DIY Cottagecore Christmas Aesthetic Decor Ideas

DIY Cottagecore Christmas Aesthetic Decor Ideas: natural elements, mushrooms, crafts, and vintage decor and more.

If you love the cottagecore look, you’ll love cottagecore Christmas decor even more!  It’s the perfect mix of bringing the outdoors in, diy crafts, and vintage nostalgic pieces to make the most joyful festive season.  My home is looking like a little winter forest, with lots of mushrooms, pinecones, and some gorgeous vintage pieces thrown in to set the stage for all our celebrating this holiday season.  My annual holiday home tour is one my very favourite blog posts of the year, and I’m so excited to invite you into my home to see how I have it all decorated for Christmas this year.  I hope it gives you lots of fun ideas for your own Christmas decorations.

Front Door

I love to decorate my front door as a way to welcome guests in, and give them a little taste of what’s to come inside.  I wanted to add some mushrooms this year, so I got busy creating a few different DIY versions.  The planter has some gorgeous DIY concrete mushrooms, you can see more of how I made them here.

The front door is layered with some grapevine, and then has greens tucked in, and then I added some fun DIY mushroom ornaments, made out of wood and concrete so they could stand up to the ice and snow here.  See how I made the wood version here, and the concrete mini ones here.

The wreath is an old favourite, and it’s perfect to add some pink.  Pink has become one of my favourite colors to decorate with for the holidays.  See a full blog tutorial on how to make the Christmas wreath here.  Now let’s head inside.

Console Table

We have a console table at our entrance and it’s always a favourite to decorate for each season.  This Christmas it has the sweetest collection of small, neutral Christmas objects.  I found the wood shelf cubbies at a thrift store, and had so much fun adding all kinds of mini Christmas objects.  It’s a collection I add to each year.  And it’s surrounded by a collection of trees.  My favourite new addition is the disco ball ice bucket acting as a tree holder.

Dining Room

The Trees

This Christmas I wanted to make the dining room feel like a magical forest inside.  I cut down 5 saplings, and made some reusable tree stands out of some pipe from the hardware store and concrete.  We covered up the mechanics with some faux snow.  I also ordered some plug-in mini lights.  They turn on and off with a remote and look so great, and no worry about having to change out the batteries all the time.  One tree even had the cutest bird’s nest in!  And don’t worry, birds only use their nest for hatching eggs, and build a new one each year so there’s no home-less birdies. 😉  My favorite thing for this year’s Christmas decor has to be the trees.  They’re so magical at night all lit up.

I also added in one smallish Christmas tree here too.  It’s got lights on it and decorated with beautiful ribbons in a color palette of creams, pinks, and green.  Which sets the stage for all our Christmas decor this year.

Dining Table

On the table we added a collection of pinecones.  I love bringing the outdoors in each season, especially at Christmas.  I found about 8 different kinds of pinecones and sorted them by type into some vintage ironstone bowls.  The bowls were collected from different antique stores, and they really show off the dark pinecones well.  And just to add a little magic of Christmas, they got a sprinkling of faux snow too.

I also just love mushroom decor.  It’s the perfect touch for your cottagecore christmas décor.  I have a collection of DIY mushrooms made from paper mache and clay.  They look festive nestled into moss, and sprinkled with snow.  

And lastly there’s a collection of mostly thrifted old brass candlesticks.  What could be more magical at Christmas than candle light?  It’s one of winters simple joys.

Buffet Table

At the back of the room is a buffet table.  It’s against a feature wall, you can read all about how we created it with a stencil here.  The green is always so perfect for Christmas.  Because there was a lot going on in the room already with the trees, and the pinecones, I wanted to keep things fairly simple back here.  I used more candlestick holders and some large vintage glass jars.  One is filled with more pinecones and snow, one with more mushrooms, and one with a candle.  I love how pretty this little grouping is.

Stairs

The stairs are decorated with layers of garland.  I started with my macrame garland -see the tutorial to make it here.  I usually keep it up all year round, and layer more on top for Christmas.  Along with greens, there are layers of star garland, pom poms.  This year, I’ve tried to add lots of snow elements, and pom pom garland gets repeated over and over to create the snowy effect.

At the bottom of the stairs we have a small table.  There’s a little collection of mini ironstone pitchers with bottle brush trees inside.  On the table a little woodland inspired tree.  See how I made the velvet acorn decorations here.  I also added some little wood mushrooms dressed up with glitter for the holidays.  On this table is also one of my favourite little advent calendars.  Each day leading up to the holidays a new little woodland friend is added to the scene.

The Living Room

Fireplace

Our living room is feeling so cozy and pretty this year.  I started in here with the fireplace mantel.  It’s a corner fireplace, so sometimes feels a little tricky.  I have an old antique door in the background, and beautiful curtain mini lights in front.  They’re just the backdrop to the most beautiful collection of glass candlestick holders, mini Christmas trees in glass and ceramic, and mushrooms in wood, metal and glass.  I love this combination and it’s so pretty with the candle lit and lights on at night.  I covered it all in faux snow as a finishing touch.

On the front of the mantle the garland matches the stairs.  But it also has a layer of twigs underneath.  It adds a nice extra layer of interest and ties in well with our forest of trees in the dining room.

Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree is actually two trees from Ikea, but together to make it taller.  I love a sparse tree, and this is a great way to create the look on a budget.  I’ve layered on a combination of glass iridescent and pink ornaments, glass icicles, vintage pink ornaments, and mushrooms.  We usually do our Christmas presents in our basement family room at Christmas, so rather than gifts under the tree, we’ve decorated it to match.  It’s an unexpected delight.  I used some large DIY paper mache mushrooms I made last Christmas and some wooden ones, along with some birch logs, pine cones, and lots and lots of faux snow.  I love this little detail so much, and it brings the tree to the next level.  

Oscar is my dog, and in need of a haircut, but still very willing to sit for a photo in exchange for a doggie cookie.

Couch and Coffee Table

The couch is looking cozy and like the perfect spot to snuggle up for some holiday movie watching.  There’s some cozy sherpa pillows and a throw.  There’s also some fun mushroom pillows.  I ordered some mushroom fabric here, and sewed them into the cutest pillows.  They’re the perfect mushroom touch for our Christmas cottage core vibe.

On the coffee table there’s more mushrooms and trees, to match the fireplace mantel.  There’s also a bowl full of pretty vintage ornaments.  It’s so fun collecting these.  I’m always on the lookout for them, especially at garage sales, or thrift stores.  They’re hard to find, but such a treat when you do.  

Kitchen

Table

Over on the kitchen table I’ve kept things really simple this year.  I tend to do a lot of creating here, especially over Christmas, so I wanted some pretty things that I could move really easily and that weren’t too elaborate.  I went with a collection of trees.  The large one that looks like a real norfolk pine is actually faux.  It’s nestled into a vintage bowl and covered with more faux snow.  There’s also a few iridescent trees -iridescent is a favourite of mine, especially for Christmas and I love adding little bits of it here and there.

Behind the table we have a little cabinet.  It’s another favourite spot to decorate for each season.  I started out with the Dec 25 poster.  It’s available as a free printable.  I printed it at the office supply store as a colour Engineer’s print, it’s a really inexpensive way to create large art pieces.  I used some wood at the top and the bottom to hang it.  Look for the free printable in our Free Resource Library.  It’s available to all subscribers.  Subscribe below for free instant access.

Gingerbread Details

This year we’re seeing gingerbread everywhere and I designed a few pieces with gingerbread that are perfect for Christmas.  The first was this felt banner of Amsterdam canal houses.  I made them with my Cricut machine, you can find the full tutorial here.  Then I also designed some matching canisters.  I added the vinyl houses to two different sized glass canisters, that are holding flour and sugar, perfect for all our holiday baking.  

And at the back of the table is my ever growing collection of vintage Santa mugs.  I’ve been collecting them for several years.  They’re very hard to find where I live, and basically everytime I see them I buy them.  This year I found a collection of 5 at an antique store and I was so thrilled.  On the same antiquing day I also picked up this wood shelf.  The openings were the perfect size for the Santa mugs and I love how they look in my kitchen for Christmas.  And on the table, one more cutie, a mini version of the norfolk pine, and another vintage container with snow.  There’s also some lovely leaning birch poles, I love how they tie in with the birch logs under the Christmas tree, and the birch poles on the front porch.

Shelves

I always love decorating my open kitchen shelves.  I started out with adding more snow inspired pompom garland.  On most shelves there’s also a few assorted Christmas trees and some mushrooms.  I also made the cutest gingerbread houses.  They’re actually made of long lasting gingerbread salt dough.  This is so perfect for somewhere like this, where they look so cute, but might get a little dusty and stale sitting out.  Instead of throwing them out, we can save them for next year.  Find the recipe for the Gingerbread salt dough here.  You might have noticed that they match the other gingerbread decor I made.  I copied their shapes and details and I love how it all matches.

New to me this year is the gingerbread man cutting board, perfect for serving holiday treats.

And I couldn’t resist making a cute gingerbread man canister for my tea bags as well.  I love using seasonal canisters, and it’s easy to make them with a Cricut machine.  Time for a cup of tea.

Pass Through

Over by the sink area, we have a passthrough to the living room.  Keeping the snow theme going, I’ve hung some strung pompoms to make it look like it’s snowing, along with a real pine branch.  And more mushrooms and trees right beside the sink.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without Christmas cookies.  Our holiday baking is just getting underway, and the first thing we’ve made is gingerbread this year.  There’s nothing like the smell of it, to get you in the Christmas spirit.

I just love how things turned out this year with my decor. The cottagecore decor has all come together.  I really love bringing the outdoors in, mixing in lots of whimsical details, like mushrooms, and adding lots of vintage finds.  I’m especially excited to have the house all ready for my daughter’s return.  She’s away at University and we haven’t seen here since August, so we can’t wait until she’s home on Christmas eve with us!  I truly wish you a very happy and joyful seasons greetings and a happy new year.

With a house all decorated and full of cottagecore Christmas ideas and inspiration, life really is a party!

More Christmas Decorating Inspiration

You might also like our Woodland Enchanted Christmas Decor here.

You might also like our Rustic Scandinavian Christmas Decor here.