Christmas is coming like it or not and a big part of the Christmas season is coming up with special Christmas  Decor  to set your home apart, and a Christmas Door Decor to welcome your guests, not break the bank and be easy to pull off, lasting throughout the entire holiday season.  At Anything Joe's we have great personalized Christmas Door Decor solutions!

If you are a theme lover, then beginning with your Christmas Door Decor, guests and family should follow your theme throughout the holiday house.  Your front door is what a passing neighbor or your Christmas party guests see first and maybe their only impression of how you and your family celebrate.  Flashing lights and Santa Claus probably means there are kids about and classic greenery, red berries and big red bow speak of a more relaxed and classic Christmas celebration. As they enter, carry the theme throughout with touches of Holiday cheer that carry the theme.  We like using pieces from years past and have Christmas items saved from Moms and and Grandmoms to keep the family traditions going.

At our home we are big into the greenery and lights.  Since the door is usually the first thing up and the last thing down, we make sure this decoration is long lasting.  Artificial greenery is put around the door first with a sprinkling of lights.  Close to the Christmas parties, live greenery is added.  We always save the extra branches from our live tree to mix in around the door and throughout the house.  Nothing is more welcoming during the holidays than the smell of fresh clipped evergreens.  This Christmas Banner idea is perfect too if you have a street facing wall or a wall space beside your front door.

Last year at Anything Joe's we began offering personalized Christmas Door Decor of personalized Christmas Banners.  We changed our own front door decor from a wreath on the door to a Christmas Banner, personalized with our family name.  This was a welcome change, totally unique (no one else in the neighborhood had one) and easy to put up receiving many compliments.  We still had the greenery around the door, lights, but the large banner hung with red ribbon was eyecatching and the family name adds that custom touch. We followed this approach at the back door with a smaller complimentary Christmas banner with a splash of greenery. 

The whole concept is topped off with a hand painted whimsical Christmas Family Portrait Canvas.  We used this as the centerpiece for our Christmas Buffet, but it could just as easily be used at the front door.  Each family member was included.  We used the one with everyone peeking out from behind the tree, but there are four choices.

Maybe these thoughts on Christmas Door Decor will give spark your decorating genius to take a new approach this year.  Have a wonderful time coming up with your Holiday Door Decorations!  We're here to help if we can!

The answer to that question would be a resounding yes.  Just ask almost any parent who has found out about Elf on the Shelf or the kids who wake up to find him every pre Christmas morning.

Every so often a Christmas Tradition takes hold and becomes a part of our lives.  In the last six years there has been a tradition revived by a mother/daughter team that has brought excitement and good behavior home for the holidays!  Author Carol Abersold began this tradition with her family in the '70's and a few years back 'packaged' the idea and made it easy for everyone to start this same tradition with their children.  We began selling this item a few years back and it is always sell out by the end of the first couple of weeks of December, but folks still try to track it down.  It's called the Elf on the Shelf! 

The Elf on the Shelf concept is simple, but must be followed closely to be a success in your home.  After purchasing the elf set, you study first so you know what parts of the story to emphasize when telling.  Pick a quiet night and make it a family event, invite the Grandparents over and have the best storyteller read the book to the kids. 

In the story the Elf, Your Elf, must be named to become magic.  Thereafter, each night he will report into to Santa, telling if you've been good or bad and then before you awake he returns to his watch, but he will land in a different spot, so each morning the kids get up to see where he has landed....this is how you know he is magic!  Now you can't touch him or play with him because he will lose his magic....he just sits and watches all day long!

This tradition is growing each and every year and has now been adopted into daycares, schools and thousands of homes across the land.  The best success stories of course come from the kids and here is our favorite that we've heard in our store:

A little boy came in and told us, "hey I got one of those elves!  His name is Ruckus.  Last year, one time I was so bad, that elf didn't come back for two days!  So I had to straighten up and then he came back!  Mom said he was embarrassed that I had been so bad!"

Christmas traditions are fun to build and see how they grow each year.  It might be through decorating your family Christmas tree with  personalized Christmas Ornaments or decorating the front Holiday Doors.  And who could leave out hanging your personalized Christmas stockings on the mantle, it all adds up to family fun and Christmas traditions to last a lifetime.