Christmas has begun at my house

I know that for many people it seems way too early to start decorating for Christmas, but I like to get an early start, as it takes me a good two weeks to get my decorations done, and I like to have them all up and ready for my Christmas visitors by December 1.  I love my Christmas treasures, and  like to enjoy them for as long as I can.  Since I like to have my house back to normal by New Years Day, my Christmas things start getting packed away on Christmas Day.

I'm going to take you on a tour of my Christmas house, room by room over the next month.This year I started decorating on the bottom level of the house - which consists of my lounge room, study, and laundry.   So tonight I'll start with the study, or at least half of the study.  The study is one of the two rooms I decorate that has very few Santas.  Most of my Santas are in the lounge and dining rooms.
 
 Here's the view of the study from the lounge-room doorway.  On the wall to the left is my Baltimore Quilt Album Sampler stitched as a round robin in 2004.  It is the only framed piece in my house that stays in the same place all year - every other piece is either packed away and replaced by a Christmas piece, or moves to another room at Christmas.

and a close-up of my snowpeople.  The snowpeople are one of my accidental collections, but I have grown very fond of them over the past few years as the group has grown.

This is one of my favourite little collections - my Santa pens and pencils, which I keep in a gorgeous Santa mug purchased in Macys in San Francisco way back in 1994.  Some of the pens are 16 years old.

 

 

and here are treasures made for me by my nieces Ciara (the painted Santa) and Aislinn (the two cross stitched greetings).

 

 



 Here are two old favourites - Santa & Mrs Claus made out of plastic bleach bottles (not by me).  They have been part of my Christmas since 1988, when I bought them from the maker at a local market.

 

This is one of my favourite masks - this one is made of papier mache.  I've had it for close to 20 years, but it's still a favourite.

 

 

 

That's as far as I can show you right now.  The study also has the Children's Corner, but I'll have to leave that for another day.