What November Means to Me...

November 1st. That means that Thanksgiving (of the Canadian variety) and Halloween are behind us... so the next best thing is Christmas! Friends, I am a HUGE Christmas fan! Back in my University days, my room mate and I had a rule that no Christmas music was allowed until November 1st. That being said, you would usually find us returning home from Halloween parties in the wee hours of the morning, turning on those Christmas tunes and dancing around still dressed in our costumes. I'm not a "crazy Christmas lady"... I swear, I just love it... a lot!


Last year, Christmas decorating came late, as B is American and believes in no decorating until after American Thanksgiving. I'll take it, since I do get him and usually a second Thanksgiving. Sadly, this year will be the first since we started dating that we will not be at his parents place in Massachusetts for this great holiday. The upside to this however, is that I will get to start decorating for Christmas earlier this year (a week prior to Thanksgiving)! JOY! Of course, that means that I've definitely started scouting some great Christmas decorating ideas...

Love this simple and understated Christmas card display from Better Homes & Gardens. I'm already picturing using some great ribbon to hang our own Card display from the beautiful brand new closet doors that we'll be installing in our new entry! 

Love these sweet candy cones, made from waffles from Country Living. They'd be great when entertaining for the holidays - hanging on a cute little tree like this for guests to snack on. I think I may try to make some paper cones for this purpose, using this tutorial from Martha.

In our living room, we keep to a pretty blue, white and silver theme for our decorations. I've been looking for some great inspiration for our mantel and here's one that I love...

This pretty little mantel from Country Living is so perfect in it's simplicity. I love the idea of bringing in some fresh boughs to bring the outside in and make it really smell like Christmas(especially after we decided to go the faux tree route last year). We also already have the silver decorations, and a lovely little candle holder that I cannot wait to pull out. Plus, the idea of using something as simple as some paper streamers is lovely (and cost effective!).

I made some jingle bell door knob wreaths (like the one above from Martha Stewart) last Christmas for us and my parents. They were really easy and oh-so inexpensive to make. I never did share a how-to last year, so I guess this is the year! I cannot wait to pull them out and adorn our door knobs. It's so great open the door and hear them jingle away festively!

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Though B and I have already decided to forego a traditional gift exchange with one another this year, there will be gifts for others that we will have to wrap. I always love the simplicity of using brown kraft paper to wrap gifts, and then bring in colour with seasonal decorations and pretty gift tags and ribbon!

Alright, so I know it's only November 1st... I won't overload you with Christmas goodness quite yet! At least you all know where I am at mentally... sitting around our Christmas tree drinking hot chocolate with a roaring fire in our fireplace. I think our home was built with the perfect Christmas in mind!

Are you like me... mentally preparing for all of the Christmas decorating goodness, or do you wait a little longer to get excited about the most wonderful day of the year?