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Create a fun and welcoming holiday mantel…even on a budget.
Don’t you just love this time of year?! The beautiful decorations, the crisp winter air, the joy and cheer that’s all around. Don’t get me wrong I love the holidays, but sometimes I can get sucked in to the “I have to have the perfect house, decorations, tree, gifts, life” mentality. I’m sure you’ve felt it to (and if you haven’t I totally envy you); you see all the pictures of beautifully decorated homes, Christmas trees full of presents, gorgeous family Christmas cards where everyone is matching and all the kids have perfect smiles and you sometimes you wish “Man I wish that was my life.” But then I remember how perfectly imperfect my life is and how much I love it and wouldn’t change a thing.
One thing I’ve found a true passion for, even more so around a holiday, is letting my boys help with the decorating. They have such pride in the things they do. Whenever we do a project together they tell everyone (and I mean everyone, dad, grandma, friends, the lady at the drive thru) about it and how “beautiful” it is. It may not look professionally decorated but it looks and feels like home; and that’s what matters most to me. Christmas time is no exception so when it was time to decorate I let them take the wheel. 
They decorated the tree, helped hang stockings and decided how we were going to decorate our mantel. They picked out a chalkboard Christmas tree, an LED snowflake lantern and they’re favorite, the hot cocoa station. I try to make any activity a learning experience so when we were deciding on what to put on the wall I had them work on their patterns. We got a pack of glitter felt Christmas shapes and laid them out on the floor. I made the pattern twice and had them repeat it. We made two of these, one for over the TV and one for over the mantel. But the mantel was still missing something.
That’s when I remembered seeing these Yarn Pom Poms on Pinterest and knew they would be a great addition to our mantel. They are super easy to make and a fun craft for kids to help with too. All you need is yarn and scissors.
Supplies:
Yarn (I used green, red and white to match our felt garland)
scissors
Directions:
Take yarn and wrap around three fingers (you can do one, two, three or four fingers it will just change the size of the pom pom).
Hold the end of the yarn with your thumb.
Continue to wrap the yarn around your fingers (You want it snug but not tight. If it’s too tight it will turn your fingers purple).
After you’ve wrapped the yarn around your fingers about 30 times, cut the yarn and hold the end again with your thumb.
Cut a second piece of yarn, same color, about 12″ long.
Push that piece of yarn in between the middle two fingers.
Pull it through and wrap around the yarn.
Loop it twice and tie a knot.
Pull yarn off of your fingers.
Wrap the small piece of yarn around the yarn ball again and tie tight on the other side.
Start cutting through the loops of yarn.
Once all the loops are cut fluff your pom pom with your fingers.
To Make Garland:
Measure and cut a piece of yarn to the length you want the garland (I used all three colors).
Tie the long center string from the pom poms on to the garland string.
Hang on wall, stair case, bookcase, tree, where ever you would like.
Now our house was starting to feel a lot more like a Christmas home. We were just missing the smell of Christmas. When we were at Smith’s for our bi-weekly grocery trip I saw this gorgeous display of Glade® Limited Edition Winter Collection Fragrances. Not only did they look pretty (and totally matched our motif) but they smelt amazing. I picked out a few of my favorite scents, CHERISH THE PRESENT™ (Apple Cinnamon) and SHARE THE SPIRIT™ (Pomegranate Sparkler), and couldn’t wait to get them home. CHERISH THE PRESENT™ smells just like Christmas did when I was a kid; the hint of apple and cinnamon pair so perfectly together. And SHARE THE SPIRIT™ is the perfect pick-me-up scent. I love using a few spritzes of the Premium Room Spray right before we have company coming over; it really makes the house smell warm, cozy and inviting.
So now our home really felt like Christmas. It looks like Christmas, it smells like Christmas and every time I walk by our mantel I get a smile on my face knowing that this was something we created as a family. And every time I light that candle it reminds me of Christmases growing up; a great memory I hope I can pass down to my children too. Do you have a favorite scent of the season? Check out the full line of Glade® Limited Edition Winter Collection to find your favorite scent too!
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