Whether you're hosting guests or looking forward to spending time with family, check out these easy and festive ways to create a cozy holiday home.

5 Ways to Create a Cozy Holiday Home

Whether you're hosting guests or looking forward to spending time with family, check out these easy and festive ways to create a cozy holiday home.

Hello friends! I am excited to be joining a team of amazing bloggers for the Simply Seasonal: Holiday Edition Blog Hop this week! All week long, we’ll be sharing what we love most about the season along with our favorite tips for making your home feel festive and cozy this holiday season. Hopefully this will also help take some stress out of the holidays!

I’ve been hard at work the past week or so getting my home decked out for the holidays. I still have some work to do, but today I’ll be giving you a peek around as well as sharing five ways to create a cozy holiday home this Christmas season.

If you’re coming over from My Life from Home, welcome! I’m so glad you’re here. Isn’t Amy’s home beautiful!? Amy and I actually friends in real life, and I can tell you that her home is even more stunning in person!

My home decor style is a blend of traditional, modern, vintage and glam, but at the holidays (and especially in recent years), I gravitate more towards vintage and rustic decorations. To me, they have a feeling of nostalgia and instantly make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Simple Rustic Christmas Mantel Decorations / I am thrilled to be joining Sondra Lyn's Home for the Holidays tour with my woodlands-inspired holiday mantel.

Many of my Christmas decorations are handmade items and pieces passed on to me by my mom. I look forward to pulling them out each year and remembering who made them and thinking of all of the other Christmas memories that they’ve been a part of. For me, the holidays are all about family and making special memories together, whether it’s baking favorite recipes with my mom or our annual trip with my in-laws to pick out our Christmas tree. This is my favorite holiday and my favorite time of the year, and I try to soak it up as much as possible!

Simple Rustic Christmas Mantel Decorations / I am thrilled to be joining Sondra Lyn's Home for the Holidays tour with my woodlands-inspired holiday mantel.

Last week I shared my Christmas mantel, which you can see here. I am putting the finishes touches on my full holiday home tour for this year, but here a few other looks around…

Simple Rustic Christmas Mantel Decorations / I am thrilled to be joining Sondra Lyn's Home for the Holidays tour with my woodlands-inspired holiday mantel.

What a great idea for the holiday season! - Host a special Christmas cookie party featuring all of your favorite family recipes for holiday sweets and treats!

Now I’d love to share a few of my favorite ways to bring warmth and comfort to my home for the holiday season.

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Five Ways to Create a Cozy Holiday Home

1. Include family heirlooms and meaningful items

From our Christmas tree ornaments to our stockings and Nativity scene, many of our holiday decorations have been in our family for a while or hold a special meaning for us. Both my parents and my husband’s parents gifted us new ornaments each year when we were kids, so we had a nice collection going when we got married. We continue to collect ornaments when we travel, or to commemorate special occasions.

Whether you're hosting guests or looking forward to spending time with family, check out these easy and festive ways to create a cozy holiday home.

We bought this angel while on our honeymoon in Maui. She’s made from all-natural materials native to the Hawaiian Islands! This is one of my most favorite ornaments.

Whether you're hosting guests or looking forward to spending time with family, check out these easy and festive ways to create a cozy holiday home.

My mom made this needlepoint stocking for me when I was very young. The detail on it is amazing! The stocking holder is also mine from when I was a kid. Sometimes I think it’d be nice to have a matching set of stockings for my husband and I, but I can’t bring myself to not put this one up.

Heirloom nativity scene via www.twopurplecouches.com

This shot of our Nativity scene is from a few Christmases ago—I haven’t put it up yet this year. But this set is very special to me because it was purchased by my grandfather in 1952. We always used this Nativity when I was a kid, and I was constantly playing with the animals (don’t worry, they’re plastic!), to the point that my parents always joked that they’d just wrap them up and place them under the tree for me on Christmas morning. The other special thing about this Nativity is that it’s still stored in its original cardboard shipping box, with the original postage stamp and hand-written address on it. These are the details that I love re-discovering every Christmas.

2. Add texture around your home

The easiest way to add texture, which I’m sure you’ve heard before, is with throw blankets and pillows. I have a pair of plush faux fur pillows I bring out every winter (similar options available here). Keep a basket full of cozy throws nearby for chilly nights, or just to dress up your sofa.

Whether you're hosting guests or looking forward to spending time with family, check out these easy and festive ways to create a cozy holiday home.

I also like to add texture to my decor through Nature. A few evergreen clippings in a mercury glass vase or even faux snow are great ways to bring some extra texture into your decor and give your home a cozier feeling.

Whether you're hosting guests or looking forward to spending time with family, check out these easy and festive ways to create a cozy holiday home.

3. Have a cup (and plate) of cheer!

I am a coffeeholic, so I always have my Nespresso and milk frother out on the counter so I can make my daily latte. As soon as December rolls around, I also bring out mason jars full of hot cocoa mix.

Whether you're hosting guests or looking forward to spending time with family, check out these easy and festive ways to create a cozy holiday home.

And it’s a rare day during the holidays when we don’t have some sort of cookie, sweet or bowl full of candy canes around. One of my favorites are my grandma’s old-fashioned butter cookies. I shared her recipe in this post last year.

Whether you're hosting guests or looking forward to spending time with family, check out these easy and festive ways to create a cozy holiday home.

4. Caroling, caroling

I am also carol-aholic, if there is such a thing. I. Love. Christmas Carols. I can sing them 24/7-365, much to the chagrin of my husband. I found these amazing vintage hymnal cards at the Country Living Fair earlier this year and have been so excited to display them on our piano this Christmas (yes, I do play, but am a bit out of practice!).

Whether you're hosting guests or looking forward to spending time with family, check out these easy and festive ways to create a cozy holiday home.

5. Scents of the season

Last but not least, one of my favorite ways to ready my home for the holidays is by making it smell amazing! Have you ever tried a simmering pot? I discovered these a few years ago and love making them. They are so easy to put together, use all natural ingredients, and make your home smell incredibly cozy.

Whether you're hosting guests or looking forward to spending time with family, check out these easy and festive ways to create a cozy holiday home.

This is one of my favorite “recipes” for the Christmas season:

Holiday Simmering Pot Recipe:

  • one orange, sliced
  • 2-3 cinnamon sticks
  • 5-6 dried cloves
  • a splash of vanilla extract

Add all ingredients to a saucepan and cover with water. Place on the stovetop over low heat and bring to a simmer. Add more water throughout the day as it burns off.

 

Now be sure to head on over to Old House to New Home to see how Amanda is readying her home for the season! I’ve included the full schedule for this week’s Simply Seasonal: Holiday Edition below so you can check out all of the wonderful posts throughout the week. Many thanks to Caroline of Organize Nashville for organizing this hop!

myholidayhome

 

Monday, December 5

Organize Nashville

Creatively Homespun

At Home with Zan

Uncookie Cutter

Tuesday, December 6

Timeless Creations

Craftivity Designs

Green with Decor

My Life from Home

Two Purple Couches

Old House to New Home

Wednesday, December 7

Our Crafty Mom

A Purdy Little House

Roots North & South

Pender & Peony

Organize & Decorate Everything

Thursday, December 8

Flourish & Knot

Rocky Mountain Bliss

Pocketful of Posies

Recreated Designs

Knock it Off Kim

The Interior Maven

Little Bits of Home

Friday, December 9

Love My Simple Home

Simple Nature Decor

2 Bees in a Pod

Country Design Style

Finding Your Joy in The Journey

 

48 thoughts on “5 Ways to Create a Cozy Holiday Home”

  3. Lora

    Apparently, I’m on a huge music sheet kick, and I’ve seen several great plays on this idea in Christmas Home Tours! I love that you have Christmas Carols stuck in little photo holders. I’m going to have to add that to my flea-market shopping list. 🙂 Your mantel is LOVELY.

    1. Two Purple Couches Post author

      Thanks Meg! It’s so much fun to remember the memories around each one; my mom bought a lot of ornaments based on what I was into that year, so I have a lot of horse ornaments for the years I was riding and competing, and an ice cream cone for the year I worked at Graeter’s 🙂

  18. Samantha

    I’m OBSESSED with your fireplace decor! Perfection! Side note–as soon as I typed “perfection” I realized I have turned into Chandler from Friends. lol!

  19. Creatively Homespun

    YAY! I love meeting new bloggy friends! I’m so glad you joined us for the hop!! Your home is gorgeous! Your ceramic tree is amazing!!!! I have 3 white ones… and I’m obsessed. hehe! Pinned and Shared! XO

  21. Zan Turner

    Such great tips Emily. I love the scents and the caroling. These are just the simplest! I love the tradition that you both were gifted ornaments from your parents each year. It is a very nice way to use something that is just so meaningful!

  22. Sarah

    So the first thing I did was sing through that hymn you used. The music teacher in me just couldn’t help it! I’m also a carol-oholic – we had our annual carol party just this weekend. I love how you incorporated family heirlooms into your decor: for me, it’s not the holidays if you don’t bring out pieces with a story!

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