Our British Christmas Home Tour

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!  I’m so excited to share my British Christmas home tour with you today.  

I didn’t do a home tour last year.  We were still only a few months into being in our English cottage and dealing with a military household goods loss. So I wasn’t feeling very much like sharing when most of our furniture failed to make the trip across the pond. 

This year however, we’re much more settled (after buying a lot of new furniture, aka all new beds and a couch) so it’s time to share.  And I think I know a little better what a British Christmas is supposed to be like now that we’ve been here almost 18 months. 

I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking here, but I’ll take you room by room to show you how I’ve decorated the house this year. 

I used pretty much everything we’ve used before so things won’t look too differently from the last Christmas home tour I did.

We got rid of a lot of stuff prior to our move to England and Christmas decorations were included in that purge.  

As I’ve gotten older and because we move so much I try to not store extra stuff. Instead I prefer to use what we have and not buy new.  In recent years I’ve tried to buy fresh natural things that are consumable. Fresh greenery, natural decorations that you can diy cheaply and throw out, recycle, or compost at the end of the season are more my jam. That concept is much more inline with what a British Christmas is like too. 

You can see the free Christmas swag I made to decorate our outdoor area here. It will go straight to our yard waste recycling at the end of the season and it’s not something I need to make space and store. 

Are you one to buy new Christmas decorations every year or use what you already have year after year? 

Living Room Tour

Let’s start in the living room.  The fireplace and mantle is such a focal point in this room that’s where I decorate the most. 

I hung our Pottery Barn stockings that I’m pretty sure we’ll have longer than we’re alive, haha!  I also added these natural reindeer that are starting to show their ware.  They aren’t easy to store so they may be on the chopping block in the next year or so. 

I also rehung the pine cone and dried fruit garland I bought last year at our local Christmas market.  It smelled divine last year.  I would have loved to get a new one this year, but due to the pandemic there’s no Christmas market. Either way, it held up great over the last year.  It doesn’t smell as good, but still looks great. 

As for the mantle garland, it’s a little bushy.  The branches are from trees around our village and I got some free branches from a nearby Christmas tree farm. 

I layered them on top and through a faux garland I already had.  The faux garland branches let you twist them to hold the real branches so you don’t need any floral wire or anything to hold everything together. 

Since our Christmas tree isn’t in this room, I wanted some lights.  I used some simple fairy lights strung throughout the garland to bring some twinkle to our living room. 

Christmas Reading Nook

Since we don’t have the Christmas tree in the living room, there was space to make a kids zone.  I busted out the teepee and dressed it up for Christmas to create a reading nook.  

There’s a felt garland twisted around the top along with a pom pom garland I made years ago.  I used the same fairy lights around the teepee as are on the mantle garland. 

It’s such a cozy little space for them to curl up in and read.  I made the inside more comfortable by using our old crib mattress covered in a flannel Christmas themed sheet. There’s also the most luxurious throw blanket for them to curl up with. 

A box of Christmas books is nearby for them to read too.  They’ve been playing in the teepee so much more now.  I love that it’s such a special little space for them because it has a theme.  

Sun Room Christmas Tour

As for where our Christmas is, I’ll take you into our sun room. 

Last year this space was completely empty.  The (practically brand new) couch we had at our last house didn’t arrive with our household goods, so the room sat empty throughout last winter.  It was a blessing in disguise when we had this space to use during our first lockdown and virtual school. It gave the kids so much room to run around inside. 

But now that we have a new couch we wanted to utilize the space this season.  We put up our Christmas tree in here.  You can watch my Instagram reel of how I decorated the tree here. 

When we first looked at this house the letting agent said “wouldn’t it be so cozy in the winter with a fire and the tree waking up on Christmas morning?” That visual (along with our stove) was pretty much the reason we decided to rent this house. 

And she is right!  When we light the fire in here it’s so cozy with the Christmas tree lights all snuggled up together. 

We also have several tables and shelves in here that got an extra Christmas touch.  Everything in this room is Christmas decorations we already had on hand.  Or better yet, free greenery clippings from our village!

When the main furniture pieces are new, there’s no need for new Christmas decorations. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and seeing how we’ve made our British Christmas so festive. 

Be sure to stop back by next week to see my Christmas tablescape.  It uses a lot of natural elements and is a simple, but beautiful table just for our family since we’re not gathering with others right now. 

What was your favorite part of the tour?