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}”
I follow you on Instagram! :)
My favorite memory is Christmas Eve, we go to church, come home and have chili and tamales!
I subscribed and followed you on instagram.
I loved putting on an apron and making Christmas cookies with my mother. The kitchen would be covered in flour and my fingers would be stained red and green from the sugar, but I remember it fondly. And it probably lead to my career as a professional baker. Thanks Mom!
My favorite memory is decorating the tree. This became less cool for my brothers when we became teenagers but somehow we still all came together to do it! Loved going through our collection of ornaments – new, old, handmade in kindergarten,and antiques from my great grandma!
Getting up with my little girl and finding a jingle bell or a scrap of torn fabric from Santa’s suit and seeing that the reindeer have eaten their food.
My favorite holiday memory is actually birthday related. I am a Christmas Eve baby, my sister is Christmas Day. Every year after Christmas Eve service at church, we’d go home and eat ice cream cake (there is never a bad time for ice cream…even the middle of winter) and my dad would read The Polar Express (well before it was made into a crappy animated movie).
Christmas was never about presents for me, it was about the memories I made. And now that I have a 5month old baby girl, it’s even more important to remember to make memories.
Thanks for the giveaway, Jessica! One of my favorite holiday memories goes back to my childhood on Christmas Eve. We helped my mom bake cookies for Santa and then we’d watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Frosty the Snowman. My brother and I liked to lay our heads under the Christmas tree while we watched it. It always felt so magical. Hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season!
Yay! My favorite memory is listening to Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music, taking off my glasses so all the lights on the tree got blurry and sparkly, and just staring at the tree for hours in the dark.
I also just subscribed to your YouTube channel! Love your holiday house tour :)
My favorite holiday memory will always be baking cookies with my sisters and watching Buffy the vampire slayer marathons !!! We do it every year.
My mom was always huge on Christmas decorations, too. I remember we even had flannel Christmas sheets!
My favorite holiday memories are going to my grandparents on Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas, and then coming home and leaving cookies and milk out for Santa, and then watching a Christmas movie and jumping back into bed in hopes that Christmas came earlier ;)
My favorite holiday memory is from when I was around 9 or 10 – I’m the middle of 5 kids so at this point we had kids from 3 – 16 years old at home. Our furnace went out on the 23rd so my dad attempted to use our fire place for the first time since ever….little did he know that the floo had been welded shut. Our whole house was immediately full of smoke and my mom quickly went to the overhead fan in the kitchen to try and vent out some of the smoke. Well, apparently that had been wired incorrectly and turning the exhaust on literally ripped the fan out of the ceiling and it came crashing down in the kitchen . It was seriously like a neverending comedy of errors. My brothers and I ended up all sleeping and hanging out watching movies with the space heaters in the basement. I’m sure my parents were completely freaking out but none of us could tell. It was just the year that we all got to sleep in sleeping bags and camp at home for Christmas.
Instagram – followed! Love!
Youtube – subscribed!
I subscribed to your YouTube channel! :)
I was already subscribed to your Instagram!
Oh and I already follow you on IG! (@takeonelizabeth)
My favorite holiday memory is definitely leaving carrots and cookies out on Christmas Eve…all the way up until I was probably 15 haha. And my brother and I waking up so early and sitting in bed counting down the minutes until it was an acceptably early time for us to go in and wake up our parents :) Your decorations are absolutely beautiful!
Subscribed to your YouTube and also following you on Instagram!
My favorite holiday memory is waking up on Christmas morning and anxiously awaiting my parents to get up so we could start the festivities.
My favorite Christmas memories are with my Dad/Mom/Grandmother who has since passed on – Memories not to be forgotten – Merry Christmas to you and your family. Thank you for the giveaway.
My favorite holiday memory is me & my 2 younger sisters running down the stairs to see what Santa brought for us under the tree. We still do this tradition even though we are 26, 24 and 22! :-) We have a photo of us in matching PJs every year, and I would love this new camera to continue the tradition! Happy Holidays!
My favourite memories of Christmas were as a child, waking up on Christmas morning to a proper stocking stuffed with toys, oranges, apples & colouring books. To us we thought that we were so special that Santa had brought us so very much. Oh how times have changed.
My brother and I used to have a slumber party on Christmas Eve and we’d stay up late watching a small selection of holiday movies that we had on VHS on repeat and listening for Santa downstairs. Eventually we’d fall asleep but despite staying up so late, we’d always wake up in the wee hours of the morning and try to distract ourselves until 6am when we were allowed to go downstairs. Looking back, it’s funny that the waiting is the best memory!
Subscribed on YouTube!
Following on Insta!
Favorite holiday memory – driving around town (North Huntingdon) to look at all the lights lit up for Christmas!
subscribed to YouTube channel!
My favorite Christmas memory is having my grandma over for Christmas last year in Colorado. She got to see snow for the first time on Christmas Eve! It was magical!
following on instagram!
Following you on Insta! (@sguerra)
My favorite Christmas memories were spent with grandparents who are no longer with us. We celebrated with a traditional Polish Christmas Eve followed by midnight Mass where Christmas Carols were sung in Polish and Christmas day was celebrated with my Italian family where food and family was the focus, lots and lots of food! Merry Christmas Jessica!
My favorite memory is baking pumpkin rolls with my nana!
I follow you on instagram!
I am subscribed to your Youtube channel!
my fav memory is baking cookies with my mom and sister!
I follow you on instagram!
My favorite memory of Christmas was going to Grandpa and Grandma’s house in Imlay City Michigan. We had a terrible snow storm that day and all my cousins and aunts and uncle where there and we were snowed in. I think we got 2 feet of snow it was so much fun all of us piled up all over the place sleeping on the floors and 2 to 3 kids in a bed. They lived in an old farm house and it was heated by a floor furnace in the living room. Grandma busy in the kitchen preparing food for all of us. The next day we went out and built snow tunnels what a great memory. Time has passed and most of my aunts and uncles have passed. Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and God’s blessing. Love your blog!
following on instagram
My favorite Christmas memory is hard. There are so many! Top two I guess would be making and decorating Christmas cookies and staying up late into the night waiting for Santa to arrive. I loved decorating the typical sugar cookies but also looked forward to the Mexican wedding cake cookies (aka pecan balls). They are the best! I still make them every year. Then, on the night before Christmas we would usually be sleeping in the sewing room and we’d sit on the couch and look out the window at the falling snow, listening. And I swear I could hear him landing on the roof sometimes.
And I already follow you on instagram!
HOORAY!!!
my favorite holiday memory has to be when we had extra family members join us for christmas eve dinner and we had to move the table to the basement to fit everyone at one large table (the last dinner style)! then my great grandmother proceeded to light the bread basket on fire! spending time with your family is what makes the holidays so special.
Love your blog! It is always my escape for a few minutes throughout my workday.
My favorite memory is going to cut down our Christmas Tree, my parents would bundle us up and we’d drive for what felt like hours in our VW Vanagon to cut down our tree every year. We’d fight the whole way, sing Christmas songs and drive my parents nutty. When we got home, we’d have chili and hot cocoa and snuggle on the couch with loads of blankets while my parents put lights on the tree. It’s a tradition me and my husband have carried on and is our tradition every year. We’ve started expanding it to our friends starting with brunch and bloody mary’s at our house before we caravan to the tree farm. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
I subscribe on Instagram (mrs_ams)!
I subscribe on YouTube!
hey girl love the pics! So pretty! I love spending time with family at Christmas time!
Making Christmas chocolates with my mom. Following on Instagram!
My favorite holiday memory is hearing the clip clop of horses coming down my street on Christmas Eve morning. I looked out the window to see a horse carriage stop in front of my house! I stared in excitement as I watched my cousins get out of the buggie – that’s when my parents told me the buggie was ours for the day! We rode all over town (delaying taffic, hah!). It was the absolute best Christmas memory.
Loving the decorations! So magical!
My favorite Christmas memory is this scenario that played out every year. The night before Christmas, my brother and I would leave out a plate of cookies and glass of milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. We were always SO excited the night before Christmas. It was so hard to go to bed. We would pester our parents to death with questions like “Do you think Santa will eat the cookies” or “what if reindeer don’t like carrots?!” I would always wake up at some ungodly time like 3AM and sneak into my brothers room and wake him up all like “OMG SANTA CAME”. We would “quietly” rush downstairs to see the presents under the tree and then run over to see if he ate any cookies. There were always bites taken out of the cookies and carrots and a half glass of milk left over. “HE CAMEEEEEE” we couldn’t even handle it. Santa came and ate our cookies and drank our milk! Such a precious memory. I still get a warm feeling in my heart thinking about it and STILL get those giddy butterflies the night before Christmas. <3
Favorite holiday memory is making cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve while we watch It’s a Wonderful Life. :) Subscribed to your youtube channel. I’m ‘eveningflares’ on youtube. Already subscribed to your insta.
My favorite holiday memory is our annual Christmas Eve festivities with my aunt and cousins. We all live in different states now, so it’s been many years since we’ve had the opportunity.
My favorite holiday memory is my cousins sleeping over for Christmas and us waking up Christmas morning and opening our presents together!