Still here, just busy getting Christmassy

I know, I missed my usual Sunday moodling... because we headed south to see Lee's mom and dad, and when we got home, we went out Ed's Trees to get ours (a real fir from Cranbrook, closer to carbon neutral than any pvc plastic tree could ever be), and ended up decorating for Christmas. See? I think it looks kind of nice. Here's the bulk of our decorating in one picture (excepting the advent wreath, which is just out of the picture).

It wouldn't be Christmas without all the little "Smartie stockings" that Lee hung so carefully along the curtain overhang. They were made by Josie, a dear neighbour who knitted each one, and then filled them with little pill bottles full of Smarties for each of our girls when they were little. Over the years, we ended up with over 20!

And our angel has been with me since 1990. I found her in January in the bargain aisle at the Ponoka drug store. She's got such a lovely porcelain face and hands, and her little candles and the lights under her skirt make me happy. Even though the lighting makes her look a little imperious in the picture below, she's pretty special.

It's all stuff, I know... but it's stuff we've had for ages, part of our tradition, and it will be passed down to our girls, who understand that new isn't always better. We have just two small bankers boxes of decorations, so to make things look a bit more festive, I put our Christmas cards up in the dining room, and the girls like to borrow their school years' handmade ornaments to decorate their rooms some years. It's not expensive or trendy, but it's enough to give that Christmassy feeling.

How do you decorate?