Christmas decorating preview: mantels

I love to decorate for Thanksgiving, and I don't start putting up Christmas decorations until the weekend after Thanksgiving. But I do like to spend some time in November planning my Christmas decorations and getting ready to deck the halls. So I was glad to see that, to get our holiday decorating juices flowing, Beth from The Stories of A to Z is hosting an impromptu Christmas mantel party.

Here's my 2009 Christmas mantel:

My Christmas mantelscapes are usually pretty simple. This painting is always on my mantel, and I didn't want to take it down, so I just work around it. Every year I hang all five our stockings in order: Dad, Mom, Oldest Son, Middle Son, Youngest Son. Last year I just added red candles, clippings from our Christmas tree and some cedar from the yard for greenery, some little red ornaments, and my DIY moss topiaries.

I like symmetry, don't I?

Here's the mantel the way it looks through most of the Christmas season:

Snickers (the beagle) and Cocoa (the pound puppy) love this spot in front of the fire. As you can see, the "No Dogs on the Furniture" rule didn't go over too well at my house.

Check out Beth's blog for more Christmas mantel inspiration!

Special alert: Christmas gift idea and a money-saving coupon

If you have an Advent calendar or would like to have a special Advent calendar, I have a gift idea for you.

Each year, LEGO makes an Advent Calendar set. I love the LEGO Advent Calendar--it's boxed with 24 doors to open, one for each day of Advent. Behind each door is a little bag with a miniature Lego set to build for that day. If you have your own Advent calendar, these would be wonderful toys to stuff in each gift box.

Of all the things I ever did for my boys for Advent, this is far and away the thing they enjoyed most. As it happens, one of my sons is still a huge fan of LEGO, so we're still buying the Advent Calendar every year!

This set is not cheap--it retails this year for $34.99. But right now, it's available at Target, and Target has this book of toy coupons:

Have you seen it? At my Target, there was a large display at the front of the toy section with these books. There's a coupon for $5.00 off the purchase of the Advent Calendar. It's good through November 24.

If you're interested in learning more about the LEGO Advent Calendar before you decide whether to purchase it, you can see a review of it on YouTube.

The review was done by my youngest son, also known as LegoLee329. He definitely gives the low-down on this set! Even if you don't want to watch the whole review, it can be helpful to get a glimpse of the product.

No one is paying me to tell you about this set--it's just a product I love and I wanted to pass along the news of a good deal.

I'm joining Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest and Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, and Monday's Money-Saving Tips at Homebody.

Thanksgiving decor

Welcome, November! I love November. . . when days are short, skies are gray, and temperatures are chilly. There's something about this month that makes me want to curl up with a cup of hot cider and read a good book.

Before I start reading, though, I like to put away the Halloween decorations and get out the Thanksgiving decor! Our tradition is to begin decorating for Christmas on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Until then, I keep the decor autumnal. Here's what I've done so far.

The dining room with its Thanksgiving bounty:

I love my cornucopia. I got it just after my oldest son was born, so this is its 19th Thanksgiving. It's made of papier-mache. I stuff it with gourds and corn and nuts. And since my family roots are from Kansas and Tennessee and all my ancestors were farmers, I like to add the staple crops from those two states--wheat and cotton.

In the living room, I added autumn hurricanes to the chest on my wall of crosses.

I'd admired the double-walled hurricanes at Pottery Barn, so I made my own by putting Dollar Tree vases inside hurricane globes I already had. Then I simply added autumn leaves.

You can barely even see the inside glass, but the leaves are kept safely separated from the candle. Love it!

I'm not sure if I've shown y'all my latest addition to my cross collection. See that beautiful tassel? It was custom-made for me by Heather of Butterfly Genes. I think she can make a tassel topper out of almost anything, and she does the most beautiful work. Thank you, Heather!

What about you? Do you decorate for Thanksgiving? Or are you chomping at the bit to get the halls decked for Christmas?

**Joining The Thanksgiving Challenge at The CSI Project**