Winter Living: Ideas and Items for Post-Christmas Decor

I was so thankful for one full day after New Year's and prior to going back to work to have an opportunity to take down my Christmas trees, Christmas decor, clean all the glitter and fake evergreen off the floor, and get my house in order. Although I love Christmas and my trees, I'm always a little happy to get back to normal, especially after my cat, Ginger, bats one too many ornaments off the tree, makes holes in the tree, breaks Christmas glass, and pukes on the tree skirt (let me tell you, she's worse than Cooper and is even more wild since he came into the picture!). Even though it's nice to minimize and clean up, I always struggle on what to do with my house after everything comes down. It is so dark without the light of the Christmas tree, especially as we are heading into the dead of winter, and I have not had normal decor up since September (because of all my fall items!). I still like to stay with the seasons but always feel the need to change it up after the Christmas comes down. As I often do, I look to Pinterest for some "Pinspiration." Even though some of my ideas are basic for winter decor, it was nice to get a fresh perspective from Pinterest, and it allowed me to re-look at some of my stored decor in a new light!

One of my favorite things to do to brighten up the house and add coziness is to use flameless candles throughout my rooms. I guarantee I have some type of flameless candle in almost every room! As you can see, the top pic is a photo of the flameless candles and hurricanes during day, and the bottom photo is of them lit up in the evening. Their stained glass and mosaic effects are pretty enough to have during the day without them lit up (even though I still do), and they almost create a winter icy look. At night, they cast a soft warm glow for clarity and warmth.

One thing I hate is dark corners, so I try to add some sort of light. Even if some corners are not lit, often one or two corners in a room is enough to cast a warm glow throughout. When I moved into my house, I inherited this little corner with a built-in wall corner table. It is next to my wine bar, and I have kept it, as it's a great little area for decor or a vignette. I changed this area up by adding a new cork container and adding two flameless candles on their own. I also inherited wallpaper throughout my house. My home is awesome, and the older gentleman that lived here actually brought a lot of modern ideas to the house, but I do have some projects here and there. I'm slowly working through the list room by room, so excuse any wallpaper you may see. They have all been projects, and as I worked on rooms, I came across unexpected surprises, so some of these have taken longer than anticipated. This striped one actually does not bother me all that much, and it goes with the room.

Several years back, when i was living in my apartment, I inherited this plant stand from my grandma. It came with me to my house and was actually great in this corner in my kitchen (I have a tri-level home). I change out the flowers (I always use fake) throughout the year and have consistently kept Christmas lights on the planter to provide a nice glow in the corner year round. At this time, I have decided to keep my white poinsettias for now. I have some spilling greenery I could change out, but I'm not sure what I want to do at this time.

Now, hurricanes with candles and filler may seem like a basic idea, but I have not done this in several years, as I have been using some vintage mid-century glass, vases with flowers, or candles with wreaths as main centerpiece for tables. I refreshed my coffee table with a large hurricane and some leftover small cinnamon pinecones from Christmas.

Speaking of pinecones, they are a great natural element for winter decor, and you likely have some leftover from Christmas! I refreshed this decorative basket by adding fresh pinecones and more filler.

I was in the hurricane mood, as I added some additional light to my wine bar. I always had the light on the right on the bar, but after having some fun Christmas lights, I felt like it needed something else. Voila! Hurricane glass and wine corks.

Another idea to bring some warm glow to your rooms is to change out your regular light bulbs for amber light bulbs. Now, this will not work in every color scheme, especially if you use a lot of cool tones like gray, white, or light blue, but it works nicely in some rooms of my home that have more a lodge-like or craftsman style feel. If you live in an older craftsman home with lots of dark wood molding and accents, I would encourage you to look into Amber lighting if you have not already. My light (which my dad made in middle school shop class!) has an amber bulb.

In some instances, it is ok to leave some Christmas decor items up as long as they look like winter rather than Christmas. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing in my dining room, but I like this wreath I had for Christmas in there for the time being. I really liked this burlap reindeer box I bought at TJ Maxx, which I think looks nice on the fireplace and can pass for winter.

Some items you can leave up from Christmas that are indicative of winter rather than Christmas are generally natural items and colors you will find outside at this time like reindeer, deer, pinecones, evergreen, green, wood elements, white, snow, snowflakes, and icy elements.