With an almost two-year-old in the house, the magic of Christmas started early in our house this year. It’s been so fun to see Crew react to the twinkling lights, exclaim “Kiss-mus tee!”, and point out Santa wherever he spots him. He calls all references to snow “snow man”, so he has some differentiating to figure out….it’s Iowa, so he’ll get plenty of chances this year ha! At any rate, with an enthusiastic audience, it’s been fun to start the decking a little earlier, so we can enjoy the holiday season for as long as possible.

I’m hoping to photograph and post our home this coming weekend — but the season always kicks off for me officially with Christmas cards.

Cards are, hands-down, my favorite tradition of the season. Facebook posts just aren’t any substitute for seeing what people are up to, and I love old fashioned mail that no one sends anymore. I love displaying the cards we receive around our house, and always pack them up at the end of the holidays with the decorations, to flip through them one more time when we unpack it all the following year. As in past years, I designed my own (I’ll post it once it hits mailboxes!) but saved myself a ton of time (and not so great handwriting) by ordering customized pre-addressed envelopes from Tiny Prints’ holiday card collection. I keep an excel file anyway of everyone’s addresses…it was a HUGE time saver to just upload my list and have envelopes WAY cuter than anything I could address, arrive at my doorstep, ready to stuff!

What is your favorite holiday tradition?? Now that I’ve checked mine off my list, it’s on to more decking of the halls! 🙂