It probably won’t surprise any of you to hear that I love decorating for Christmas. But it might surprise you to learn that as part of this year’s theme I filled my tree with bird feathers!
We call our home Bird’s Nest and that theme plays out in our decor, our stationary and even the layout of the landscaping. So when I needed a theme for my Christmas decor I thought I’d do something with birds, feathers, branches, etc but I also needed to make sure it meshed well with my existing holiday decor which is rustic and very country christmas. A trip to HomeGoods meant that I had a ton of gorgeous accessories to work with and fabulous inspiration. The end result is a little bit vintage, a little bit rustic and a whole lot of feathers! Comment below and let me know what you think! xo, Rachel
In my house the tree is the star of the show and I absolutely love how beautifully this years turned out! Believe me, when I started pulling out bird feathers and twigs from my bags my husband was more than a little concerned.
But as soon as we started adding the different burlap ribbons instead of garland we could both tell it was going to look great.
Before I move on, I have to show y’all this tree stand cover (yes, this is an HG find as well) that looks like an old barrel. I have always used tree skirts but I thought this was so cool and I absolutely love how it anchors our tree!
We started with strands of white lights and then added the thin garland made of twigs. Next came alternating similarly hued ribbon. I used one strand of solid color jute with hints of gold, one strand of window pane twine and one thick roll of jute with words printed on it… I thought that was especially fitting for an author’s tree. 😉
For the feathers I gathered a collection of dark and long variety from the craft store and then just stuck them in here and there. They don’t need anything to hold them in place, just tuck them down inside the branches. Love that gold tipped feather? Check these out.
Next came the ornaments! It’s important to me that this is still our family tree so I didn’t buy anything new or different. I did however, encourage the boys to add the red ornaments toward the front of the tree since I thought that was the best accent color.
As gorgeous as this tree might be it’s still decorated by little boys so amongst the branches are homemade gifts, and cartoon characters. We’re not formal and neither is our country Christmas!
Lastly, up top, next to a star I’ve had for ages is a little nest with a bird inside… I couldn’t resist!
As for my mantle, I started with this garland I made last year the big star and the stockings were all a HomeGoods finds though the Elf on the Shelf (whose name is Jingle in our house) must have snuck in at night.
We had to cut off a few of the bottom branches of our tree when we brought it home so I used those to pull little sprigs for the stockings… it just added some nice texture and color to all that burlap.
For the coffee table decoration I stacked up some of my vintage muffin and loaf tins and filled them with pinecones and more pieces of the tree. I think it’s such a simple and sweet centerpiece. What do you think of my Country Christmas?
