November 23, 2020

Holiday TRADITIONS

Thank you Better Homes and Gardens at Walmart, one of my favorite brands, for sponsoring this post!

When I think of the holidays, I think of all the fun memories/traditions at home. Today, I wanted to share some of my favorite holiday traditions with you! Hope this gives you some ideas for your own family! Some might think I’m fancy when they see some of my pictures, but in real life I’m not fancy at all. I want to show you how putting things in containers and adding a few more pillows and blankets can get you that insta-worthy shot using Better Homes and Gardens products at Walmart!

ONE // My kids love to decorate gingerbread houses in December. If candy is involved, it’s always on the top of their list. 😉 We’ve changed it up throughout the years and have done the boxed houses or made our own using graham crackers. Check out the setup below! I got the porcelain tiered serve set and placed the graham crackers, marshmallows, and Twizzlers on it. Then placed more toppings in individual square appetizer bowls.

Making the houses with graham crackers is super easy, and we use a hot glue gun to get the pieces to stick together. For the trees, we use sugar cones!

Make sure you grab different colored frosting and icing to decorate the trees and houses! The more variety of candy the better. If we decide to do the boxed gingerbread houses, I usually buy extra toppings.

We have been using this Better Homes and Gardens table and chairs in the rental, and I can’t believe we’ll be moving into the new house next month! They came out with a new white dining table too which is similar to this one.

TWO // It gets cold here in Iowa during the winter months, and the kids love playing outside in the snow. When they play outside, the first thing they want to have is hot chocolate. The kids love having a hot chocolate bar in the kitchen. Again, this doesn’t have to be super fancy. Just get some toppings and put them in mason jars. Then place cute holiday mugs, hot chocolate packets, and the mason jars in a basket, and you’re done!

THREE // We spend Christmas Eve with my side of the family, and then on Christmas Day it’s just our family. I love this because we can wake up, open presents from Santa, and then just relax at home. We don’t have any plans on Christmas Day other than enjoying some family time…the kids play with their new gifts and Nick and I get a lazy day. In the past we would have to rush out to get to Nick’s side of the family on Christmas Day, but now we don’t head to Dubuque until December 26th. Here’s an idea for Christmas Day breakfast! The kids looooove this!! 😉 All I did was put a bunch of breakfast goodies and fruit on a wood tray. It’s a breakfast version of a Charcuterie board!

I’m all about making my life easy, so the only thing that needed to be cooked was the bacon and the pancakes. Everything else came packaged or I just had to wash/slice it.

FOUR // Holiday movies and Lifetime Christmas movies are a must during this time of year. Everyone usually fights over who gets to sit on the couch, so I set this cozy area right by it with some buffalo plaid and reversible striped pillows and my favorite throw blankets, a faux fur animal print and black buffalo plaid. I’ve always wanted to get a bed tray, and I’m so glad I finally have one! This is less than $20! The bed tray is great for movie nights. We place our popcorn bowl, drinks, and extra snacks on it.