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}”
Hey Jessica! I’m a subbie both places – have been a subscriber of your Youtube for a bit, and you make me hungry with every new video! Keep them coming!
My favorite holiday memory is of my siblings and I all sleeping in the same bed on Christmas Eve so we could wake up together super early in the morning and open Christmas presents. After opening the presents, we would run into our parent’s bedroom and wake them up to show them our gifts. It was the best time.
I’m a Youtube subscriber.
My favorite memory/tradition is going down to the Strip District in Pittsburgh early the morning of Christmas Eve for breakfast and shopping for Christmas snacks and last minute treats. We still go even though we’re all “grown up”!
I follow you on Instagram.
I follow you on Instagram :)
Oh, this is a fun series. Thanks so much, Jessica! My childhood Christmases all blur into one fabulous memory — I grew up on a  dairy farm and we’d celebrate on Christmas Eve when my dad came in from the barn. By then, the anticipation had been building all day and my brothers and I were filled to the brim with joy. We’d eat stromboli by the light of the Christmas tree and take our time unwrapping every gift. It was never chaotic and so much more about the tremendous gratitude of the small things we would get. Oh, and my mom totally transformed our house into a Christmas wonderland, too, and it was freaking MAGIC. I can’t wait to do the same for our kids (I’m pregnant with our first).Â
My favorite holiday memory is just going to my grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve, putting up the tree, and decorating it with my family while drinking egg nog, eating cookies, and listening to Christmas music.
I think it would be sleeping on the couch by the tree with the lights on Christmas Eve. My brother and I would try to stay awake but never could.Â
Hi!
I follow you on Insta & subscribe to your YouTube channel.
My favorite Christmas memory is when my mom would bake cookies AFTER we would go to bed and the entire house smelled like HEAVEN. Talk about sweet dreams. We would wake up and eat cookies for breakfast.
I cannot WAIT to start this tradition with my son.
My favorite holiday memory is when my mom went to elaborate lengths to make it look like Santa brought us our Cabbage Patch Preemie babies and left them on our front porch like orphans. She had them in baskets with blankets and even had a recording of a baby crying. I knew she had done it all, but I loved that she went through all that to make it so special!
I follow you on instagram! Gorgeous decor…
My favorite Christmas memory is getting to cinnamon rolls for breakfast!
For as long as I can remember, our family decorated the house/tree on the day after Thanksgiving. Hot cocoa, Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant Christmas CDs (still my favorites #nostalgia), leftover turkey and fixings… just good quality family time remembering Christmases past: each ornament with very specific memories.
I follow you on instagram :)
I sunscripted to your YouTube channel!
My mom always decorated up big but for me the most memorable was the baking. I still make the same treats that my mom baked every year as I was growing up. We practice the same Christmas eve traditions also.
One of my favorite holiday memories is decorating the Christmas tree with my family listening to the Alvin and the Chipmunks. My mom would make popcorn and we’d dance around the tree while decorating. I loved it!
PS – This camera has been on my wish list since you posted about it. Fingers crossed I win. :)
My favorite holiday memory is coming downstairs Christmas morning to a curtain over the living room door hiding a doll house for my sisters and me that my grandfather made. It was a scale model of my grandparents house and even had all of the same furniture and working lights.
I follow you on instagram.
I follow you on instagram!
I love our annual family cookie baking. Â Kids and adults making cookies in a tiny kitchen, but everyone is happy and eating cookies as we go. Win win.
Fav memory is watching The Muppet Christmas Carol every Christmas eve with the family. We know it by heart!
We make homemade tortellini the wee kind after thanksgiving to have on Xmas eve..with our French meat pies(French/Italian heritage).. 3 generations gather, whoever is around..
I subscribed on Youtube
I follow on Insta!!
I started following you now InstagramÂ
I follow on insta! (@kaylagoodrich)
I also subscribed on YouTube! (@KayGoodrich, I think)
My favorite holiday memory is when me and my younger siblings would wake up around 2 am and sneak downstairs with flashlights to look at all the Christmas presents. We would look but not touch, because that was for the morning! Then without fail, we would wake my parents up at 6am and would be allowed to open presents as soon as my parents had their first cup of coffee :D Since I’m older now, I really appreciate the coffee rule because even though we are all older now, we still get up around 6/7 am!
My favorite Christmas memories were making Christmas cookies with my grandmother. Â She’s 95 this year!
I follow you on instagram too!
My favorite memories involve the whole family piling into the car to go see Christmas lights as a child…then taking my own kiddos to the local gardens and watching their eyes light up at those lights. Such magic!
Jessica, your blog is my absolute favorite! Love every bit of it! Favorite holiday memory: my sisters and I just would be SOOO giddy the night that Santa was coming that we would all sleep together on my floor in sleeping bags on Christmas Eve so that we could all get up together Christmas morning and discover what Santa brought. We pretty much got up at 3:30AM every Christmas! We’d wake our parents up (who probably stayed up until 1 setting up the Santa gifts) to open our presents, then most of the time we’d go back to bed and sleep until a more reasonable hour. The excitement was just too fun. Love your Christmas photos, and I love that you turn your house into a Christmas wonderland.
I’m such a Christmas nut. Every year when I was growing up, we would light luminaries and place them outside along our sidewalk (in the freezing cold, always), go to church, then come back home and eat cucumber sandwiches and shrimp (seriously, every year) and my sisters and I would open one sister gift. We’d sleep in the same room that night and wake up and open presents. I think it was probably more for me than them (they’re much older than I am), but it was my favorite thing about Christmas and definitely the thing I miss most.
P.S. I follow you on Instagram and subscribed to your YouTube channel.
Subscribed on youtube
Fav memory – first Christmas with my first born – his smile in
Following on instagram
My favorite memory is watching White Christmas with my mom with a giant bowl of popcorn
My favorite holiday memory is when I was little, my siblings and I used to sit at the top of the stairs and my parents would make us wait as long as they could until we could run down to open our gifts. My dad always filmed us. I hope to do this one day with my future kids and maybe I could take pictures of them using this camera if I win!!!!
I follow you on instagram
My favorite Christmas memory is lying under our Christmas Tree as a young girl and looking at all of the pretty blue lights. Love your decor!
Even though I hated it at the time, my Mom used to dress my sister and me in matching flannel nightgowns (picture high necks and lace trim!) and march us to the local department store, Boscov’s, where we would meet Santa and have our photo taken. I thought my Mom was crazy, but now I treasure the photos and as a Mom, I can appreciate the lengths we will go to, to make memories.
following on instagram
favorite holiday memory was getting a pet kitten when i was 7 for christmas
Followed you on Youtube – I absolutely love your house tour! Beautiful!
I’m following you on IG!
Followed on Instagram
I subscribed to your youtube channel, too.
Favorite memory is our family trips to the tree farm ,picking the tree and cutting it down. Watching the kids enjoying their hot cocoa after.
So many…the music, the holiday specials, and midnight Mass. Â