Today marks the start of the Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend here in Old Town Alexandria. It's my favorite weekend of the year, and is the perfect festive kick off to our holiday season. The town is abuzz, homes are adorned with their holiday finest, and the chill in the air hints of fun, family, and much cheer throughout the month. 

Tomorrow we'll be attending the Designer Tour of Homes to see how other residences in town are all decked out for the holidays (and congratulations to our winner of the ticket giveaway!), but first we thought you might like to see our Old Town Home all gussied up for the season. 

This year we took a more natural approach to our decor. Not only do I love the look, feel, and smell of fresh greens this time of year, but I'm having surgery early next month that will leave me on crutches for several weeks. So the less we take out of the attic now, means the less Alex has to put away next month when I'm laid up. So outside of our trees and a few cherished holiday items, we kept it pretty simple (and recyclable) this holiday season.

While decorating for the season can be a bit daunting, especially on a timeline, I tried to make it more fun this year by making sure we were well nourished to take on the tree trimming task. A great Christmas playlist, bottle of bubbly, and a cheese and fruit board made the evening a great family event. Too bad we decimated the food and drink before a single ornament went on the tree. Perhaps not my best executed plan.

These too lovable goof balls also kept us entertained while we hung all of our ornaments on the tree. As you can see, Christmas has everyone getting along this time of year. 

Christmas happens to be Mel's favorite time of year, when he can snooze under the boughs of the tree, warmed by the twinkling lights. We refer to him as "Sap Head" during the month of December because he sports a sticky noggin from all of his beneath-the-pine slumber.

We did manage to get the trees decorated. That's right. Trees, plural. Let's start with a look at the main tree, snugly situated between our living and dining rooms, with hand blown glass ornaments (218 to be exact, we counted as we hung), plaid ribbon, and red berry sprigs and garland. We love this spot because it's visible from our living, dining and family rooms, and it doesn't require moving any furniture. I added a couple red bows to our mantel topiaries, our embroidered stockings, and a few other touches and called the living room done.

Our second, smaller tree is set up in the sun porch. This tree features a silver and white theme with clear and mercury glass ornaments. The tree skirt is a piece of burlap that we wrap around the stand and wood box the tree sits on. I'm not sure what it is about the feel or smell of the burlap, but we can't keep Mel and Lulu off of it. Most of the month of December is spent crouched over rearranging the burlap as they like to pull it off and lay on it. You can see evidence of their antics in the photo below.

Using greens from a friend's yard and wrapped vases, ornaments and pine cones left over from 2012 when our house was on the home tour, I quickly assembled two small arrangements that I'll use as centerpieces when entertaining and as decor when we're not.

Tonight we're hosting a small group of friends, so in honor of the Scottish Christmas Walk weekend I've decked out the table and buffet with tartan runners. 

We even broke out our wedding stemware and china (after 12 years of marriage, I'm happy to report that as of last night all of our place settings now have the stickers removed!), and for the first time ever are using the leaves in our dining table. 

 A bow, fresh greens, ornaments, and pine cones round out the mantel in this room.

Outside we hung a live boxwood wreath on each window, complete with a tartan bow. Only having three windows makes this a manageable endeavor, no question. 

I also used surplus pine branches trimmed from our living room tree to spruce up the urns out front, and we added two electric candles to each window. 

Overall I'm happy with how our holiday decor came out. It wasn't too overwhelming, and the house still looks ready for the holidays. In fact, the only one of us who needed a nap when we were finished was Lulu. She was probably just worn out from fighting Mel for space on the burlap tree skirt.

What are your plans for holiday decor this year? Are you going all out to be the house with the most, or would you rather enjoy just a little festiveness to allow more time for fun?