My Dining Room Fireplace Christmas Display This Year

One of the things I absolutely love about my house is the living room rumford fireplace that I like to decorate for the various seasons and holidays. This year I decided to once again utilize some of the Christmas silk florals I had made a couple years ago.

I also decided to utilize some of the Nutcrackers and cross-stitch shadowboxes I had made as well as a few new decorations.

This year I found two bright, cheery, red and green glittery metals trees at Michaels this year. While I prefer handmade the trees were as glittery as the red bows I was using and I thought they'd be a good compliment. I placed one on each end of the mantel.

Next to the tree on the left end of the mantel I decided to add a beautiful handmade wooden Santa and sleigh that my brother had made.

Next to the Santa wood sleigh I added one of the mixed media houses I had made during the Tinytopia Artful Gathering class I had taken this summer.

In the middle of the mantel I decide to place the three glittery nutcrackers I had bought years,

In between I placed two of the Victorian Village shadowboxes I had cross-stitched and made years before.

Next to the white nutcracker I added the other mixed media house I had made during the Tinytopia Artful Gathering class I had taken this summer.

Next to that I added the other four Victorian Village shadowboxes I had made.  On the end was the other  bright, cheery, red and green glittery metal tree I had found at Michaels this year.

In the middle of the mantel hanging off one of the wood pegs I hung a new "Joy" wooden ornament I had also found at Michaels this year.  I love finding items that say "Joy" as this was my mother's name and I like to think she's smiling down at us when I display them.

In the front of the fireplace I once again placed the four Christmas silk floral decorations I had made.

I placed the BIG Santa and Mrs. Claus dolls I had made a long time ago to the left and right sides of the fireplace opening and placed one of the large Christmas silk floral baskets I had made in 2003 on a table in between the two.

My BIG Santa and Mrs. Claus wood and cloth dolls (shown in the picture above) were actually made to decorate the area just outside my mother's apartment.  They were both created based on Shari's Country Classic patterns by Shari Johnson.  Santa was supposed to be holding a bear and a list and Mrs. Claus was supposed to be holding a doll and small bear in the pocket of her apron.  I opted to have my Mrs. Claus holding a basket filled with Christmas cookie molds and Santa just holding a "naughty or nice" list.

When my mother lived in an apartment building for senior citizens each and every year my mother and I would decorate an area just outside her apartment for Christmas. She loved it as did all her neighbors. Many of them commented to her about how much they loved our display.

Santa and Mrs. Clause have their place in our dining room at Christmas time. Sometimes Mrs. Claus even helps me bake the Christmas cookies. Never Santa. He's too tired.....

Hubby and I made the large Santa and Mrs. Claus dolls in November of 1998. They both stand 36" tall.

We had a problem with the large Santa. When he was finished he seemed to be a bit top heavy. He kept falling forward. So we decided to add a black platform for him to stand on and then nailed his feet to it. It's not the most attractive to look at, but it works. He doesn't fall over anymore.

In the right hand corner of the fireplace sits "Theo."  He is very BIG bear and is the master of ceremonies every Christmas now.  He came to us during a magical Christmas season several years ago. 

Theo would love to stay out all year, but he is just too big for that. So we lovingly put him away every year and bring him out for the holiday season.

I love how the dining room fireplace turned out this year and hope you do, too.