Blue Christmas: Balsam Hill’s Twelve Bloggers of Christmas Tour

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!  I hope that by the time you sit down to read this post, you’ve enjoyed lots of delicious food and are relaxing in the afterglow/turkey coma.

We are spending the day with good friends in the Raleigh area.  They were our next door neighbors when we lived in Savannah and we’re thrilled to have them less than an hour away.  My husband is home for almost a week–yay!–and my daughter has the day off from Nutcracker rehearsals (also–yay!) with full-length performances beginning tomorrow night, so this is a rare break in our family chaos.

If you’ve been following us on Facebook, then you already know that we’re participating in the 12 Bloggers of Christmas tour, sponsored by Balsam Hill.  They’re one of our favorite companies to work with, and after their Light Up the Night Summer Housewalk we were looking forward to partnering with them again.

If you’re visiting from Alicia’s at A Burst of Beautiful, then welcome!  Her pretty flocked tree was at the top of my Balsam Hill wish list and is definitely worth a look.

I have to say that I’ve admired their trees for years, but we used the same artificial tree for almost twenty years until we finally donated it last year, when we downsized to the MCC House.

If you’re new around here, here’s the quick back story:  my husband has served in the Army for about twenty-five years and moved to Ft. Riley, Kansas, this past summer for a two-year assignment.  Our oldest is a high school senior and we didn’t want to relocate him to his third high school for his last year, so the kids and I stayed put in North Carolina.  It was a tough call, but has been the right one for our family.

Because we now need to support two separate households, with lots of plane tickets back and forth, we downsized to a 1500sf home from one that was more than twice that size.  When you live in a small space, there are definitely some decorating challenges, but overall I have to say that we love how cozy it is!

Balsam Hill has a huge selection of narrow and slim trees, making it incredibly easy to find the exact height and width for your space.  I selected the 9′ Frosted Sugar Pine and couldn’t be happier. It’s just inches from brushing the ceiling, but because of its narrow width (just 54″), it fits perfectly in the corner to the left of our fireplace.

After years of having to put every single branch in place on our old tree, it was such a treat just to fold the branches down (kind of like an umbrella), fluff them, and hit the button to turn the lights on.  It was ready to decorate in under ten minutes!

I’ve been wanting a flocked tree for ages because Amy’s is so pretty.  This one is perfect with the blue, white, and metallic color scheme I chose; it works so well with all the colors already in the living room.

The French blue ribbon and tree skirt are beautiful, and very high-quality.  I wove two rolls of the ribbon around the tree (the secret with ribbon is to pinch and twist it so that it isn’t wound around the tree like a perfect coil) and then added some glittery Mini Magnolia picks.  All of the decorations and ornaments on the tree are from Balsam Hill, from the double-sided mirrored star to the French blue velvet tree skirt.

Balsam Hill’s ornaments are glass, very high quality, and decorated down to the last details.  I mixed the silver and gold glass ornament set and the silver and gold large finial set with plenty of their BH Essentials silver and white ornaments (in matte and glossy) and love how it turned out. (The full source list is at the end of the post, so you can see exactly what I used)

So far, our new rescue kitty, Brontë, has shown no desire to climb the Christmas tree, although she adores sleeping under the canopy of the flocked branches and clearly thinks that the plush velvet tree skirt was meant for her!

The mix of blue, white, silver, and gold is so festive!

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is sitting in a quiet house at night, or early in the morning, and enjoying the glow of the Christmas lights.

All is calm, all is bright.

 

Be sure to check out the other 12 Bloggers of Christmas (links to their beautiful trees are below)–and enjoy the inspiration!

 

French Country Cottage  |  Z Design at Home  |  Sunny Side Up  |  Rooms for Rent  |  Nest of Posies  |  Pink Peppermint Design  |  Tidbits  |  A Burst of Beautiful  |  Love Grows Wild |  Christina’s Adventures  |  Inspired by Charm

 

Some affiliate links used; your price remains unchanged

Frosted Sugar Pine, 9′ clear

Silver and Gold Glass Ornament Set

Silver and Gold Large Finial Set

BH Essentials Medium Silver Glossy Ornament Set

BH Essentials Medium White Matte Ornament Set

BH Essentials Medium White Glossy Ornament Set

BH Essentials Small White Matte Ornament Set

BH Essentials Small White Glossy Ornament Set

Mini Magnolia Picks

Flexible Woven Decorating Ribbon, Silver

Specialty Christmas Tree Ribbon, French Blue Velvet

French Blue Velvet Tree Skirt – 72″

Double-Sided Mirrored Star

Blue Velvet Chair

Gold Mirror

Blue & White Garden Stool

White Fur Stockings

Monogrammed Pillow

Garden & Gun Southerner’s Handbook

Disclosure: Balsam Hill provided me with product in exchange for my honest review.