Peppermint Kitchen

Last weekend we finished decorating the house, including the kitchen, which is in a peppermint theme this year.  I posted earlier about our kitchen tree and other decorations, and also about creating an easy and cheap table runner.  Today I'm sharing the rest of the kitchen, which is the easy and low-stress centerpiece, and the gingerbread houses.

But first - an overview of our kitchen.  You've seen the window sill with the peppermint and gingerbread theme already.  And the kitchen tree too.

You've also already seen the kitchen doors with the greenery and apple swags.

Here's how the kitchen connects to the family room.  The couch in the family room backs up to the kitchen, with a sofa table behind the couch.  We've put the gingerbread on the sofa table this year.

 Under the sofa table there is a shelf, and on that shelf I store all of our Christmas tins.  This is decorative in a sort of jumbled, chaotic kind of way!  But it's also utilitarian, because as I make candies throughout the weeks leading up to Christmas, I store both the supplies and the finished products in these tins.  They're decorative and accessible but also out of the way!

These little houses came from a kit from Michael's.  There are five little houses all decorated by me and my daughter with peppermint candies and other red and white candies.   Three of the little trees are actually clay ornaments picked up from Kohl's earlier in the season.  Two of the little trees are real candy cane trees, wiht little candy decorations on them.  I got these at the Dollar Tree, and they fit the theme perfectly!

On the center of the table is our kitchen Santa. He matches perfectly this year, with his red and white gingham shirt and the little gingerbread house that he's decorating.  If you look closely you can see that the little gingerbread house is decorated with peppermint candy accents!

The other side of the table has a larger scale gingerbread house, also purchased as a kit from Michael's.  I've tried baking my own gingerbread houses before, and couldn't figure it out, so I always go the easy way out now.  I displayed this house on a white cake stand so that it has a little height and also it's easily portable in case I want to use it as a table centerpiece later in the season.

The two tall trees are decorations that I picked up at Hobby Lobby and Kohl's this season.  In fact, the spiral tree is the original inspiration behind our peppermint theme this year.  

 Finally, on our kitchen table, I've put together the easiest centerpiece ever.  It's just a white tray, a hurricane candle with a red and white candle, some candies, and another of my dad's hand-carved Santa figures.  This centerpiece stays here most days, but at mealtime sometimes we move it off to the side or over to the kitchen island.  It's fun, festive, and easy.  The only problem with it is that it's also partially edible - I've had to replace the gumdrops once already.  ;-)

And that concludes our kitchen decorations for this year.  Merry Christmas!