[Our New] Home for the Holidays // Christmas Home Tour 2021

Welcome, welcome! I am back today with more of our Holiday Home! There is truly so much joy during the holiday season and here on the blog is no exception. I love joining other talented bloggers throughout the month of December to showcase our homes all dressed and ready for Christmas. It extra special this year because this will be our very first Christmas in our new home in Arizona. Come on in and have a look around at [Our New] Home for the Holidays – My Christmas Home Tour 2021.

I’m thrilled to be a part of Marty from A Stroll Thru Life‘s Holiday Home Tour Week again this year. A big thanks to her for rounding up such a lovely group of ladies and all of the work that goes into hosting a week of tours!

If you want to catch up on my Christmas Home Tours from year’s past, you can see them all here. And my Full Christmas Gallery here – filled with gift guides, decorating inspiration, recipes & more.

If you’re stopping by from Southern Hospitality, then welcome. I’m so glad you’re here! And if you are new to This is our Bliss, then hello! My name is Rachael and I’m the girl behind the lifestyle site where I share all things life, style and home. Speaking of home, we have a new one! In fact, my husband, 3 boys and I just moved from Illinois to Arizona in July of this year. So there are lots of “new” things in our lives.

You can check out our Farewell Tour here, our Empty house tour here and our Early Fall Home Tour here.

Although we got right down to business not too long after we moved in. We were busy working this Fall when I participated in the Fall One Room Challenge and refreshed our Kitchen & Family Room, We still have plenty more projects on the docket, but we’ve settled in nicely and I’m happy to report our house definitely feels like home now. 

I don’t have many spaces fully up & running around here yet, but that wasn’t going to stop me from sprinkling some Christmas cheer throughout the house for us all to enjoy. After all, it’s still 80 degrees outside, so anything I can do to make it feel cozy & Christmas-y inside, might help us get in the holiday spirit. We’ll just pretend its cold & snowy outside while we sip our hot chocolate inside 😉

Now, come and take a look at how our Family Room shaped up for the holiday season.

Then I’ll share some snapshots of our Christmas Living Room & Our Outdoor Fireplace this season ICYMI!

OUR NEW HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS // CHRISTMAS HOME TOUR 2021

In case I haven’t said it enough, I couldn’t be happier with the dark & moody built-ins. We had them painted Tricorn Black during the Fall ORC when our Kitchen cabinets were done. They do read a dark gray in this lighting, but either way, I am completely & utterly obsessed. 

The metallic touches and pops of red in the space really complement the dark color so well.

I was nervous about going so dark at first, but now I can’t imagine having them any other way! 

Swapping out some décor & accessories on my newly styled shelves was fun. I planned to edit and remove more than I did, but ended up just adding the Christmas right on in! Usually, more is more in my book and that’s what I went with on the shelves. Especially on the right side when I basically pulled out every tree I could find and clustered them on the top shelf.

This shelf full of shining, sparkling trees just makes me happy.

Since we just spent time and money finishing this space, I opted to not spend much on new Christmas decorations. With the exception of the new pencil tree in the corner and some fresh flowers, I just used what I had. And other than the infinite amount of Christmas trees on the built-ins, I wanted a more simplistic Christmas vibe. 

Just a few pops of red and a glowing tree to accent and highlight the other aspects of the space.

Red flowers, a Santa Claus candle, an old red throw blanket, a scrap of red plaid ribbon and my garland + twinkle lights is pretty much the extent of my Christmas decor. But oh how I love how it looks in here. Especially at night with the tree glowing and the candles lit.

In fact, I couldn’t even locate our stockings when we pulled the Christmas totes out. I can’t imagine they got lost in the move, but for now, we’re making due without them. I’ll have to figure something out pretty soon because I know the boys will be asking!

If and when I find them [or maybe I’ll have to grab some new ones?!], I’ll have to figure out how and where to hang them. We have our outdoor fireplace, but we don’t have a fireplace or mantel inside anymore. I really did love decorating the mantel for the holidays.

You can see all of my past Christmas mantels here.

Maybe the stockings will end up on the outdoor mantel? We are in Arizona after all!

I added a few other simple green trees throughout the shelves and lastly, you’ll find Manny, our boys’ beloved elf. He has yet to get ultra creative with his daily appearances but have we heard he has a few tricks up his sleeve in the coming weeks.

After all, hopping on the bookshelf or a bottle of wine isn’t too thrilling. 

He’s just learning the ropes of the new house first.

Now to circle back on the glowing star of the show, our super cute new skinny pencil tree! We didn’t have a spot for our big 9′ flocked tree, so realized in order to have one in our main living space, we needed to go ahead and buy a smaller one, better suited for this spot. The spot my olive tree was living for the last couple of months.

I do have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at just how perfect the sizing was once we set it up. It was easy to set-up and extremely well-lit. I highly recommend this tree if you have a small space you want to put a tree.

I chatted a little more about the tree in this post here.

And in the effort to use more of what I already had, I placed a white pom pom trim blanket around the base of the tree instead of buying a new tree collar.

I think it worked out just fine!

I did grab these pampas grass stems and mixed them in with my metallic and black ornaments and picks. The tree is exactly what I wanted for in here. I couldn’t stand the thought of not having some sort of a Christmas tree in the main hub of our home. She’s small but mighty, we can even see a sliver of the tree from the driveway, front door and back patio.

The front Living Room is where the flocked tree ended up and I have to say, I love how this room came together for Christmas. I shared all the details in this post here, but you can see a few snapshots below.

I’m not sure if we’ll gather in here or the Family Room. But I know where most of the presents will be – and most likely not under the pencil tree you saw earlier!

And lastly, I embraced the fact we no longer have an indoor fireplace, so decided to decorate the outdoor one for Christmas! A couple poinsettias, my favorite pre-lit garland and a roaring fire and it was ready to rock and roll for the holidays!

I even ended up eating my pie out here by the fire on Thanksgiving!

Well that pretty much wraps up our holiday home this year in the new house. I can’t wait to continue to show you more and more bits and pieces of our new Arizona home over the coming year – because have a feeling things will be already be looking a wee bit different come next Christmas.

I hope you all have had a great start to your holiday season! Can you believe we’ve almost rounded out the first week of the month already?! A little more shopping and lots [and by lots, I mean all] of the wrapping to do.

How are you coming along?!

Ready for more Christmas inspiration, be sure to stop by my bestie, Heather of Southern State of Mind’s tour. She’s up next! Her home is always a treat, but especially at Christmastime. She’s got a gorgeous home, a casual, collected style, the cutest nutcracker collection and a ton of great decorating ideas I know you’ll find inspiring!

Have a great week and enjoy the rest of the tours!

You can shop our Christmas Family Room by clicking any of the shoppable images below:

HOLIDAY HOME TOUR WEEK 

Monday Dec 6th

A Stroll Thru Life – Up To Date Interiors – Our Southern Home – Southern Hospitality

This Is Our Bliss – Southern State of Mind – Inspiration For Moms

Tuesday December 7th

Making it in the Mountains – Decor to Adore – Pink Peppermint Design – Thrifty and Chic

Cuckoo4Design – White Arrows Home – Hymns and Verses

Wednesday December 8th

StoneGable – Whispering Pines Homestead – Worthing Court – Grace In My Space

DIY Beautify – Remodelando la Casa – LeCultivateur

Thursday December 9th

Designing Vibes – The Stonybrook House – A Pretty Life – Calypso in the Country

Clean and Scentsible – 11 Magnolia Lane – Chalking Up Success

Friday December 10th

Fox Hollow Cottage – Follow The Yellow Brick Home – Casa Watkins Living – Quarters One

Noting Grace – CitrineLiving – County Road 407

If you want to catch up on my Christmas Home Tours from year’s past, you can see them all here. And my Full Christmas Gallery here – filled with gift guides, decorating inspiration, recipes & more.