12 Days of Christmas! I Christmas House Tour Video & Giveaway. {CLOSED}
Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas!
I am SO excited to share with you guys that every day for the next 12 days, I’ll be vlogging (think day in the life, waaaay oversharing, Q+A videos), sharing the video here on Crumbs (and on youtube!) and holding a giveaway of my favorite things!
Here’s a peek at some of the Christmas decor in our home. So sorry if I make you nauseaus with my shaky camera skills and poor editing – I’m still learning! There are a few things I left out because I have constant #mombrain and either forgot or wasn’t able to get it together in time. Things like my favorite mini Lenox nativity set (I have no idea where to place it this year, since Max will shatter it), the Pottery Barn Kids advent/Christmas countdown calendar (that is sewn completely crooked but I refused to send back because I opened it ON the first day of advent and was determined to have a cute calendar… ), our favorite Christmas pillows and outdoor lights, etc. I wanted to wait until everything was perfect, but if I waited, I knew I’d never do it and I’ve wanted to make videos FOREVER now.
The first year we were married, Eddie surprised me and bought a tree, decorated it and made his man cave apartment a winter wonderland for us. It was actually the second tree he bought, because the first was waaaay too big, but final sale. So we ended up with two trees! That year, we put up two trees and bought lots of ornaments at Michael’s and Joann’s. That’s where the majority of our ornaments are from, along with a few Martha Stewart from Macy’s that are about eight years old and some new ones from Michael’s this year that I bought for the white tree.
I bought the white tree last year at Treetopia on sale after Christmas. The copper/blue tree is from Target this year, and by far my favorite one. The red/green decorated tree is from Frontgate and will hopefully last us a million years.
My mom made our house incredibly magical when I was growing up. In fact, she still does and I’m hoping that I can get a video of hers before these 12 days are up! She’d stay up all night for days to turn the house into a Christmas wonderland for my brothers and me. It was the most magical time EVER.
Needless to say, I’ve been a complete Christmas freak since I was a kid. When school started up again, I’d wake up early and go downstairs just so I could sit by the Christmas tree in January before we got on the bus. It was my absolute favorite!
Eddie and I were determined to make our house as Christmasy as we could for Max this year. Eddie decorated gingerbread houses for eight hours because he is a perfectionist, and even set up his own tree downstairs in the basement that I didn’t get to capture. It has been so much fun and I love sitting under the lights every night.
Enjoy! And scroll down for giveaway #1!
GIVEAWAY!Â
Every day for the next 12 days until Christmas I’ll be giving away some of my favorite things. I want to show every bit of my appreciation for you guys sticking here with me for over seven years, reading the rambles that I write and making my recipes and leaving comments and supporting me 100%. Even when I write horrific run-on sentences and use 34 exclamation points in one post. And say “literally.” Ugh.
THANK YOU so much for being here. You changed my life and I am forever grateful for you.
Today I’m giving away a mirrorless camera! If you read my favorites post, you know I use one all the time and I even shot a few pieces of the video here with mine. I was super excited to giveaway the Samsung nx300 that I always talk about, but unfortunately it’s no longer available. Instead, I’m giving away the comparable Sony alpha a6000, which I’ve even considered switching to. This giveaway is not sponsored or affiliated with anyone and is given by me. It is open to EVERYONE EVERYWHERE! Wahoo.
To enter: leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite holiday memory!
For a second entry: SUBSCRIBE to the howsweeteats youtube channel. There is a red button on the right side and you will only be notified when I upload a new video. This is the best way to be notified of a new video/giveaway in these 12 days too! Leave a comment telling me you did so.
For a third entry: follow howsweeteats on instagram. Leave a comment telling me you did so.
The giveaway will only be open for 24 hours (!!) so be sure to enter and share! A winner will be picked at random. Come back for a new video and giveaway tomorrow. xoxo
1,439 Comments on “12 Days of Christmas! I Christmas House Tour Video & Giveaway. {CLOSED}”
Love this idea and your house looks beautiful!!
My favourite Christmas memory is my Dad reading The Night Before Christmas to me every Christmas Eve before I went to bed…then being too excited to sleep!
I just subscribed to your YouTube channel and I’m already following you on Instagram :)
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I subscribed to the you tube channel!
One of my favorite memories is Christmas Eve Mass— or more specifically driving home from Mass late at night across the wide open prairie of Oklahoma where I was raised. We could see a million stars, a few Christmas lights on houses spread far apart, and were full of peace, joy, and anticipation of the big day to come!
Family Open Houses on Christmas afternoons
My favorite Christmas memory as a kid would probably be the year when we woke up and realized Santa came because the “reindeer food” had been eaten and their were tracks/prints in our flower beds. Back when Christmas was magical, and my sister and I were completely gullible! I still feel like the best memories are the ones we are making this year with our 16 month old, though!
Baking Christmas cookies with my mom!
I have many but one of my favorite memories (which we did for years until we were older and didn’t believe in Santa anymore) was opening up matching nightgowns, with nightcaps of course, on Christmas Eve and then sitting on the steps at the crack of dawn to take a picture of my sisters and I before we could run to the Christmas tree! Â Now that we have kids of our own, we still do matching/coordinating pjs for the little ones!
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My favorite Christmas memory is the year I was eight and Santa brought me Monopoly (which I’d never even heard of at that point!). My entire family — both parents and both sets of grandparents — sat around the table after dinner and played. My father passed away the next Spring and one set of grandparents moved away that summer so that was the last Christmas when everyone was together which makes the memory all the more special.
I am following on YouTube.
I am following on Instagram.
Instagram follower
My favorite memory is always decorating our gingerbread house on christmas eve! Â I so loved this video. So fun.Â
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I follow on insta
My favorite memory is when I was a little kid we were allowed to open up our stockings as soon as we woke up (sometimes 4am) and play until my parents woke up.
Youtube subscriber :)Â
My favorite Christmas memory is creeping out into the family room with my sister in the middle of the night to see if Santa ate the cookies yet. We thought we were being SO sneaky!
Believe it or not we cut down the family Christmas tree from our backyard each year. The best part is not that we live wayy out in the woods with trees up for the choosing. Nope. My dad sent away for these trees over 25 years ago from a McDonald’s happy meal gardening program. Oh have times changed. He has been cultivating and shaping these trees for years and are his pride and joy. I love telling the story to others and knowing where our tree come from.
subscribed, following, and now commenting! my favorite christmas was when i was in high school and my parents and i spent all winter break playing “settlers of catan” (we had just gotten it that year), drinking diet coke, and eating lady waltons (those waffle cookie chocolate sandwich things).
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and YouTube!!
Christmas Eve – church, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, cookies and the anticipation. The best!
I am following on Instagram.
Growing up, my bother and I always grabbed our stockings and brought them back up to one of our bedrooms and opened them together before waking up my parents. I’m pretty sure it was a genius idea on my parent’s part to gain an extra 20 minutes of sleep, but it became m favorite part of the day!Â
Favorite Christmas memory has to be my moms sugar cookies!Â
Now that I’m a parent, all my favorite Christmas moments involve my son’s excitement on Christmas morning. But I will always fondly remember making white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies while watching Mickey’s Christmas Carol!
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My favorite Christmas memories are going to my Grandma’s and spending an entire day with my cousins, playing games and eating all the food and homemade Christmas candy.
I’m a follower on Instagram
I subscribed to your YouTube channel!
I loved opening one gift on Christmas Eve!
Favorite Christmas memory is running down the stairs with my cousins on Christmas morning to see the presents under the tree!
My favorite christmas tradition memory is making a special coffeecake each christmas eve and waiting until christmas morning to have it!
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waiting on my grandparents to FINALLY show up and then opening all our gifts. when i was a kid it felt like they took for.e.ver. now as an adult i’m like dont get me up till 10 !
Subscribed on YouTube!
i subscribe to your youtube channel
thoughts on the flocked tree ? is it a super mess ?
it’s not as bad as we thought! so the flocked tree from frontgate is fine – it barely sheds at all. the target flocked tree is pretty messy, but only when touched! like only when putting it up and taking down and if you shake the branches.
Two years ago we surprised our kids with a puppy (a Jack Russell/Chihuahua named Luna). Their faces will stay with me forever, especially since my husband swore no dogs in our new house. She’s a fat, spoiled princess but she still brings them so much joy.
What fun – I’m loving any fun giveaway right now, and anything on your blog is always my favorite!Â
I already follow you on Instagram, because necessity, and now I;m following on YouTube!
Memory: My Mom and Step Dad made a big deal about Santa coming – and put in a crazy amount of effort. One year, he made footprints with the soot in the fireplace from the fireplace to our tree, left a ripped piece of red fabric stuck to the fireplace, and made sure to take bites out of the cookies and drink some milk. I hope to be able to have that much fun preparing for Christmas for my future kids! I just remember running up and down the stairs until EVERYONE woke up to open the presents and go through our stockings. Such a fun memory!!Â
Not one specific memory, but the jumble of all the Christmas mornings that my brothers and I would wait at the top of the stairs for my parents to say we could come down and see the tree. It was always the best feeling.
I also follow along on Instagram!
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Even though I hate winter, I do love the holidays! My favorite memory is spending uninterrupted time with my family!
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My favorite Christmas memory is having my mom’s famous monkey bread every Christmas morning!
My favorite Christmas memory is from 2012, mid-November, when my then-boyfriend (now husband!) was making his travel arrangements to go home to Sweden for a few weeks and spend the holidays with his family. I was super sad at the thought of being alone over Christmas because I really liked this guy (we’d been dating 7-8 months at the time) and was going to miss him a bunch when he left. He totally surprised me on my birthday (24 Nov) with a “quiz” that he pretended to have found online but actually made up himself, consisting of 5 questions whose answers all shared a common theme. After I was finished writing down my answers, he told me to check my email because he’d just sent me my results. The “answers” all had something to do with Sweden and my quiz “results” were a ticket to Stockholm to join him and his family for Christmas. Obviously I burst into tears and I still tear up just thinking about it now. :) It really was the best surprise and he was so clever about it, I totally fell for it thinking I was taking a real quiz and that we were just comparing answers! And now here I am, about to leave next week for my 5th Christmas in magical Stockholm. <3
I follow along on insta as well :)