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}”
The year ALL the cousins were at my Grandparents house for Christmas Eve and morning. I was about six, and for an only child to have Christmas with (then) SIX OTHER KIDS was so fantastic! Our Grands are gone now, and half of us rarely see each other outside of weddings and funerals, but that memory is still crystal clear.
LOVE following on insta— Im jeterdoe!
My favorite holiday memory is decorating sugar cookies with my siblings every year! We’re 25 and 21, respectively, but there’s still some magic left in our little tradition!
I follow you on insta and am obsessed with your beautiful photos!
I follow on Instagram @meandmypinkmixer
I think my favorite memory is the anticipation of it all. I loved building up to the day-of where we would wake up and open our “Santa present” (usually the thing we wanted most), then wait for breakfast and the grownups to wake. The rest of the morning would be spent taking turn with presents, just lounging and listening to Christmas music. Now that I am engaged it’s hard to find that feeling. In the morning we rush over to his sister’s house across the river to do Christmas in the morning. Then we rush across town to do Christmas with my family. I am hoping we can come up with some way to create our own special Christmas like I used to have.
When we were little, my twin sister and I used to lay under the tree and look up through all the colorful lights and ornaments.
I’ve been reading your blog since the beginning and I feel guilty to say that I don’t think I’ve ever commented. So, let me start by saying thank you! Love your writing and all that you share. You’ve inspired many meals and sweats. I have roots in Pittsburgh as my husband and I met in grad school at Pitt, so I also genuinely appreciate your roots! Anyway… favorite Christmas memory is watching the eyes of my children when they first come down the stairs and see the tree with all the presents. Every year gets better and better! It’s truly magical.
I already follow you on Instagram because, come on, you’re awesome :)
I’m an instagram follower :)
Just followed you on youtube. Your videos are so cute. Love the music choices!
My favorite Christmas memory was our first Christmas with our daughter back in 1993. She was born December 3rd & my husband and I were so happy to have our sweet girl after years of trying and fertility issues. It was our happiest Christmas ever!
My favorite holiday memory is putting up the Christmas tree with my family! We would always watch Muppet Christmas Carol as we decorate the living room and enjoy all the old ornaments my siblings and I have made!
Oh! And I follow you on IG and am now subscribed to you Youtube channel! Can’t wait to see all the videos!
I follow on instagram
Following on Youtube
My favorite Christmas memory is bringing home my middle child from the hospital! She was born Christmas Eve and I checked myself out early the next day cause it was Christmas day and I wanted to be home with my other daughter. It was so special coming home with a brand new baby sister for my 1st born! They are only 23 months apart and still play together all the time!Â
My favorite memory is when Santa left soot on the carpet!
My favorite christmas memories are of christmas eve…the anticipation is always better, isn’t it?
My parents would barricade the entry to the living room so we wouldn’t go in. One year we threw my younger brother over the top to spy. He had hide since we couldn’t get him out. We think we got away with it….still….
When my nephews and niece lived with me for 4 years. Â I made sure they had a memorable Christmas.Â
My favorite Christmas memory is having a “sleepover” with my brother on Christmas Eve. Every year he would pull an air mattress into my room and sleep in the floor. We did it so we could try to stay awake for Santa. :)
Also I follow you on instagram and youtube!
I’ve been following your Insta for years now, and I just subscribed to your youtube channel. But I’d have to say my favorite memory is waking up on Christmas morning every year, running downstairs to see what my mother (I mean Santa) delivered in our stockings, proceeding to wake up the rest of the house so they could open their stockings only after I got a head start and peeked to see what everybody else got myself, and then eating my mom’s homemade sticky bun rolls as we sat around with coffee and holiday-spiced creamer, still trying to come to consciousness and get ready for the day. <3
My favorite Christmas memory is how the house smells after my mom bakes bread and her practically famous Milky Way Cake.
I think it might be decorating our car with reindeer antlers this year. My youngest loves it every time we get in the car!Â
Every year we spend the weekend at my Grandma’s baking Christmas cookies. Spend the whole day baking and then watch Christmas movies in our pjs. We’ve done it my entire life and I look forward to it every year!
I subscribed to your Youtube Channel.
I followed on Instagram
My favorite holiday memory is the excitement that my brothers and I had when we saw that Santa left a boot print on our floor and tore his pants on our fireplace! Mom left a small piece of felt on the glass door. I was so sure that Santa actually ripped his pants I told my whole class about it when we went back to school!
baking christmas cookies with my grandmother. it was a family affair – all the aunts and uncles and cousins participated. My grandma sat at her dining room table and told everyone else what to do. From pulverizing sugar in the food processes so that it was NEVER gritty in her icing, to hand mixing the lady lock dough, packing cookies, stealing cookies, pressing thumbprints, making way too many pizzelles, eating way too much dough, everyone helped. It was the kick off the holiday season!
I love everything about Christmas from the decorations to the food to the family getting together. For some reason my mom only made pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving & Christmas. Never any other time of the year. It is still my favorite desert. Raising my daughter we started our own tradition of having pumpkin pie for breakfast the day after Christmas. We thought we were getting away with something wonderful & forbidden. Last but not least…..the Christmas movies. The old ones from my mom’s day. My daughter carries the pie & movie tradition into her children’s lives. What great memories! Â Merry Christmas to you & your sweet Max & hubby. Thank you for making me relive these wonderful times.
Favorite holiday memory: the sleigh in my parents’ front yard, pulled by 5 Goldens, a chocolate lab, and a vizsla!
Subscribed to your YouTube channel. Love the videos you’ve been creating! You’re awesome!
Follow on Instagram!
I’m an Instagram follower! :) And just subscribed to your YouTube channel. Excited to see the videos you post woohoo!
My favorite Christmas memory growing up was helping my dad decorate the house with Christmas lights. He’d go all out. I remember the one time he let me get onto the roof to help him throw lights over our HUGE crepe myrtle trees. He thought it would be a good idea to tie a wrench to the lights aaaand then the wrench untied from the lights and hit the car that was parked across the street. :-O Thankfully, no huge damage(!?). Oh, and my mom wasn’t too thrilled that I was on the roof. hahaha
Favorite Christmas memories – I have so many! One I have continued with my kids is going for a ride in our jammies, listening to Christmas music and looking at Christmas lights. It’s such a wonderful, relaxing way to get in the holiday spirit, and the kids feel special because they are up late and in the car in their jammies!
I follow on Instagram!
I subscribed to YouTube!
Loved the video! Your home is gorgeous.
Rachael xx.
theteacozykitchen.blogspot.co.uk
My favorite Christmas memory is having all my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins spend the night at our house every Christmas Eve, a house full! We would all wake up Christmas morning and spend a couple hours opening presents, having a huge breakfast, spending all day together playing with our new gifts! I definitely miss having everyone all together for the holidays now!
I follow your IG page, and I am a subscriber to your You Tube channel!! <3
My favorite Christmas memory is reading ‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS withe my boys on Christmas Eve.
My favorite Christmas memory is my parent’s Smorgasbord, eating pickled herring and beets and fighting over the almond in the rice pudding.
The church we still belong to, that I got married in, has an 11:00 Christmas Eve candlelight service. It is my favorite service, singing all the Christmas songs and having the church all dark with just the light of the candles. The service would end around midnight and I loved driving around at dark, everyone in the town would have luminaries lit and their Christmas lights still on and it is my favorite part of Christmas. We have a little one, so getting to that late service is a littler harder now, but we’ve made it a tradition to drive around before bed and see all the Christmas lights.
I follow you on IG.Â
I subscribed on Youtube
I follow you on Instagram!
I’m an instagram follower & obsessed with everything you post! All my favorite holiday memories involve the faces of family and friends when I get them a gift that I know they really wanted.
Following on Insta & YouTube – whoohoo!
My favorite Christmas memory is simply tradition and family – they are the memories that have seated deep in my heart. This year we’ll be far from family, but thanks to technology and digital cameras, we can still connect and share the memories. It will be my first Christmas in the Pacific Northwest, and our goal this year is to keep one tradition from last year and build one new tradition this year. <3 Happy Holidays to you too!!
One of my favorite Christmas memories is sneaking out to the tree in the middle of the night when I was very little… everything was so dark and sparkly under the Christmas lights. I peeled back a corner of one particularly large gift and saw that it was a huge set of puff paints – my request from Santa! The next morning I refused to open that gift until last since I already knew what it was, haha.
My favorite holiday memory is playing board games with family members.
Followed on instagram and obsessed with your posts!