Holiday Decorating and Friends: A Look Back

Pin It
Did you ever watch "Friends"?  Please tell me that you did...

and that you had a secret crush on Chandler.

Tell me that you used to wish that you were Rachel...just a little bit.



Ahhh, the characters from Friends: Ross, Phoebe, Chandler, Monica, Joey and of course, Rachel.

I spent so much time watching their lives unfold that I felt as if I knew them. Heck, I felt as if I was one of them.

Absolutely.  I would have been the slightly older (but equally cool) girl in one of the apartments upstairs. I wouldn't have been in many episodes, though,  because my job in finance required me to work 8:30 to 6 most days while Rachel, and the gang were drinking coffee.

But we'd have still been BFF's, Rachel and I



...mainly because we were so much alike.

Truly, the similarities were uncanny.

We both had cute shag haircuts...and highlights.

We both wore our white t-shirts tucked into our jeans.

We both frequented local coffee shops that had real ceramic mugs.

See?! Eery, isn't it?! 


Of course, my coffee shop wasn't Central Perk and we didn't have guitar music but,  if Rachel had lived in my neighborhood here in Illinois or if my career had taken me to New York instead of the Chicago 'burbs, well, who knows what might have happened.


Maybe if I'd moved to New York, I'd have had a job with more flexible hours.

Seriously, I still marvel at the fact  that Rachel and her friends all had jobs that allowed them to spend hours drinking coffee in the middle of the afternoon while my friends and I barely made it to dinner before 8 p.m.



If I had been Rachel's cool and slightly older BFF, I may have helped to spare her at least some of the man drama in her life. But she probably still would have ended up with Ross.

As the years went by and the seasons unfolded, even I saw that one coming, didn't you?



Do you ever wonder what would have happened if the show was still on the air today?

I'm betting that Rachel and Ross would have moved to the suburbs within a couple of years. Right around the same time that I did.

They'd have gotten married, had a couple of children, needed a bigger house.



Heck, we'd have probably moved to the same village....since we were BFF's and all.

We'd have lived near each other.

Somewhere with a great coffee shop...and good schools.


Which brings me to my next pressing question: What do you suppose Ross and Rachel's house would look like today?  Would they have painted their kitchen grey? What about their dining room?

Would their furniture have come from Pottery Barn? Or maybe Restoration Hardware?

Or West Elm?


Obviously, Rachel and I would still meet at the local coffee shop...

on Saturday mornings...before our families woke up.

We'd  drink venti skinny vanilla latte's and discuss whether or not to color our hair

and if anyone could tell that we were wearing "stretch" denim jeans with our white t-shirts

because friends who are now...well...middle aged do things like that.


This week,  no doubt, we'd be discussing the holidays. Talking about how shocked we are that Thanksgiving is so much earlier this year...

and what colors we're using in our holiday decorating.

Yep, that's what we'd be doing if Rachel and I were BFF's.

But since we're not, I hope that you don't mind if I share my Christmas decorations (along with some tutorials) with you over the next few weeks.

I think that you'll find that this year's decor is much less formal than what you see in these photos from two Christmases ago...

and much more Friend-ly.

Yes, you can groan now. My real friends do that, sometimes. 

xo,




Kimberly