Happy Christmas Eve Eve to you! Do you celebrate December 23rd?

For many years when I was younger my friend Kit and I would celebrate Christmas Eve Eve as our own holiday, and though we move our friends-date around nowadays, today always feels like it’s ripe with a little extra magic.

I’m so excited to share my second Christmas decorations home tour with you today! I shared my first festive home tour last year, and it was so fun putting it together.

One of my favourite things about blogging is having a record of chapters in my life. I didn’t think about how special that would be as I grew up, but nowadays it’s fun every now and then to dig into the archives of the blog and reflect on past seasons. I started The Elgin Avenue when I was a student at LCF, and I used to shoot so many of my outfits in the hallways at Uni! Ha!

In a similar vein, looking back on mine and Oli’s first flat together makes me feel so nostalgic, and I hope that in years to come being able to reflect on Christmas in our current home will bring back magical memories too.

Top up your drink of choice because this blog post has images APLENTY! I hope you enjoy having a peek at 2019’s Christmas decorations home tour!

The Tree

Where to start if not with THE tree? Once again Oli and I bought our tree at Burcot Farm. It’s amazing there! This year we made an occasion of going to get our tree, organising with friends and my sister, her fiancee and baby boy to all go and choose our trees together. Burcot Farm has a hog roast, hot chocolate station, ales and more, so it’s a great place to hang out for a while as you ponder your choice of tree . . . !

The farm has a lovely shop on-site too, which sells Christmas tree decorations and other bits and bobs for decorating your home. Not to mention the mechanical animals and snowman which were a HUGE hit with my nephew, and in all honesty me too haha!

For decorating the tree, Oli and I brought out our usual round of ornaments.

Like last year we used ‘base baubles’ in gold, which came in a multipack from Tesco years ago.

We then added special ornaments which we’ve collected over the years. Some are from Liberty, others from friends, Alresford Linen, Long Barn, Sass & Belle, Anthropologie . . . we pick them up whenever we see some we love.

I love the living room when it’s all decked out!

Since we kept the tree pretty monochromatic, any extra baubles go into a bowl on our coffee table.

I also like to add little ornaments, lights and special candles throughout the flat, for an extra dose of festive goodness wherever I can!

Oh and the train set! Do you remember the vintage Polar Express set that Oli’s Dad gave us last year?

I’m sure that this guy will be looping our Christmas trees forever more.

It’s such a cute addition, and any time friends visit they love to put it on and hear all the noises it makes too!

Note: not just for kids haha!

Wreaths

I think that Christmas 2019 will be known as ‘the year of the wreaths’ for us!

Last year Oli had the inspiration to decorate our living room windows with wreaths we picked up and then embellished from Dutch Masters. We loved the look of them so much, that this year we added another one to the window in our kitchen, which was a lovely gift from Bloom & Wild.

I also made my own Christmas wreath which we popped on our front door.

So that’s four and counting . . . !

TBH I feel like I could add a wreath to every window in the flat! I love them and they feel so festive. Recently I was in a gorgeous cafe in St Margaret’s, Zoran’s Deli, which had a whole line of wreaths, one on top of the other, spaced out by ribbon in their windows . . . an idea for 2020?!

A wreath can also look amazing over a fireplace, or hanging over the front of a mirror too. Can you tell I’m a *little* involved?!

Garlands

Once again this year I made a DIY eucalyptus garland for above our fireplace.

This is SUCH an easy DIY, I just kind of make it up as I go along!

I bought a huge bunch of eucalyptus, again from Dutch Masters since they’re a wholesaler and it’s a bit cheaper. I then used a few cut-off branches from our Christmas tree as a base, and wired them together using florist’s wire.

I’m Wearing

Coat: Phase Eight c/o | Jumper: Velvet Tees c/o

Skirt: Sosandar (Past Season) | Boots: Jigsaw (Past Season)

Hadband: Alice & Blair c/o

Next year I’ll try and get my act together in time to share the DIY, since it’s one of my favourite decorative elements in our home.

I got so into it (and we had SO much greenery to go around!), that I ended up making a garland for our bar area, bar cart, and to frame the door into our living room too.

Speaking of bar area . . . did you notice that we’ve painted it?! I’ll do a full before and after in the new year, but Oli and I ended up going for Farrow & Ball’s De Nimes and we L O V E it!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I hope that you enjoyed having a peek at my Christmas decorations home tour this year! It was super fun putting it together!

Thank you for your support throughout the whole of this year, whether your read The Elgin Avenue and double tap religiously, or if it’s your first time round these parts! I really appreciate every single view, like, email . . . it means a lot to me.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas, and a very Happy New Year! Can you believe we’re entering a new decade?!

Love, as always, Monica x

Photography by Charlotte Bryer-Ash