Add a pretty touch to your desk or home office with this free 2024 calendar printable! Print it out for yourself or put one together for a cute, inexpensive gift idea.

2024 Calendar Printable

I’m super late this year, but the 2024 calendar printable is finally here! I was planning on skipping it this year, but had a lot of requests to update it for the new year. So… here it is as a thank-you to all of you! I am so thankful to everyone that has taken the time to support me in some way throughout the year. Every comment, share, like and follow means the world to me. So thank-you from the bottom of my heart and enjoy your new 2024 desk calendar!

How to Download the Desk Calendar

I have all of the calendar months in one PDF file for you, so you just need to download the one link and save it to your files. If you’re having any troubles downloading it, try using Google Chrome for your browser {if you aren’t already} and check your security settings.

Once you have it downloaded, you can just print it off on your computer. I usually print mine four to a page {about a 3.5 x5 size}, but it works as a full size page too. If you print it as a different size, just make sure that check that you’re not cutting off any important information. Thick computer paper or cardstock is recommended for printing. Use a paper trimmer to trim the borders to your desired size.

Tips for Printing the Calendar

Every printer is a little bit different but here are a few printing tips that I use on our printer {and I use a Mac}:

• Always preview your images first to make sure that you like the layout before printing.
• To print four to a page, go to “preview” in the printer settings and then click on “layout”. Click on 4 pages {you could do 2 to a page too if you wanted the calendar it a little bigger} and print it out.

• If the calendar is not filling as much of the space as you would like, click on scale to fit or increase the scale percentage.
• I have left the calendar borderless so you can trim to whatever size you would like; however most printers will allow you to add a border when you print. This is under the layout section as well for our printer.

Calendar Gift Idea

These little calendars make the perfect Christmas gifts! They’re really cute and everyone can use a calendar! Once you have all of the months cut out, just add the title page to the top and package it all up. For a pretty presentation, add it to a little clipboard or clipboard frame, tie it up with some baker’s twine or narrow ribbon, or use a cute bulldog clip tied with some bells and ribbon.

How to Display Your Calendar

There are so many different ways that you can use this calendar! I like to use it as a small desk calendar – usually right on my work desk or at our kitchen command center – but I’ve loved hearing about all of the different ways that you’ve displayed yours and packaged them up for gifts.  Here are some of my favorite ways that I’ve used this calendar in previous years…

• Place it on a wood slice holder. A wood slice makes a really cute calendar holder!  Just cut off a 4-5 diameter piece of wood {I just found a big branch in my parent’s backyard} and then use a saw to make a small groove in the center to hold your calendar. You can dress it up with some ribbon or twine if you would like.

• Display it in a frame.  Keep all of the months in the frame and then just rotate them around each month.

• Create a mini calendar for your purse.
• Use a clipboard. A clipboard is a quick and easy way to display you calendar. Just grab one in a similar size to what you print your calendar at and clip it on. {This is last year’s calendar!}
• Pin it on a pinboard. 

Download Your 2024 Calendar Printable

To get your own calendar just click on the link below. All of the months and the cover title are all in the one file, so you can just download, save, and print.

DOWNLOAD YOUR 2024 CALENDAR PRINTABLE HERE

I hope you enjoy it!

The post 2024 Calendar Printable appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.

These faux gingerbread ornaments are so easy to make and can be used year after year.  Perfect to use for present toppers and other Christmas decor too!

I love the look of gingerbread decor. There’s something just so cozy and nostalgic about it. These cute faux gingerbread ornaments smell amazing and can be used for many Christmases to come. There are so many ways that you can incorporate them into your Christmas decor too. Get creative and have fun with them!

How to Make Faux Gingerbread Ornaments

Supplies

• apple sauce
• cinnamon
• plastic wrap
• cookie cutters of choice {I used a couple of sizes of these snowflake cookie cutters}
• white puffy fabric paint
• twine, ribbon, or clear fishing wire to hang

To Make

• Preheat the oven to 200 F.
• Using your hands, mix the applesauce and cinnamon together until a smooth ball of dough is formed.  If the dough is feeling a little crumbly, you can add a small amount of
• Place about 1/3rd of the dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and roll into a thin sheet approximately 1/3rd of an inch thick.
• Remove the top layer of plastic wrap and cut out dough with the cookie cutters.  Repeat as needed until all of the dough has been used.
• Place the ornaments on a cookie sheet and use a skewer to make a hole if you would like. For my snowflakes, I chose to wrap them with fishing line to hang instead of making a hole.
• Bake for 2 hours and 30 minutes and allow to cool. Ensure that they are loosened from the cookie sheet prior to cooling. {NOTE: If you are doing this for a school project and you don’t have access to an oven, let them air dry for at least 2 days until firm}
• Add details with the white puffy paint and allow to dry.

•  Add baker’s twine or ribbon to hang.

You can make these faux gingerbread ornaments into any shape you would like – gingerbread men, little trees, even gingerbread houses! I can’t wait to make more!

More Christmas Crafts

If you love Christmas crafts, check out some of these other cute Christmas ideas…

Air Dry Clay Stars

Dried Oranges Garland

Reindeer Treats

The post Faux Gingerbread Ornaments appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.

Add a festive Christmas feeling to your front porch with these DIY outdoor Christmas planters! They can easily be customized with your favorite embellishments for your own personal creation!

There’s nothing that says Christmas quite like fresh greenery! These DIY outdoor Christmas planters create such a warm and festive welcome and add that fresh Christmas scent.

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may make a small commission off purchases made directly through the links provided at no cost to you.

DIY Outdoor Christmas Planter

The best thing about these planters is that you can’t really go wrong! They’re lots of fun to put together and can totally be customized with all of your favorite embellishments! Follow these simple guidelines and you’ll have your own outdoor Christmas planters in no time!

Materials

• various greenery {I used Douglas fir, silver fir, pine, and cedar branches}
• clean, sharp clippers
• soil
• birch logs or branches
• embellishments of your choice. This could include pine cones, decorative picks, ribbons/bows, twinkle lights, lighted branches, etc.

Directions

• Fill your pot with soil. If you have a larger planter, you can always place empty pop bottles in the bottom so you don’t have to use as much soil. Place your sturdiest branches first to form the backdrop of your planter. Since my planters were going to be placed against our wall {and not viewed from all angles}, I placed mine at the back of the planter.

• Insert the birch logs into your arrangement. Pack soil firmly around the logs to secure in place. If you’re going to use smaller branches instead of the birch, you can place these later in the process when you add your other embellishments.

• Continue to layer in boughs draping them over the sides of your planter. Trim the branches with sharp cutters when needed. Play around with the angle that you insert the bough into the soil until you achieve your desired look. Move from the back to the front, gradually decreasing the size.

• As you get close to completing the planter, add any embellishments that you would like. I used some pine cones and a cute wooden skis pick.

• Fill in any bare spaces with remaining greenery.

Add some twinkle.

My favorite thing about these planters is the lighted branches. They really make them pop and look so pretty at night. These lighted branches work for both indoors and outdoors. I have the white ones in a vase inside and really like that color too. The brown looks a little more natural though, so I think they work well in a more rustic planter.

What kind of fresh greenery should I use?

To provide more interest and texture to your planter, aim to use a mix of at least three or four different types tend to give you a nice variety of texture. It’s also nice to mix up the stiffness of the branches so you have some that provide more structure to the planter while others can fall more loosely.

Types of fresh greenery to use for decorating during the holidays.

There are lots of different options for fresh greenery. Check out local garden centers, Christmas tree lots, or try foraging yourself for your own fresh greenery! Here are some of the most popular options:

• cedar
• pine
• hemlock
• white fir
• Douglas fir
• fraser fir
• balsam fir
• cypress
• spruce

Beautiful accent boughs.

• juniper
• magnolia leaves
• boxwood
• holly
• eucalyptus

Add some twinkle.

My favorite thing about these planters is the lighted branches. They really make them pop and look so pretty at night. These lighted branches work for both indoors and outdoors. I have the white ones in a vase inside and really like that color too. The brown looks a little more natural though, so I think they work well in a more rustic planter.

I hope you can give them a go!

More Christmas Front Porch Ideas

If you’re still looking for more outdoor Christmas decor ideas, check out these posts:

DIY Fresh Christmas Wreath

Vintage Inspired Front Porch

Fresh Greenery Basket Wreath

The post DIY Outdoor Christmas Planters with Fresh Greenery appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.

This free printable Christmas tree art goes perfectly with almost any Christmas decor. Such an easy way to add a festive touch to your holiday home!

Christmas Tree Art

Christmas trees are definitely one of my favorite things when it comes to Christmas decor. Whether it’s a nice, full fir tree or a cute little Charlie Brown tree – I love them all!

Last year, I went with a really neutral and green Christmas color scheme throughout the house and created these Christmas tree art printables to go with it. I didn’t get around to sharing them then, but they did make a few appearances on the blog including our kitchen and dining room.

This Christmas tree art really goes with any color scheme, and can be displayed in almost any room in your home.

Download Your Christmas Tree Art Printables

If you’d like to use this Christmas tree art in your own Christmas decor, you can download them here. They are all available in three formatting sizes, so just click the one you would like and download it to your computer. You can then print it at home or send it to any online photo development site or shop.

O Christmas Tree Lyrics 5×7 / 8×10 / 11×14

Christmas Tree Grid {No words}  5×7 / 8×10 / 11×14

Christmas Tree Grid {O Christmas Tree} 5×7 / 8×10 / 11×14

Merry Christmas Christmas Tree Art 5×7 / 8×10 / 11×14

TIPS FOR PRINTING YOUR ARTWORK

Whenever I post a new printable, I usually get at least a couple of emails about how to print them. I thought I would answer some of the most common questions here to help you out.  If you have any other ones, just let me know!

HOW DO I DOWNLOAD THE PRINTABLES?

To download the printable of your choice, you just need to click on the link and then download the print to your computer. I have all of my printables in Google Drive so if you’re having troubles, try using Google Chrome for your browser.  It seems to do the trick!  If you’re not printing it right away, be sure to save it somewhere that you can find it again.  Having a specific folder specifically for printables works great to keep things organized and you can always find it in subsequent years if you want to print it again.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO PRINT OUT THE PRINTABLES?

Once you’ve downloaded the printable to your computer, you can choose to either print it at home or send it out to a local or online print shop {Stapes, Costco, London Drugs, Walgreens, etc.}. If you choose to print at home, you can use either a laser or an ink jet printer. The ink jet printers do seem to run through the ink faster than laser printers, so if you’ll be printing a lot, a laser printer may be your best option.

If you’re going to be printing something larger than an 8.5×11 {or just don’t want to use up your ink!} you will need to send it out to a printer.  I like to mark to NOT adjust the colors as I’ve had some funky colors come back when I don’t do this.  Make sure you’ve chosen the correct size for formatting so nothing gets cut off! {see below}

WHY ISN’T THE PRINTABLE PRINTING AT THE RIGHT SIZE?

I often have multiple formatting sizes available for each print {i.e. 4×6, 5×7, etc.}. This just indicates that the ratio of the height and width of the print is compatible with that printing size so nothing will be cut off when you go to print it.  Most home printers, however, will still print it out to fit a standard 8.5×11 piece of paper unless you change the settings on your printer. All printers are a bit different on this so I can’t speak to individual printers, but on our printer, we can change the photo size that we want printed and I just make sure to do this before printing if I’m wanting something other than a 8.5×11.  If you’re trying to print something smaller that just comes in a 8×10 or 8.5×11 size, you can still print it out smaller. You may just need to click on the “fit to page” setting so nothing gets cropped off.

Christmas Tree Decor

For more Christmas tree inspired Christmas decor, check out our green and white Christmas kitchen here…

More Christmas Printables

If you’re still looking for more Christmas art, check out these free Christmas printables…

Nutcracker Christmas Printables

North Pole Cookie Co. Printable {lots of colors to choose from!}

DIY Printable Ornaments

Still looking for more? You can find all of my favorite free Christmas printables HERE.

The post Free Printable Christmas Tree Art appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.

Join in this Christmas home tour with these nutcracker Christmas kitchen decor ideas.  Fun and festive ways to dress up your kitchen for the holidays!

Today I’m excited to continue on with our Christmas home tour! Thank-you to Marty from A Stroll Thru Life and Simply 2 Moms for putting this home tour together. There will be 30 amazing homes on tour this week, all filled with beautiful Christmas inspiration and decor ideas that you can use for your own home.  I always love seeing everyone’s different styles and designs – there’s always something new to discover! I hope you enjoy the tours as much as I do.

For those of you coming over from Southern Hospitality, thank-you so much for visiting! I’m sure you enjoyed Rhoda’s beautiful holiday home and classic Christmas decor.

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may make a small commission at no cost to you from purchases made directly from the links provided. Thanks so much for your support!

Nutcracker Christmas Kitchen Decor

Today I’m going to be sharing our Nutcracker inspired Christmas kitchen with you. It was definitely a fun space to put together and a little outside of my usual style.

No matter what your style is, I wanted to share some simple tips to help you decorate your own kitchen for Christmas. A few little touches here and there can really make a big difference in your space. And a little bit of Christmas cheer definitely makes cooking and doing dishes a bit more bearable! So… here are some of my favorite Christmas kitchen decor ideas and tips for creating a festive Chistmas kitchen:

Get Inspired.

When I’m decorating any holiday space, I always like to start off with some kind of inspiration piece, theme, or color scheme. This year, I found this cute Nutcracker cookie jar at Home Goods and knew that he would be perfect for our Christmas kitchen.

Style a tray.

Using a tray as a base for your holiday decor allows you to keep everything corralled together and creates a less cluttered look. It’s also a lot easier for cleaning! When styling a tray, look to group items together, varying the heights and depth of the pieces. A common function or color scheme will help to establish a more cohesive look.  I found the nutcracker mugs at Michaels and thought they would work well with the cookie jar for a little hot chocolate and cookie bar.

Create a hot beverage bar.

For the last couple of years I’ve been putting together a little hot beverage bar in the other corner of our kitchen. No one actually drinks coffee at our house, but we do love tea, chai, and a good steamed milk.  Our Breville milk frother makes a delicious hot chocolate or milk chai and gets well used through the winter season. I used a couple of the same nutcracker mugs, a winter house jar for tea bags, and a couple of white house salt and pepper shakers that I fill with cinnamon.

Mix functional with decorative.

If you have a smaller kitchen space or don’t like a lot of clutter, just mix in a few of your favorite Christmas decor pieces with your regular kitchen items. I added some Christmas greenery and cute nutcracker pepper shaker to our kitchen utensil tray along with a Christmas rolling pin and whisk. I also found a cute Christmas tree cutting board and wood serving tray that I stacked up in behind.

Dress up the sink.

One of the first things that I like to switch up each season is our hand soap and dish soap. There’s something about a good Christmas scent that just brings back all of those Christmas memories! The Thymes Frasier Fir is my all-time favorite Christmas scent and you can get it in hand soap, dish soap, and a multi-purpose cleaner for the kitchen. One bottle usually lasts me a couple of Christmases. If you’re looking for something a little less expensive, the Mrs. Meyers Iowa Pine is pretty good too!

Change up the artwork.

One of the easiest {and most inexpensive ways!} to add a little holiday decor to your space is to change up your artwork. Since I knew I was going with a Nutcracker theme this year, I decided to create these cute Nutcracker printables. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted so I made three different designs to choose from.

If nutcrackers aren’t your thing, I have tons of other free Christmas printables available that you can choose from. There are lots of different designs and color schemes to go with any decor. Just click here to find one you love!

Light it up.

I never give up a chance to add twinkle lights to our Christmas decor! They just make everything look prettier and more festive. Add them to a vignette or tray, place them in a bowl with ornaments for a centerpiece, or string them with a garland.

My biggest tip for lights is to look for battery operated twinkle lights that come with a timer so you don’t have to remember to turn them on and off each day. Just set them once to come on when it starts to get dark and they’ll stay on for 6 hours. It’s nice to come home to a little twinkle!

My little acrylic nutcracker lights up too!

Add some greenery.

Adding some greenery {faux or real} is a quick and easy way to dress up your space for the holidays.

If you prefer fresh greens, create a pretty Christmas centerpiece to decorate your kitchen table. This one took less than 30 minutes to put together and adds a pretty, natural element to your decor. You can find the simple tutorial HERE.

Plus, it gives one more place that you can add twinkle lights!

Add storage.

One new thing that we added to the kitchen this year, are these cabinets that divide our kitchen space from the living room. We don’t have a pantry in our kitchen so I wanted to find some extra storage for pantry staples and kitchen ware. I’ll have to show you how I organized the inside of the cabinets – it’s amazing how much they hold!

I hope you enjoyed all of our nutcracker Christmas kitchen decor and found some inspiration for your own Christmas kitchen!

More Christmas Kitchen Decor Ideas

If you’re looking for more Christmas kitchen inspiration, check out our kitchen Christmas home tours from previous years. I love switching things up each year!

• 2022 Christmas Kitchen Decor
• 2021 Christmas Kitchen Decor
• 2020 Christmas Kitchen Decor
• 2019 Christmas Kitchen Decor
• 2018 Christmas Kitchen Decor
• 2017 Christmas Kitchen Decor

Our Full Christmas Home Tour

Thank-you so much for touring around our kitchen! I’m so happy you have you here. Hopefully you get a chance to check out the rest of our Christmas home tour too. In case you missed it, I shared our gingerbread inspired dining room last week HERE. I still have our Christmas bedroom and living room to show you too and will have these up soon!

More Christmas Home Tours

Before you go, be sure to check out the next stop on our tour at Bungalow 47!  Jill has a gorgeous home and beautifully incorporates her vintage finds into her holiday decor. You can also find the rest of the home tours below, each with their own unique decor and style. I hope you enjoy them and feel inspired for the season.

I wish you all a magical Christmas season!

The post Nutcracker Christmas Kitchen Decor appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.

Add some seasonal decor to your home with these beautiful free Christmas printables. They’re a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to add that festive touch to your Christmas decor!

Free Christmas Printables

You all know how much I love printables and Christmas is probably my favorite season to design them for. I’ve created quite a few free Christmas printables over the years so I thought that I would organize them all in one place. Hopefully this will make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for – and maybe you’ll discover a few new ones you’ve missed!

Christmas Decor Printables

I absolutely love decorating with printables.  They’re quick, easy, and instantly add some visual interest to your seasonal decor. Printables are also a really inexpensive and don’t really take up any space if you’re storing them between seasons.  {TIP: If you use the printables in a frame, just store them in there and rotate the prints each season. They stay damage-free, no extra storage is required, and you’ll know exactly where they are each season!}

Once you’ve found your perfect printable, just download it to your computer and print it out.  You can either print it on a personal printer at home, or send it out to any digital photo processing lab {Costco, Walgreens, etc.}. Just be careful to watch the sizing when you print them and be careful to check for any cropping if you’re sending them out to be printed.  If you choose to print out a printable designated as an 8×10, for example, and you want a 5×7, some of the edges will be cropped.

Rudolph’s Milk and Cookie Co. Christmas Printable

Reindeer Ridge Christmas Lodge Printable

Cozy Christmas Essentials Free Christmas Printable

North Pole Cookie. Co. Printable – This one’s available in lots of different colors!

Christmas Hot Chocolate Bar Printables

There’s No Christmas Like a Gnome Christmas

Christmas Tree Farm Printable

Sleigh Rides and Hot Chocolate

Christmas Place Cards

Merry Christmas To You Print

Merry Little Christmas Printable

Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt

Nutcracker Printables (Three Designs)

Tips for Decorating with Printables

Printables can be used for so much more than just putting them in a frame.  Here are a few of my favorite ways to use them…

• add them to a clipboard
• use them for a card – Just fold some cardstock in half to form a card and glue the printable to the front.
• use them as place settings – print out 2×3 or 3.5×5 and place over a napkin or place setting
• make them into tags
• make a framed canvas
• transfer them onto wood
• create a chalkboard transfer

Christmas Gift Printables and Tags

Printables can also be used to dress up simple handmade or store-bought gifts. You can use them with the gift ideas shown or create your own. Perfect for teachers, neighbours, coworkers, hostess gifts, or stocking stuffers.

Christmas Snowball  Tag

It’s Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas Tag

Christmas Wish List Ornament with Free Printable Wish List

Hot Chocolate Ornament Gift Tag

12 Months of Dates Christmas Gift Idea

Merry Christmas To You gift tags and cards

Kraft Paper Gift Tags

Christmas Candy and Gift Card Jar Tags

Christmas Ornament Printables

Use the free printables provided to create a fun, keepsake ornament. I made these ornaments with the kids years ago and we still love reading them each year when we put them up on the tree.

Christmas Keepsake Ornament Printable

Christmas Wish List Ornament with Free Printable Wish List

DIY Printable Ornaments

I hope you enjoy all of the printables! Be sure to save this post and I will update it as I add new printables. Merry Christmas!

The post Favorite Free Christmas Printables appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.

Add a beautiful, natural touch to your holiday decor with this fresh greenery Christmas centerpiece! It’s simple to make and can easily be customized with your favorite embellishments.

We haven’t had a real tree in many years, but I still love to incorporate some fresh greenery into our Christmas decor. Nothing beats the smell of fresh Christmas greens!

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. This means I may make a small commission at no charge to you from purchases made directly through the links provided.

How to Make a Fresh Greenery Christmas Centerpiece

This fresh greenery Christmas centerpiece would look beautiful on your Christmas table but could also be displayed in almost any room in your home. It goes together in less than 30 minutes and can always be customized with your favorite embellishments.

Materials

• planter of your choice {is from Walmart}. Ensure that the planter is deep enough for the plants that you will be using.
• drain rock or activated charcoal {if your planter does not have drainage}
• lemon cypress tree
• poinsettia
• various greenery. I used pine , spruce, and cedar boughs that were left over from our outdoor planters.
• Christmas embellishments. This could include Christmas ornaments, pine cones, twigs, twinkle lights, or other small Christmas pieces.

Instructions

• Place pebbles or drain rocks in the bottom of the planter. This planter actually has a drainage plug that I can use when watering but I did add a few rocks to the bottom for extra drainage.

• Place a small amount of soil over the rocks. Break up the roots from the cypress and poinsettia and place in the planter.

• Fill to the top with potting soil.

• Clip your greenery and layer in the pieces around the planter. You just need to play around with this a bit until you like the look. Place larger pieces first and then fill in any gaps with smaller clippings.

• Add any embellishments that you want. I used some white branches, some silver ornament picks and a cute Nutcracker to go with our Nutcracker Christmas kitchen theme.

• I also added some twinkle lights because I always love that pretty glow! Make sure you get the activated charcoal so you don’t need to worry about turning them on and off!

Tips for maintaining your Christmas centerpiece.

This fresh greenery centerpiece will easily last throughout the holiday season with just a little maintenance.

• Place in a well-lit area away from drafts.
• Water about once per week. The poinsettia tends to like soil a little drier than the lemon cypress so you can try to direct a little more water to the cypress. Drain well or ensure that you have adequate drainage in your planter.
• Using a spray bottle, spritz down the greenery every few days to help prevent it from drying out.

More Christmas DIY Ideas

Looking for more Christmas inspiration? Check out these Christmas DIY ideas…

Amber Glass Christmas Centerpiece

DIY Fresh Christmas Wreath

DIY Felt Gingerbread Man Garland

The post Fresh Greenery Christmas Centerpiece appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.

Get ready for the holidays with these beautiful Christmas dining room decorating ideas. This gingerbread inspired decor creates a fun and festive space to enjoy throughout the season.

Welcome to our home! The Christmas home tours are always my favorite posts of the year and I’m so happy to be joining Jennifer Rizzo again for her Holiday Housewalk! There are 15 homes on the tour this year, each with their own unique style and design. There’s always so much beautiful Christmas inspiration for you. I hope you enjoy the tours as much as I do. If you would like to start the tour at the beginning, you can click on the button below!

For those of you coming over from My Sweet Savannah  – I’m so glad you’re here! I always love seeing Melaine’s home all decorated for the holidays. She adds such a gorgeous, simple touch to her spaces with lots of fun DIY projects. Her DIY gingerbread village would actually go perfect in our dining room that I’m sharing with you! If you haven’t had a chance to drop by, you can click on the button below to tour.

Christmas Dining Room

Today, I’m going to be showing you around our gingerbread house inspired Christmas dining room. If you saw our dining room last Christmas, you can see that there have been lots of changes since last year! We’ve actually done quite a few renos over this past year {that I still need to post about!} including new paint and natural hickory wood flooring throughout our main floor. Of course, once that was done, I felt our dining room needed some updating too!

Please note that this post contains affiliate links including Amazon. This means that I may make a small commission off items that you purchase at no cost to you.

Christmas Dining Room Decorating Tips

Our dining room is actually the first room that you see when you come in our front door, so I do really like to dress it up for the holidays. It was extra fun to decorate this year since it was kind of a new space for me with all of the updated furniture. Today, I thought I would share my decorating tips for dressing up your own dining room for the holidays.

Pick a theme or color scheme.

I always pick a theme, color scheme or inspiration piece as a starting point for any room that I’m decorating. This year, this cute gingerbread house cookie jar from Pottery Barn was my inspiration for the room. {It looks like it’s sold out but there are still lots of other fun gingerbread pieces left from the collection}. I used various shades of brown throughout the room along with gold accents and lots of greenery.

I always organize our Christmas decorations by color and theme when I store them away, so it’s easy to pull things that I already have to add to the space. If you like to switch up your decor like I do, this makes such a difference!

Add a little homemade.

While I absolutely LOVE shopping for Christmas decor, I also like to add some handmade crafts to our decor. I have lots of little DIY projects mixed around the room and and on the tree. I think these cinnamon snowflake ornaments turned out so cute and they smell amazing. I hung most of them from the trees with fishing wire and added the remaining ones to the garland.

They’re super easy to make with only 4 supplies needed. I’ll post the tutorial sometime this week if you want to create some of your own. I still have one more batch that I’m going to make for the Christmas tree and plan on adding in some gingerbread men as well.

Dried oranges are another easy handmade Christmas craft that you can do. You can find the simple tutorial HERE. Use them for filler, add to greenery, make garlands, or create your own Christmas tree ornaments. They can be used for many years and just get a richer, deeper amber color over time. I used these on the tree and strung them out on the garland over the light as well.

You can even make your own coasters using thick felt and a paint pen.

Mix Holiday Items with Functional Pieces

When you’re decorating a dining room, mix in some of your favorite decor pieces with functional items. Cake stands work great to provide added height when needed and serving bowls can be used to hold napkins, towels, or other serving ware. Use serving boards for a base or stack it behind your items for added interest and color.

I spent months trying to decide on some kind of cabinet for this room and finally purchased this Hardy bar cart from Pottery Barn. It’s my favorite thing in the room and I’ve already had lots of fun styling it for a few different seasons. For Christmas I used it to hold a couple of lighted gingerbread houses, some Santa Espresso mugs, serving boards, cake stands, and then a variety of Christmas bells, ornaments and greenery.

I also really like using napkins and towels to add a nice pop of color to the space. They’re inexpensive and can always be used!

Create a hot chocolate bar or other beverage bar.

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas is to put together a hot chocolate bar. It’s so fun to come up with different themes and ways to display all of the goodies!

I found these glass tree jars in the dollar section of Target and thought they would be perfect for hot chocolate and marshmallows.

I made these custom coffee bar labels for our syrups a couple of years ago and still use them. It looks like I might need to add a gingerbread label to the collection!

Layer on the greenery.

Investing in some beautiful greenery is definitely worth it as these pieces will be used year after year. I’m really loving all of the “real touch” greenery that has come out over the past few years and I’ve been gradually adding to my collection little by little. The Afloral real touch Norfolk pine garlands tend to sell out EARLY {like often October!}, but I’ve seen them come back into stock on Amazon though for short periods of time. I’ve also purchased very similar real touch garlands at Home Sense and Home Goods, like the pine garland that’s on the buffet.

The first thing that I thought of when I saw this light fixture was that it would look fabulous draped in some greenery for Christmas. lol! I add a string of dried oranges and hung some paper snowflakes from it.

Add a tree.

There’s no better way to make your space feel like Christmas than adding a tree! It doesn’t have to be a full size tree – even a little tabletop tree or smaller floor tree will add that Christmas magic! This Christmas tree is actually still a work in progress. I still have some gingerbread ornaments that I need to make and have a few ideas for some gingerbread wrapping ideas too.

I used various brown, white and gold ornaments for the tree with these DIY orange slice ornaments.  The velvet ribbon that I used throughout the room is tied on to the branches for an extra pop of color and texture.

It’s always fun to decorate under the tree as well and get creative with your wrapping. I used some of the same velvet ribbon as the tree as well as some pretty green satin ribbon.

This little Christmas mouse is a favorite of mine and different versions of him can be found all over the house.

Light it up.

Of course, I’m saving the best thing for last – the lights! I wish I was better at photography so I could really capture how pretty it looks when everything is all lit up at night.

Nothing really beats the beauty of Christmas lights! I use the GoSund plugs for all of our Christmas lights that need to be plugged in. They’re truly a game changer! They turn on and off through an app on your phone so I can have all of our Christmas lights turned on and off in the house in just a couple of seconds. They have saved me many times from having to get out of bed in the middle of the night to unplug our Christmas lights! {NOTE: They also work for Alexa and Google Home but I haven’t actually tried it myself.}

For our battery-operated lights and candles, I try to stick with ones that have a timer, so you just have to set them once and forget about them. Most stay on for 5-6 hours and work on a 24 hour timer. I have mine set so they come on around 4:30 each night just as it gets dark.

I love all of the other lights reflecting off the glass in the cabinets..

More of Our Christmas Home Tour

Thank-you so much for joining me today! I hope you were able to get some Christmas decorating inspiration for your own home. I still have lots of Christmas decor to share with you, so I hope you follow along to see the rest of our home all decorated for Christmas. Our front porch, kitchen, living room, and master bedroom will all be up in the next week or two. Here’s a little sneak peek of our kitchen for you…

And if you’re more into neutrals, I did a classic green and white calming color scheme in our bedroom…

If you’re new around here, I’d love to stay in touch! You can subscribe to my email over on the sidebar to be notified of new posts or you can always find me here…

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Before you go, don’t forget to visit the next home on our Holiday Housewalk – Zevy Joy. I know you’ll love Annie’s beautiful, traditional home, so please drop by and say hello!

The post Gingerbread House Inspired Christmas Dining Room – Holiday Housewalk appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.

Add some festive decor to your home with these cute Nutcracker Christmas printables! Such an easy way to add that perfect touch to any space this holiday season.

It has definitely been a while since I’ve been on here, but I’m excited to start sharing some holiday content with you! If you’ve been around here for a while, you know how much I love creating printables to go with our holiday decor. So… I thought this would be the perfect post to start back to the blog!

Nutcracker Christmas Printables

This Christmas, I’m doing a bit of a Nutcracker theme in our kitchen and need a cute Nutcracker printables to go along with it. Of course, I can never seem to decide on just one design so I have three free Nutcracker Christmas printables to share with you. I’d love to hear which one is your favorite!

Why are Nutcrackers associated with Christmas?

Functional nutcrackers have actually been around since the third or fourth century B.C.. Over time, they began to be carved into various animals and people and, eventually, into the shape of the soldiers and kings that we’re familiar with today. According to German folklore, nutcrackers were given as keepsakes to bring luck and protect the home.

Nutcrackers did not start to become associated with Christmas until after Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet, The Nutcracker, debuted in 1892.  The ballet is about a girl who befriends a nutcracker that magically comes to life on Christmas Eve and battles the evil Mouse King. Since then, Christmas nutcrackers have become popular around the world and can be found in many different designs and colors. As Elf would say…

Download the Free Nutcracker Christmas Printables

Would you like to use these Nutcracker Christmas printables for your own holiday decor? To download your copy, just click on the size that you’d like and save it to your computer. Each printable is available in 5×7, 8×10, and 11×14 sizes. You can then print out the smaller sizes on your home printer or send them out to any digital photo service to have them printed. {NOTE: I always specify to NOT color correct if I’m sending them out for printing.} Please note that these printables are FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY.

It’s Christmas Eve
5×7 / 8×10 / 11×14

Nutcracker Trio
5×7 / 8×10 / 11×14

Son of a Nutcracker
5×7 / 8×10 /11×14

I hope you enjoy these printables as much as I do. As always, I would love to see what you create with them. Please feel free to share your creations with me so I can take a peek!

More Free Christmas Printables

For more free Christmas printables check out these posts…

Cozy Christmas Essentials Christmas Printable

Merry Little Christmas Printable

Free Printable Christmas Place Cards

And to see ALL of my Christmas printables, go HERE! I hope you enjoy them!

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Get inspired to add some beautiful spring touches to your home with these simple early spring decor ideas! Simple tips and tricks to bring that warm spring feel to your own home.

Hello! Welcome to our early spring home tour! Although it’s really not feeling like spring outside yet, I’m determined to bring a little of that spring warmth and color to inside our home.

Spring Home Tours

Today, I’m joining Marty from A Stroll Thru Life, for her annual spring home tour. There are almost 30 homes on tour this week, so there is plenty of spring decor inspiration no matter what your style! You can find all of the links at the end of the post, so be sure to check them out.

For those of you coming over from Decor to Adore, I’m sure you enjoyed Laura’s tour. She always has the most unique, vintage-inspired style and I think it’s so cool that she’s actually related to the Laura Ingalls Wilder {my very favorite book series when I was a child!}.

Our Spring Home Tour

This year, I’m doing things a little differently for our spring home tour. I usually like to do full room tours so I can show you all of the little details, but this time, I went a little more minimalistic and just added a few touches here and there. I almost didn’t even join in the home tours, but I wanted to show you that even small changes can make a difference in the feel of a space.

Seasonal decor can be whatever you want it to be. Some years you might feel like going all out and other times, you may be pulled to more simple and subtle decor. My Mom passed away a few weeks ago, and I’m definitely in the phase where I just need some simplicity and peace in our home and I really didn’t have a lot of time {or motivation} to pull out all of our regular spring and Easter decor.

The second reason that I didn’t end up doing as much spring decor this year, is that we will soon be getting new hardwood floors throughout our main and second floors as well as a new staircase! This has been almost a year in the making so I can’t wait to get it done! We’re going to be getting natural hickory floors and doing hickory and black metal spindles on the staircase. We’re actually going to have to move everything out of the house for a few weeks, so the least I have to pack up, the better!

Easy Spring Decor Ideas

If you’re looking to add some spring touches to your home, but don’t want to spend a lot of time or money, there are lots of simple spring decor ideas that you can try. I’ve put together a few easy tips that I used myself this year to add that spring feel without a lot of work. I hope you find them helpful!

Add Flowers and Greenery.

Nothing says spring like flowers and greenery! I love adding little pops of faux greenery throughout the house. Pop them into vases, trail them over a shelf, or use them in vignettes or centerpieces for added texture and color. I purchased these pretty blue berry branches from Afloral and I love them {they’re actually on major sale right now too!}

As much as I like to use faux greenery, I do like to have at least a few real plants to add a little extra life to a space. I have been putting together a spring tropical planter for the past few years and still love them. They’re so quick and easy to create  – you can’t really go wrong! You can find the simple DIY tutorial and care instructions HERE.

And can you really have a spring home tour without tulips? lol! I love all of the different varieties and colors of tulips and they’re probably one of the most affordable flowers you can find.

Put Together a Centerpiece.

A simple centerpiece is one of the easiest way to add a seasonal touch to your space.  iI you’re unsure where to start, grab three items of various heights and textures and group them on a tray or cutting board to tie them all together. You can add small sprigs of greenery or other embellishments to add a little pop of color.

This was one of my favorite Easter centerpieces from a couple of years ago. Again,  it’s just a simple grouping on a tray that goes together in minutes!

For the kitchen or dining room table, a cutting board works well for a tray and helps to ground your centerpiece. For our kitchen table, I used a simple white, textured vase with some faux pussy willows.

Add Some Artwork.

Switching up a photo frame with some seasonal art or free printables is one of the simplest seasonal decor ideas. I store everything in the photo frame and then just change them around each season. I have a ton of Easter printables available HERE that you can choose from or you can look online for other artwork that you love. You can find this Hippity Hoppity Easter printable HERE.

Create a couple of cute vignettes.

You can still create a cute seasonal vignette on any shelf, side table, or console. I always love putting together seasonal hot chocolate bars, and added these cute bunny mugs this year {from HomeSense}. I have a whole set of Easter hot chocolate bar printables if you’d like to create your own hot chocolate display. Or you can use this Chocolates and Confectioneries printable.

I also kept my chai bar in the kitchen and just added the ceramic bunny and greenery for a softer spring touch. You can find the chai label {along with lots of other coffee bar labels!) HERE.

Find a Couple of Cute Seasonal Pieces.

Even if you just have minutes to decorate, take a few seasonal pieces and layer them in with your regular decor. Keeping a somewhat similar theme or style, will tie them all in together and make a more cohesive look. I really like these simple, white bunnies. They’re more of a cement-type material and have a little bit of texture to them. Since they’re so simple, I feel like they work throughout spring rather than just being Easter decor.

They can also be used in so many different ways and vignettes so they’re fun to change up each year. If you check out my previous home tours, you’ll be able to sport them in lots of fun places.

{Spring Dining Room Ideas}

{Spring Kitchen Decor}

Thank-you so much for touring around with me – I really hope you enjoyed the tour! Hopefully you found some little ways that you can add some spring decor to your own spaces too. If you’re new to the blog, and would like to stay in touch, you can always find me here:

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To continue on with the home tours today, head on over to from Cindy from DIY Beautify. She always has the best beautiful budget-friendly ideas for your seasonal decor! I hope you all have a wonderful spring!

More Spring Decor Ideas

if you’d like to see some of spring room tours from previous years, you can find some of them here:

Kitchen Spring Decor

Spring Dining Room Tour

Spring Living Room Decor

More Spring Home Tours

I hope you get a chance to tour around some of thee other beautiful homes on the tour. There are so many gorgeous spring decor ideas in a variety of design and decor styles. I’m sure you’ll find a ton of spring decor inspiration for your own home!

Monday March 6th

A Stroll Thru Life / The House of Silverado / StoneGable / My Wee Abode / Simply2Moms / Shiplap and Shells

Tuesday March 7th

Our Southern Home / Southern Home and Hospitality / Eleanor Rose Home / Decor to Adore / Clean and Scentsible / DIY Beautify

Wednesday March 8th

Worthing Court / Calypso in the Country / The Stonybrook House / A Pretty Life In The Suburbs / White Arrows Home / Chalking Up Success

Thursday March 9th

CitrineLiving / Pasha is Home / Whispering Pines Homestead / Up To Date Interiors / Pink Peppermint Design / Thrifty and Chick

Friday March 10th

County Road 407 / The Tattered Pew / Thistle Key Lane / It All Started With Paint / This is Our Bliss

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