Christmas Tour 2020: My Favorite Ornaments

Enjoy this small Christmas tour around our home and Christmas tree this year as I share my favorite ornaments with you all! 

Hi, My name is Mary Leigh and this is Live Well Play Together – my tiny piece of the internet….

Kidding, kind of.  But, honestly, long time no talk, am I right?  

I hope everyone had a really wonderful Thanksgiving however you chose to spend it this year.  We were able to see family and were lucky enough to have great weather so we got to spend lots of time outdoors and we were grateful for that.  

If you’ve been around here more than a year, you might remember that last year, I took a blogging break (you can read about it here, if you missed it).  I was actually pregnant with our youngest and just was not able to blog as much as I would have liked.  

This year, I found myself also taking a break in this space, but not for anything as exciting as a new baby.  

Mostly, just because if I’m completely honest, this year has been a roller coaster for me.  Lots and lots of great moments, but also a lot of moments where I feel like I just cannot get it together.  And in the shuffle, I stopped writing as much as I’d like.

But, as it would turn out, the year that drastically slowed down has somehow managed to simultaneously fly by.  

It’s Christmas already?! 

Yep,  it’s hard for me to believe it either. But here we are.  And I’m coming out of blog-break to officially get LWPT into the Christmas spirit!  

And what better way than a little trip around our Christmas tree to share some of my favorite ornaments?!  

Christmas Tour 2020

Last year, I joined with several of my blogging friends to share our Christmas home decor.  

In that post I mentioned that we didn’t have a lot of filler ornaments on our tree.  Our Christmas tree really is for the most part full of only things that we love and or hold special meaning for us. 

So, today, I thought it would be fun to actually show you all some of those ornaments!  

And I’m excited to be joining with those same friends this year to share even more Christmas inspiration with you.

My Favorite Christmas Ornaments

First things first, welcome to our home!  We moved this year so this whole living room (and even this Christmas tree) is new to us!  I haven’t even come close to fully figuring out exactly how best to decorate it, but we are thankful for this beautiful space to live and love in.  

We got a new tree this year, and while I would love to have a real tree at some point – this isn’t the year over here and I am enjoying the simplicity of our faux tree.  (Although, I totally splurged and got a flocked tree that’s pre-lit!)

Let’s take a closer look, shall we? 

Handmade Ornaments

Some of my favorite ornaments on our tree are those that were handmade, specifically by my grandmother.  She was so talented and loved making things like this.  Those are actually pins in this pretty yellow bauble.  

And I have such fond memories of her teach me and my sisters how to make these yarn ornaments with the plastic grid underneath.  Does anyone else know what I’m talking about?  

Grandmama used to make lots of these to decorate the big tree at church each year and I just think the gold and white is so classic.  

Ornaments from My Kids

Next, these sweet ornaments from my kids.  I’ll spare you photos of every single one of them on our tree, but you can just take my word for it, that kids love painting little wooden ornaments (or really making any kind of ornaments for the tree).  And it is fun for them to see their work displayed year after year.  

Last year was the first year that our middle son was really able to paint his own ornaments and they had fun this year flipping over the ornaments to find their names on the things they had made.  

Special Keepsake Ornaments

I also have a soft spot for special keepsake ornaments on our Christmas tree. 

I made these sweet little footprints for each of the boys before their first Christmas.  We have one on our tree and we also made them for grandparent gifts! 

This one has dried mini roses that were a gift from Hubs when we were still dating.  

Our wedding invitation cut into strips: 

And finally, sand from the beach on our honeymoon: 

Souvenir Ornaments

I also like to collect ornaments from vacations and trips we take, and even though I didn’t take photos of them all, I love unpacking them year after year. 

More Favorite Christmas Decor in Our Home

Moving past our tree, there are a few other spots in our home that I am really enjoying this year.  

Rather than totally swapping out pillows for the holiday, I grabbed pillow covers from Amazon to go over our existing throw pillows and I am really happy with how they turned out.

After spending more time than I’d like to admit moving things around on these shelves for year round, I took some things down to add some small Christmas touches and they make me so happy.  

And finally, our beloved felt Christmas tree.  I made this thing YEARS ago (see how to make your own here) and it is still going strong.  

I hung it on the wall with painters’ tape and they boys enjoy moving the ornaments around on it.  

And that’s it this year, friends!  Of course there are more decorations here and there, but these are my favorite this year.  

Do you have favorite ornaments or decor in your home this time of year?  I’d love to hear what your favorites are!  

More Christmas Home Inspiration

For more fun Christmas inspiration, be sure to check out these great posts. 

Colorful Christmas Playroom Tour by Jaclyn from Coffee, Pancakes, and Dreams

Festive Christmas Kitchen Decor by Brittany at  Dreams and Coffee

Lake House Christmas Bedroom Decor by Tiffany at Lake Life State of Mind

Christmas Home Tour by Lindsay at  Lindsay’s Sweet World

Mini Kid’s Christmas Tree Ideas by Keri at  Cultivate an Intentional Life