How To Decorate A House for Christmas Without A Christmas Tree

Is it possible to decorate a house for Christmas without a Christmas Tree?  I believe you can!  Not everyone has space for a tree;  I know I always struggle to find a spot to fit a tree in my home even though it's 3,000 square feet! And whether it's a live tree or an artificial one, dragging a tree into the house and/or assembling and decorating it can also be a real physical challenge.  Now don't get me wrong, I love a beautifully decorated Christmas Tree.  In previous years, it would take me a full day to assemble and decorate my tree to perfection.  But this year, I decided to decorate my house for Christmas but not put up a tree;  and you know what?  I love the results and I do not miss the tree at all.

The Reason:  The Little Rugrats

So what led to my decision NOT to put up a Christmas Tree this year?  Why, these two little rugrats named Milo and Jasper.

I adopted them less than a year ago after I lost my beloved Jackson.  I wasn't sure I would ever want another pet after the pain I suffered losing Jackson, but the house just seemed  empty without a fur baby and I knew my local humane society was over run with kitties;  I certainly had the space and love to give a couple a new home.

I've always had the problem of dealing with "cats and Christmas" because I always had a cat in my life.  But these two guys, especially Jasper, are real climbers.  In fact, I can't even let them inside my fenced in garden with me like I did with Jackson, because they will climb the fence!  I've never seen anything like it! They climb up ladders, walk across high ledges, climb up woody plants, climb curtains...etc. etc. etc.   So I knew if I put up a Christmas Tree, they would be climbing it in a second and it would just become a constant source of frustration I didn't need in my life.  So, I made the decision NOT to put up a Christmas Tree.

The Outside

It took me about four days to decorate the house this year without putting up a Christmas Tree.  But I was sick so I was moving a little slower, plus I do my usual household chores and personal daily habits, so it's not like I spent four full days decorating.  But it would have taken me five days if I had put a tree, so it did take less time.

Let's begin with a tour of the outside.  I never decorate outside the house much because no one sees it other than the mailman and I don't like decorating in the cold.  If I lived on a busy street, you betcha I would have my house lit up for Christmas!  But it seems kinda pointless when you live on a dead end street.

I did want to do something with my new sign I put up this year, so I made two porch pots out of artificial greenery using two concrete pots I already had.  I really like the way it turned out, and I will leave these porch pots out all winter as they are "winter-themed" and not "Christmas-themed".

I had these two metal snowman stakes I stuck inside the pot.  I love how the snow added to the appearance of the pot.  The greens look so real with the snow!

For my side entry porch I added a snowman pillow on the rocker and wood decoration on the table top.  I made two more porch pots to guide the way to the front door, and I added a "Peace" sign behind the rocker.

I found this old birch branch while hiking this past fall and brought it home with me.  I had hubby cut it in four pieces so I could make two pots.  The 'sticks' I got from Menards, yes, I know I could have probably found those in the woods too, but it's hard to find super thin ones and these were covered with glitter.  Then I filled in the rest with artificial greenery and a few Christmas sprays.

For my large red wall I just added a wreath, and put some greenery on the shelf along with a "Merry Christmas" sign and a wooden cut out.

I love how you can see the outside Christmas decorations from inside my house.

I also added a few little touches to the front and back porches, but I won't show you every little photo.  This arrangement is hanging on my basement door.

In Lieu of a Tree

Now you may be asking the question "Where do you put your presents if you don't have a Christmas Tree?"  Good question! I have this sleigh that my son gave me one Christmas, so I was thinking of putting the presents around the sleigh.  I have a lot of presents, so they might not all fit, but that seems to be a problem with a tree too!  The presents always spill out into the rest of the room.  I guess that's a good problem to have.

The Entryway

The entryway is where we and most guests enter when coming to our home.  It is right off the side porch and has a view of the sunroom/family room.

I put little Christmas vignettes on most tabletops in my home.  This is a little table in my entryway where I placed some greens and a "Peace" sign.

This statue of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus is the first thing visitors will see when entering our house.  I think that is important that we show what we believe is the true meaning of Christmas in our household.

The Family Room

The Family Room is right off the entryway and is where I have the three trees and the sleigh that I showed you above.  I hung garlands at the entrance to the Family Room and again at the entrance to the guest building.  Yes, I have a guest bed in my Family Room.  You can read all about why there is a guest bed in my Family Room HERE, HERE, and  HERE.

The Sunroom

For the sunroom, I kept it simple and just added wreaths to the windows and garland to the staircase.  In previous years I would also put garland on all the shelves, but I wasn't up to it this year with my sickness, plus I felt the kitties would just knock the garland down as they like to walk across those shelves. 

I put a Christmas sleigh in the center of the game table.

And I added one large wreath above the doors next to the staircase.

I only decorated the posts of the staircase garlands this year;  again, keeping it simple.  In previous years, I would add decor to the entire garland.  I did google "Christmas Decor Trends" before decorating my house and it appeared the trend was more simple, more natural, focusing on greenery more than anything.  Gold and Green were the color trends this year, but I also saw a lot of "black and gold" 🤮

Speaking of trends, do you like to decorate for Christmas according to holiday trends or do you prefer using the same decorations year after year because they have special meaning to you?  I saw this post by Justin Vagle about how his wife buys new Christmas decorations every year,  and I read a lot of the comments and it seemed the consensus was most women use the same decor but some really enjoy buying new stuff too.  I personally do not buy new Christmas decorations every year, but after decorating for over forty years I have a lot of stuff and a lot of different colors, so when Christmas arrives, I do search for the trends, and I do decorate accordingly, but with stuff I already own.  I know my garlands are outdated, everyone uses the Cedar Garland now, but I have totes and totes of pine bough garland and I'm not about to toss those and spend hundreds of dollars on new garland, especially at my age.

Years ago I made this nativity scene out of toilet paper rolls, so I set up in the sunroom where the grandchildren spend most of their time.  We use this nativity scene when we read the Christmas Story on Christmas Day.  I love having a nativity scene that little hands can touch and play with rather than a "hands off" breakable one. 

The Dining Room

The Dining Room is where we spend most of our time during the holidays as that is where the food is! I put Christmas-themed plates on the plate rail around the room, I hung more garland in the entry way, and I created Christmas vignettes on all the surfaces like the piano and two hutches.

Here is the piano Christmas vignette.  It is just simple pine greenery centered. around a glass snow globe and filled with gold decorations.

I'm still decorating my metal tier tray every season...this trend hasn't gone out yet.  I filled it with greenery, little trees, and some Christmas knick knacks.

My corner hutch is filled with Christmas dinnerware and it also has a Christmas vignette on top.

I put a "Noel" sign in the center and two gold angels on either side. 

I did do a different centerpiece this year.  Normally my centerpiece is just a bowl of ornaments, but I purchased this wood rectangle bowl from Hobby Lobby this past fall and I love it so much, I just pulled the fall decor out and filled with Christmas greenery and gold decor.

The battery operated in the table centerpiece and on the hutch below were purchased from Menards this year...my ONE new purchase.  I only bought them because when I chose an all-gold color theme, I needed gold candles;   I only had white, silver, or red candles.  But I couldn't find REAL candles anywhere other than the type that came in a jar, so I was forced to buy battery operated ones.  But it turned out to be a good thing, because I really love them and it's a lot safer than real candles too...especially with cats and little ones around.  In the photos, they look more orange but in real life, they are off white with metallic gold flecks at the base.  They are so pretty and they come with a remote too so I don't have to lift the candle up when I want it lighted.  They are awesome!

The Living Room

And finally my Living Room, which is just a small sitting room off the Dining Room.  Here I just strung more garland down the staircase and I hung a small wreath on the wall (not pictured).

Once again, I used all-gold decor and I kept it simple by just decorating the points where the garland is lifted and not the entire garland.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my Christmas Decorations this year.  I imagine ya'll are done decorating your homes by now too.  Did you keep it simple or go all out?  I'd love to hear from you.

Have A Great Day! Amy

Linking up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Lion's Den Gorge and Our First Night in Port Washington

After visiting Holy Hill on a blustery cloudy cold morning, the sun came out and the temperatures really warmed up:  just in time for a short hike in Lion's Den Gorge!

Lion's Den Gorge is a 73 acre Nature Preserve in Ozaukee County.  You have your choice of  several different hiking trails.  You can view a marshland, take a handicapped accessible trail through the woods, or enjoy a half mile of 90-100 foot bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan...which is what we did!  Just look at these views!

The trail started on this well-maintained boardwalk. 

Very shortly we were treated to this beautiful view!

The trail we took also went through a shady forest.

There were pretty bridges to cross.

Then it was time to descend down all these steps into the gorge!  These steps lead you right to the beach!

It was fun getting off the trail and getting so close to the water.  Here is a short video where you can hear the waves of Lake Michigan.

Now it was time to climb back up those stairs (which was not as fun as climbing down) to get back on the trail and back to our car.  We decided to take the handicap accessible trail back because it was shorter and easier.  This trail is straight and flat, but doesn't offer the cliff side views of the bluff trail.

The map below shows all the trails at the nature preserve.  The curving trail running alongside Lake Michigan was the one we took at the beginning.  This is the trail with the views, but both trails will take you to the gorge.  We then took the one-way trail (steps) down into the gorge, but on our return trip we took the handicap accessible trail (which is the straight line) back. 

By now it was late afternoon and it was time to reach our final destination for the weekend:  Port Washington.  We booked two nights at this gorgeous historic hotel located downtown.  Once we parked our car, we never moved it again until it was time to go home for everything was in walking distance. 

The Port Hotel is in-between a bed and breakfast and an actual hotel.  You're not forced to mingle with other guests like you are at a typical bed and breakfast.  My husband and I appreciate that as we are not fond of small talk and prefer our privacy.  But the rooms and feel of the hotel had all the amenities of a bed and breakfast place.  It's not a hotel, because there is no front desk clerk.  Your room is open when you arrive and the key is waiting in the room for you.  If you have any issues, you have a phone number you can call, and we had an issue...we were given the wrong key!  So I called the phone number and they came right over with the correct key.

Other than the key incident, the rest of the weekend was wonderful.  We loved our romantic, vintage room and took advantage of the fireplace even though it was late summer still. 😍

The first thing we did after checking in, was walk a few feet to the main business street to enjoy a fish fry.  I googled "Best Fish Fry in Port Washington" and The Steerage kept coming up, so we went there.  It was quite pricey compared to what we normally would pay for dinner-for-two but it was delicious and I couldn't even eat my entire portion, so we split it for lunch the next day with some smoked salmon I purchased at a local deli.

The Steerage is quite the experience.  It is located in the basement of this chiropractor office, so it is not handicap accessible.  It was really cool going down this long, dark, narrow staircase and seeing these nautical decorations and photos of the history of this old shipping town.

We always eat early when traveling, so it wasn't that crowded, although there were  people around the bar and the booths were all full.  They sat us right next to a party of four, which was kinda awkward, as we didn't have much privacy, but I didn't want to ask for a different table.

You can see how close we were to the other party in the photo below.  It was hard to even get a photo of my hubby without getting the person in the photo right next to him.  

Hubby ordered a clam chowder soup in addition to his fish fry but he didn't think it was that great so I don't recommend their soup.

The fish fry on the other hand was the best!  I highly agree with the google reviews.   You got two large portions of Panko-encrusted cod (now you understand why I only had room for one!) and a generous amount of steak fries.

It's always hard taking photos of restaurants because I want to respect people's privacy.  I did get a photo of the bar because it's only staff mostly visible in this photo, but the booths, which are on the opposite side of the bar, were loaded with people so I didn't want to take a photo.  There were cool vintage booths though, made with solid wood and had tall backs.  They have a great video on their website HERE where you can see the entire restaurant beginning with its location, down the dark stairway and into their establishment.

Well I hope you enjoyed my little hike in Lion's Den Gorge and hearing about The Port Hotel and The Steerage restaurant.  Next week I'll be back with tales of the rest of our visit to this charming little Old Shipping Town of Port Washington.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!