Weekend Inspiration: Tips for Transitioning Fall and Thanksgiving to Christmas

Contemplating the Age Old Question...

When to decorate for Christmas; or more plainly... when do you start decorating for Christmas even when you love Thanksgiving and don't want to let that go. Well, I've learned some tips and ideas for making the transition starting to bring out Christmas things but still enjoy the look and feel of Thanksgiving and late fall.

Here are some pics from a couple of years ago in the Hearth Room when I brought out our small bare Christmas tree while still having fall and Thanksgiving decor. I think I enjoy seeing those little white lights twinkling unobscured, just as much as adding on ornaments. That's just me. I love a decorated tree, too.

1. Put up your Christmas trees before Thanksgiving and if you choose to decorate lightly for fall, then you can make a faster transition for Christmas. The biggest part of decorating is often the tree.

I'm one of those bloggers who is a bit old school because I just love the Thanksgiving holiday and enjoy all the cozy and comfy that goes with it. But... the blogger in me knows I need to get busy with Christmas decorating, so I'm trying to have a bit of both by mixing it up. I don't usually decorate my Christmas tree with a lot of ornaments because I just so love the look of the natural evergreen branches with some white lights. 

Using vintage wool throws in deep colors of browns and greens and then red plaids make an easy switch. I like a more nature inspired woodsy, lodge-y, cabin look so it's a fairly easy transition. I start to tone down the orange after Halloween and use more neutral colors. I also edit the pumpkins a bit instead of having a free-for-all. You can see the Mantel from that year here.

2. Try using more neutral colors for late Fall, which you can add Christmas colors to later. After Halloween I try to minimize orange and pumpkins, only leaving out the most strategic decorating spots, like the mantel. Often my Thanksgiving mantel doesn't have pumpkins on it at all. Apples and pears and pomegranates make great decor additions.

This is how the late fall Hearth Room transitioned to Christmas that year.

I love a cozy, vintage, "woodsy" look in decor, and Christmas seems as good a time as any to make that happen. I'm a person who loves to snuggle up by the fire with a hot cup of something and relax. Lots of blankets and pillows, cushy furniture; basically a place where you feel comfortable putting your feet up and watching a movie or reading a book.

3. Keep your decor theme the same during Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Putting together a woodsy mantel in our Hearth Room is one of my favorite looks. I love using natural elements throughout the seasons for decor, so I did the next best thing and used some faux greenery, deer shed antlers, and evergreen topiaries to create a mini Christmas "getaway" to the woods.

My two twiggy reindeer and the quail from Thanksgiving mingle in the greens.

I love having this smaller tree "au natural" (even if it's artificial), and I'm never in a hurry to take it down after Christmas. To give it some height it's sitting on a wooden cheese crate that I found here in town at one of our winery lunch spots.

4. Bring out the lanterns, twinkle lights and candlelight in neutrals or mercury glass for maximum coziness. 

Bittersweet was covering the basket during Fall, but now Winterberries have taken it's place. We have several Holly bushes here, but I have to be fast or the Cardinals will strip them bare.

A vintage red enamelware metal bowl is filled with foraged pine cones.

My Tartan plaids don't have to match. The browns and dark plaids of fall 

get changed out to the reds for Christmas.

This Robins at Christmas pillow cover came from Pottery Barn several years ago. I tend to keep the same theme in the Hearth Room from year to year and just mix it up with pillows, quilts and throws. The mantel changes a bit each season and year, with the elements just traveling to different rooms. I like small change ups, but I'm happiest with my cozy cottage/cabin feel. 

5. Use faux evergreen branches, and twigs for greenery during Thanksgiving with some neutral leaves and remove the fall leaves for Christmas adding berries.

Pumpkins and leaves were changed up to greenery and the deer shed antlers.

Here's the Christmas mantel from the year before.

and another favorite mantel from the last house.

Share my log cabin dreams HERE

and Christmas in the Country on Pinterest.

Here are a few pics from some Fall and Thanksgiving trees

 I've decorated in the past.

Autumn Tree to Christmas

Here are a few pics from the distant blogging past where I put up a tree before Thanksgiving. I think a lot of us do this, maybe just leaving it unadorned with the lights aglow for our Thanksgiving Celebration. Either way, I love the idea of an Autumn Tree, and then again, it feels great to be a little out front for Christmas!

 2013

2011

Here is some great inspiration from Pinterest of Autumn and Thanksgiving trees

 to easily transition to Christmas.

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Hope you're having a wonderful weekend. We had a good rain and thankfully missed the bad weather that others south of us had. It's been yo-yo-ing temps for the last couple of weeks, but I won't complain. It will be freezing soon enough. We have leaves shin deep even though our yard guy was here last Tuesday. I forget each year how crazy that it gets this time of year.

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