One of my co-workers was telling us about the seven [!!!] themed Christmas trees that she puts up each year. She reports that it takes her two weeks to get them all up and three weeks, after the holidays, to get them all taken down and put away. Yikes! I can think of so many, many things I would rather do with that time.
I do decorate. I put up the stockings.
Same stockings we have used for years.
And a fresh wreath on the front door.
Compostable too!
It took me one minute, fifteen seconds, [middle son timed me] and cost $15.
My kind of holiday cheer.
Small House, Big Life 
I love that you do this! Because I raised my kids with more, more, more, and this simple thing is relatively new in our home, Christmas decorating is still a big deal full of tradition. I am proud to say, however, that the decorations I have are probably less than half what I had a few years ago. A few years from now I hope to have only half again of what I currently have. I am making progress.
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That is me too. In the end, I hope to be down to just the hand-knit stocking that my mother made with my first name on one side and my middle name on the other. THAT is one of my hundred things.
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Well done! Just enough. (The Goldilocks principle?)
Also, love the wreath. My favorite kind. Mixed greens, some purple-blue juniper berries, a few pine cones, no ribbon.
And that beautiful red front door looks good year round, but appears especially cheerful at this time of year.
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Confession time: Last year, I bought an artificial half-tree that hangs on the wall – lights included. I was giving a holiday party for a friend moving to a retirement home. I did take off the ornaments when the season ended. If anyone noticed it was there all year, they never commented. Thursday evening, I plugged the lights back in. The 1/2 tree hanged (hung?) quietly on the wall un-lit, since February. Now it turns on at 5PM & off at midnight, serving as a nightlight for a few hours. pretty. still debating about the ornaments.
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Ah, my kind of decorating!
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No tree at all?
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No tree.
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Your stockings and wreath are beautiful- a good reminder that less is more.
My Christmas decorations are not particularly minimalist- although I am definitely not adding to them.
We get holly and fir branches to wind through the stairs/put over picture frames, so our annual decorating spend is probably similar to yours.
However, we have other stuff from 5-6 years or so ago, before I discovered the idea of minimalism. The fake tree,decorations and fairy lights come out each year- though I think when I get them out next weekend I will have a cull of anything that is tatty and beyond repair.
I can’t imagine how cluttered a house must feel with seven trees…that’d be almost a tree per room in our house, including one in the bathroom…
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The traditional loo tree?
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😀
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My decorations have always been simple not due to minimalism but to the fact that I just don’t like how Christmas has become so commercialised. I have a wreath (not allowed real ones) on my condo door and a 3-foot artifical green tree with ornaments I’ve collected from various countries. The tree stands on the top of my buffet cabinet with all the gifts surrounding it, which makes a nice Christmas scene when you walk into my living/dining room. I do confess, though, that if I had a house, I would like white lights around the living room window with a 5-foot tree and some lights on bushes outside.
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I live in a condo too and know the thrills of living by the HOA rules. Curious, however, why they don’t allow real wreathes? Do they allow real trees?
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No real trees either because once the holidays are over, you have to drag the tree through the lobby to the outside bin, which leaves a trail of pine needles and a mess. I don’t mind because I was allergic to trees, grass, pollen, etc. when I was young so, brace yourselves, my mother bought a silver tree with a rotating light device under it which would change the colour of the tree to red, then gold, then green, then blue, repeat, over and over all day and night! By today standards, it was extremely tacky but quite popular in the 60s and 70s.
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Groovy!
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Very smart! All those things we do (or acquire) just because everybody else does… it’s about time we make our own rules. 🙂
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Love your style.
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Very nice.
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