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!
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}”
Obvs follow on Insta!
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Midnight church service with the church decorated in poinsettias and lit only by candles.
Favorite holiday memory:
making fudge and shortbread for my husband and my dad every single year since 1981. My dad loves shortbread cookies, my husband loves to sandwich a piece of fudge between two shortbread cookies for his own ‘inside out Oreos’.
Everything looks so magical!! My favorite Christmas memory is Christmas morning because we never had all the presents out at my house, my parents (or Santa) would put them out after we went to bed. In fact, I still make my parents do this….at 30 years old. I demand my “Christmas magic” of coming down Christmas morning and having the tree transformed & spilling with gifts.
Subscribed to your YouTube channel!
I am a follower on Instagram and just signed up for your YouTube, thank you for all you do :-)
My favorite memory is making thousands of cookies with my mom. We’d both be in a sugar daze, sneaking bites and licking frosting, but it was always so much fun!
I follow on Instagram (@zoe_sesame)!
My favorite holiday memory is my grandfather preparing our annual Christmas ham and loading it up with butter, flour, and lemon juice. Now that he is no longer with us, my mom and my aunt carry on the tradition every year!
My favorite memory is decorating the christmas tree and going through all of the homemade ornaments from years past!
I subscribe to the YouTube channel (zoë)
My dad would set up scavenger hunts for our stockings, it was so much fun! I love Christmas ?
I am subscribed to your YouTube channel!
I follow you on Instagram!
My favorite holiday memory as a child is spending Christmas Eve at my grandma’s house with all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We ate big dinners and exchanged presents. My grandma passed away in 1994 but her tradition lives on in our family.
My favorite holiday memory is always waking up in the middle of the night with my brother on Christmas Eve and shaking our presents to see if we could figure out what was inside!
Staying up late on Christmas Eve to open presents with my grandmother.
1. You are amazing
2. Thank you for sharing your beautiful home, thoughts, tears, and joys over the past 7 years! I have been following your blog since its beginnings and it brings me so much happiness
My favorite holiday memory is every Christmas morning making breakfast with my whole family and just hanging out in our PJs talking and laughing!
I follow you on Instagram :)
I’ve been following your Instagram for A LOOONG TIME :)
I subscribed to your YouTube channel!
I just subscribed to your YouTube channel!
Also, I’m an Instagram follower!
My favorite holiday memory was the year that I got an air hockey table for Christmas!
My favorite Christmas memory is in the making this year – my first baby’s Christmas! But prior, it’s hanging all the ornaments on the tree with music blasting with my family.
I subscribed to your YouTube channel, too!
I forgot – I also followed you on Instagram!
My favorite holiday memory is getting a little karaoke machine and singing with my family all day!
I also followed you on Youtube
And follow you on Instagram!
One of my favorite holiday memories was to be able to pick one present to open on Christmas Eve! and I’m a follower on instagram :)
One of my favourite holiday memories is one of our family traditions on Christmas Eve, where my parents, 2 siblings and I would all pile onto my parents’ bed and read a couple of Christmas picture books, passing them back and forth and reading them aloud in different voices. Even though my siblings and I are all in our 20s, we’ve continued this tradition every year :)
My favorite Christmas memory was when my grandparents surprised my sister and I with a life size Santa that sings and dances. To this day 15 years later, the Santa still looks out our front window which at night people mistake for the REAL Mr. Claus ?? .
P.S. I subscribed to your Youtube channel!
P.P.S. I follow you on Instagram, too :)
I am an Instagram follower and just subscribed to your YouTube channel!
My favorite holiday memory is spending Christmas Eve with my whole family – my grandfather, aunts, uncles, and about 15 cousins. We would all gather in my grandfather’s tiny basement and eat our Christmas ham (my favorite food of all time), cheesy potatoes, kielbasa and sauerkraut, lasagna, and a table filled with desserts! I think there was salad, but I always went for the good stuff!! After dinner the kids would all sit around and sing Christmas carols with hand held bells. About half way through our songs, we heard a THUMP THUMP THUMP coming from upstairs. We would all start screaming in delight, because we knew what that meant…SANTA WAS HERE!!! We would continue to sing as he came down the stairs holding a sack filled with presents – one for each of us. This happened every year without fail, and continues today for my cousins children and one day my children too.
I’ll never forget the year the Christmas magic was threatened…As Santa was turning to leave I saw some black hair poking through his white hair. I asked my mother about it later, and she let me know that was there just to test me!
I also just subscribed to your youtube channel and I can’t wait to get your video updates!
I already follow you on Instagram and your posts literally give me life!
Keep up the good work, you’re amazing!
I followed you on instagram!
I subscribed to your youtube channel.
My favorite Christmas memory is practicing with my parents’ choir (mom coached the altos and dad accompanied on piano or guitar) for Christmas services. Listening to the songs we sang still gives me chills.
Also, I subscribed on youtube! Love your videos.
My mom always comes up with a game as to how our presents are wrapped, and we have to go through a process to figure out which presents belong to which person. It makes unwrapping presents so fun as adults. :)
My favorite memory is being allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve!
Also following you on YouTube & Instagram.
Hi there! You are my absolutely favorite food blog ever ever and I love reading your rambling entries around the recipe – it is as if I could hear you talk, even though I don’t know you. Sounds spooky, I know haha. Christmas is the only time of the year where my family gets to spend a few days together – only the “closest” 25 of my brothers, parents, uncles, nephews, nieces etc (yep, my family is huge).
I am from Berlin, Germany, but we spend Christmas at the countryside in a beautiful old farmhouse literally in the nowhere. There is not much around (except horses, cows, grassland, forest and a little stream)- no wifi, no TV. We spend these days chatting from dawn til dusk, going for long walks, cooking, baking, playing board games and reading by the fireplace. It has been my favorite time of the year for my whole life and I intend to keep this tradition going with my own future children (I am 23 and a psychology student without kids yet :D). Scrolling through the pictures I took of every Christmas during the whole year always makes me smile. With your awesome (and so generous!!!) gift I could up my picture game to a whole new level which would make me so happy. I wish you a great christmas with your cute family! Best, Nora
ps: I follow your instagram as well, my name is jenfromdabloc (don’t ask, haha!)
My favorite Christmas memory is the one year we couldn’t find our cookie cutters so my dad (manly man, hunter, fisher, decidedly NOT a baker) got in there with us and hand cut out trees and Santa Clause so we had cookies for Santa. I don’t really remember what the cookies turned out like but I recall how much fun my sisters and I had with our dad doing something entirely out of the ordinary and fun.
Instagram following you under Janabelle79 and subscribed on YouTube under Janabug2.
Love the house tour, BTW. Beautiful trees and Max is so adorable checking them out. :-)
I am subscribed to the How Sweet Eats instagram!
I always looked forward to going to pick out our Christmas tree with my dad every year from a local farm. And yelling “timber!” as he chopped it down. Christmas is all about traditions for me. So many wonderful ones to choose from!
I am subscribed to the How Sweet Eats Youtube Channel!
And I’m subscribed to your YouTube channel!
My favourite memory was a family trip to a pantomime every christmas eve
My favorite Christmas memory was from a year we lived far away from the rest of my mom’s side of the family (including my favorite grandmother). They were in Northeast Ohio and we were living outside of Atlanta. That Christmas, “Santa” left notes on my and my sister’s bedroom doors that he had come EARLY that year, just for us (I think on Dec. 23 or so) because he knew how much we wanted to spend Christmas with our grandmother. So he brought all our presents early, we opened them all up, were able to pick one to go with us (a cabbage patch doll with styleable hair!) and we got in the car and drove to Ohio! My mom was a Christmas rockstar, too. :)
When I was younger, my two brothers and I would sleep on the air mattress together in one of their rooms every Christmas Eve. I still remember the exact Christmas books we would read each time before we went to sleep. On Christmas morning, we would all wake each other up and go run to see what was in our stockings!