It all started with a $20 tree. Once I got the tree I wanted a tree skirt, and I immediately gravitated towards the ones with sequins. The tree skirt matched my purple tree from my dorm room, so I decided to get another small tree to match it, which led to buying a fourth little tiny tree. Naturally all of these trees needed the sequined tree skirts.

Then it came to ornaments. My number one criteria? Glitter. Lots of glitter. And big enough ornaments to make my tree look fuller than a $20 artificial tree. Once I found ornaments I of course needed a glitter-filled tree topper to match and the many other random accessories scattered throughout the apartment. And I can’t forget the silver mardi gras beads as garland…

My biggest struggle in developing my Winter Wonderland? The lights. I stood in front of the lights for a good 20 minutes trying to decide between the LED lights (Target was out of the color I wanted) or the pink normal lights. Eventually I decided that, while I love pink, it’s not a Christmas color, so I went with the blue lights for outside and the blueish white lights for inside. While I realize those of you who made it this far in the post probably don’t care about the color of my Christmas lights, I felt I needed to share the results of my most major Christmas purchase dilemma to date.

Now there is still one major thing missing from my Winter Wonderland. Snow. I’m not sure how to make it snow, but I assure you if I could I’d make it happen. Until then I’ll continue to pray for snow while enjoying my Winter Wonderland.

p.s. As a reward for those who read this far and might actually be interested in my glittery Winter Wonderland… I’ve included pictures!

Those of you who know me well know that I HATE anything Christmas that appears before Thanksgiving (probably my favorite holiday of the year). Stores forget about Halloween and Thanksgiving and all the wonderful colors and scents of fall. I usually avoid department stores between whenever I hear they’re putting out Christmas items (which sadly might as well be year-round anymore) and Black Friday. Today I made an exception.

Macy’s had a big luggage sale today. So, I headed to Macy’s and bought some luggage (an early Christmas present from my parents)!!! I needed normal sized luggage. When I was little I remember getting my purple luggage set (which I still used this past week) as a gift. I remember expecting an American Girl doll and instead getting luggage… big let down to a young girl. Don’t worry – Santa came through for me and also got me the American Girl doll.

Now as a 22 year old in the real world who sometimes needs socially appropriate (read: not purple) luggage, I appreciate my early Christmas gift more than I can explain. Thanks to the luggage sale and my parents, I was able to get two pieces of luggage that normal people would expect to see a 22 year old rolling around the airport!

When I was little Christmas and birthdays were times to look forward to new toys. Then as I got older new gadgets. Now, as I become a (somewhat) fully functioning member of society, I really enjoy the practical presents that I probably wouldn’t buy myself. The last few holidays have involved presents such as an iron, vacuum, microwave, and kitchen supplies (shout out to Grandma Henry for practically providing everything a 20-something could ever need in her kitchen plus some – all in super cute colors!!!). I know, these all sound extremely boring, but these are probably some of my favorite Christmas presents.

I love that my family recognizes what I need, yet might not be willing to spend my money on. I don’t hesitate to do some shoe shopping therapy every once in awhile, but an iron? My mom knew I’d just continue to use Wrinkle Release if it were up to me…

So Christmas came early this year in the form of a practical yet really exciting gift. The stores of course forgot fall and went straight to Christmas, but I braved my way through for an early present.  Oh and don’t worry, while I was shopping I bought a few pairs of shoes (Dad: $10 off coupon, and yes I had some areas of my massive shoe collection that needed reinforcement). Some things will never change…