Ree Drummond Explains Why You Should Go All Out With Holiday Decor - Exclusive

To walk into Ree Drummond's house around the holidays is to enter a space filled with cheer. The Pioneer Woman's house is lavishly decorated from Thanksgiving through New Year's. And it doesn't hurt that during almost all waking hours, it's also filled with the wonderful aromas of her cooking.

If you were to stop by the Drummond home in years past, however, the scents of cinnamon rolls, roasted turkey, simmering sauces, and baked breads would have been there, but you would have seen much less in the way of decoration, as Drummond said during an exclusive interview with Mashed.

"It's funny because I used to be so understated with Christmas decorations," she said. "I would've put myself in the low percentile in terms of how much I would do. I always have had a big tree, but I just never really had filled my house with much décor — but in the past five or six years, I have decided that more is [better]."

So what changed that made Ree Drummond finally embrace more holiday décor? "I think when my kids left, I wanted them to come home from college and beyond, and really walk in and see that Christmas exploded in our house," Drummond explained. And she thinks maybe Christmas should go ahead and explode in your house, too. "I think one thing I'd say is have fun with it, don't take it too seriously. I definitely am more in the fun holiday decorating realm. I like things that have bright colors and fun, little sentiments and sayings," she added, noting she was once wary of cluttering items and overdoing it, but now has "turned over a new leaf ... I'll put little holiday signs on basically every table. It's such a short time of the year that I think I would encourage people just to go for it and have fun."

Ree Drummond's name can be found on a lot of kitchen and household products these days. Well, her alter ego, The Pioneer Woman, is found on them, anyway. What sets her branded products apart from those of other mavens of the kitchen is that Drummond is hands-on in selecting the specific items that will be included in her collections and she directly informs their styling, as she explained in her interview with Mashed. Such was the case with her latest holiday collection now selling at Walmart.

"I definitely wanted [the collection] to reflect my life and my family's life during the holiday, so there's a lot of kitchen items, casserole dishes, pie dishes, gadgets that have a holiday Christmas theme," Drummond said. "My life is really in the kitchen most of the time anyway, but definitely around the holidays. But also for me, I have to have color, personality, a little bit of whimsy and excitement with each item." 

The assortment is also expansive, including everything from air fryers to serving platters to decorative throw pillows. And there's no mistaking Drummond's holiday items for what they are. "They're just a little happy explosion of color and personality. I think every item, I wanted to be able to look at it and say: 'That looks like a Pioneer Woman holiday item.' I think it's such a cute collection."

Check out the new Pioneer Woman Holiday Collection at Walmart and keep up with Ree Drummond at The Pioneer Woman website.