous people too. She so deserved this gift!

We decided to put the main tree in her dining room. Here’s the BEFORE.

And after!

I decided to go ahead and make it a girls trip and took my daughters with me. We flew up to New York together and made it a fun trip. I discovered Yun Mi owned one small bag of Christmas decorations. You can imagine her excitement when she discovered her home was receiving a Christmas makeover!
I want to thank The Home Depot for this awesome partnership and their generosity in helping make my sister’s home beautifully decked out for Christmas.

Yun Mi and I visited her local The Home Depot to buy all the things we wanted to use to decorate her home. She was shocked to see the amount of Christmas decor that was available in the store. You will be shocked to see that they carry even a bigger selection available online.

We found so many goodies, but her favorite by far was the charming nutcracker man. The Home Depot carries the cutest nutcrackers and we had a hard time buying just one. He became hours of entertainment being a dancing partner for our girls.

This flocked beauty is the 7.5 ft. Pre-Lit LED Flocked Lexington Pine. It’s the perfect size for their dining room and it has pine cones attached to the tree giving it a natural look. It’s a beautiful tree even without any decorations. I always recommend fluffing the tree before you start so that you can fill any holes by bending apart the individual branches.

When shopping for the decorations, I wanted to start by selecting the ribbon. Keeping in mind the old character of the home, and it’s current paint colors, architecture and overall aesthetic, I kept the decorations classic to reflect the home’s natural character. I decided to go with a traditional plaid ribbon in red and that’s when I knew we would go with classic Christmas colors. You can’t ever go wrong with classic since it’s timeless and guaranteed to be beautiful year after year. We picked up a large container of red ornament balls and a few gold ribbons to adorn the tree and also for wrapping gifts.

I was surprised to find faux floral picks and got super excited when I saw them there. We bought a bunch of red holly branches and poinsettia faux florals. We also picked up some gold and silver branches which I love to use as tree toppers. I love incorporating faux florals in trees as it adds a beautiful look to the trees making it look fuller and more glamorous. It definitely takes the tree up a notch, don’t you think? Yun Mi kept looking at the tree in awe saying she now owned a department store tree.

For the front door, we placed a snowy pine wreath with red poinsettias. The Home Depot carries a ton of real poinsettiasandfaux poinsettias so we bought a mix. The faux ones look so real and we decided they probably worked better for Yun Mi’s home since it’s so cold where they live. We placed a couple silk poinsettias outside on her front door and the best part is they will last throughout the harsh winter.

We also added a skinny pre-lit tree to the bottom of the staircase. The kids had a blast decorating it with snow fluffto the branches. It mimics real snow and looks so so pretty. It was fitting considering we arrived on the first day they got snow this season. We also added silver ornamentsand bought acouple boxes of the nutcracker ornaments. Again, I added the fun branches to the top of the tree.

Since their home has no mantle, I really wanted to add stockings somewhere in their home. We decided to hang them onto the staircase so I decorated the rails with a faux pre-lit garland. I loved the texture of this garland as it gives off a natural appearance. I tied some ribbon bows, hung ornaments and added the stockings. If you don’t have a mantle in your home to hang up stockings, the staircase is a wonderful alternative.

I also have to add that my nieces are just the most precious little humans ever. The whole time I was there, my 3-year-old niece Nora kept thanking me for decorating their home. She kept repeating how beautiful it was and thanking us for coming up to New York to decorate it for Christmas. Just thinking about that makes my heart burst!

I gave their family a little photo shoot for their Christmas card and that was the cherry on top. We had the best time creating holiday magic in their home. It’s just a reminder to me that decorating our homes isn’t about the stuff. It’s about creating comfortable and beautiful environments that make us feel inspired and rejuvenated to tackle the world outside our walls.

Thank you, Home Depot for helping to make my sister’s Christmas wish come true. As you can see, The Home Depot isn’t just a place to buy items necessary for home improvement, but you can count on them for your beautiful holiday decor too.

Thank you all for reading and be sure to follow along with me on Instagram where I share lots of decorating tips, recipes and DIY projects.