Joy to the World!

It seems like every year, I get a Christmas "theme" that sticks with me throughout the season. Sometimes it's just a recurring line from a song that I continue to think about or something that helps me focus on a part of the Christmas story. This year, as I started decorating my house and my tree, the theme of "Joy" kept coming to mind.

Joy is a favorite "Christmas word" of mine, not only because of the gift that it is from God to have joy, but also because it is my middle name. I have collected "Joy" ornaments and decorations throughout the years, so these come out of storage every year (and some I leave out all year long).

Since I have a new-to-me Christmas tree and it is a little smaller than my old one, I decided to not try to put all of our ornaments on it this year. I ended up going through all of the ornaments in the box and chose certain ones to hang on the tree. With the exception of one ornament, all of the ones that are hanging go with the Nativity theme or are Joy-related.

Then, because I enjoyed making a banner for my Thanksgiving tree, I decided I'd like to make one for my Christmas tree. I found some free printables online and got crafty! I really like the final result of the tree!