It’s tradition in my family to decorate for Christmas on Thanksgiving Day. As soon as my feet hit the floor that morning, I’m freaking Buddy the Elf. The stockings are hung and the tree is up and decorated by Thanksgiving dinner.

There are a couple of new holiday decorations we have up at our house this year.

First, I made a new card holder inspired from something I saw on Pinterest. I got the wooden part for $5 at Target, super glued wide holiday ribbon to it and added clothes pins.

{What? You’re friends haven’t sent you Christmas cards yet? Awkward. Just kidding. Those are our old cards…}

And to repurpose the card holder we already had, I used it to display old family holiday photos. AJ and I had so much fun doing this. Sifting through 30-year-old pictures of us sitting on Santa’s lap when we were kids, Christmases with family members that are no longer with us, the first Christmas with both of our kids. We’ve loved sitting in the living room with the tree lit and explaining to the kids who everyone is. The holidays always make me very nostalgic, so this is a way for me to indulge that side.

{Favorite photo? The one where my sister is rocking a New Kids on the Block hat on Christmas Eve. I can’t wait for her to get here so I can embarrass her.}

Lastly, and 100% less sentimental, I made this construction paper snowman with the kids to replace the pumpkins that were hanging in the same spot over Halloween/Thanksgiving. We took the pumpkins down and it felt so empty, so I filled it. It will be a shame when the kids grow up because then we can’t legitimately decorate our home with paper crap.

I’m so excited for this holiday season that I think I may explode with tinsel.

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