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My Christmas Home Tour …. of sorts

Close up of Christmas ornaments on the tree

Christmas Home Tour is a bit of an overstatement…..

I didn’t get everything out, only a small portion, but I did get all the boxes out. And they’re still out. Nobody is coming over during the holidays and I’ve been too lazy busy to clean up. So the following pictures are of Christmas vignettes rather than whole rooms. Nobody wants to see the mess that is so carefully cropped out. 🙂

I always do a traditional, colorful, shiny, vintage Christmas. I don’t make effort to color coordinate or create carefully styled mantles, etc. I do it basically like my mother and grandmothers did. Simply find a spot for the ornaments and items we had.

First up, the Christmas tree. It’s basically the same as always. A thousand, or two, tiny, colored lights and a vast collection of vintage ornaments with a few newer ones sprinkled in. 

Traditional vintage style Christmas tree lit at night

I couldn’t decide which picture I liked better, the darker or lighter, so I used both. Didn’t notice the open sheers until later. 

You can’t really see it from those pictures, but there’s a special spot that Dani helped decorate. She actually helped all over the tree, but that spot was hers that she kept going back to. Can you spot it? 

Toddler decorated Christmas tree

Yes, of course I’m leaving it! It makes this year’s tree extra special!

Some close ups of the ornaments:

Close up of vintage ornaments on a traditional Christmas tree

Close up of Christmas ornaments on the tree

The figurals are new, the balls old. The blue and silver one, top right, has a red string on it indicating it’s one I grew up with and is to be especially cherished.

Next up, a small, silver display on the china cabinet/buffet. Super simple.

Silver Christmas vignette

And now, a few small Santas. The rest stayed in their storage box:

Vintage and hand made Santa collection

They stand next to the ceramic Christmas tree collection. 

Ceramic Christmas Tree Collection Display

Display of ceramic Christmas trees

I walked in the room one day when Dani was here and found this:

ceramictrees

I did take the lid off. 

More Santas:

Vintage Santa collection display

Old Christmas paper wrapped boxes

I’m so glad not everyone throws away the fake presents they had. I love vintage wrapping paper and empty boxes wrapped in said paper.

And last – last pictured, but there is actually a little more here and there – is the ball wreath from Anthropologie a few years back:

Christmas ball wreath

 

 

 

 

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Let the Christmas Decorating Begin!

Here in the deep south, it’s hard to let go of summer. Today is November 27 and I have the windows open to 74° temps. So I don’t usually think about putting up summery decor until Christmas things start to come out and I need room. Today, I say “see ya in the spring” to the last of the summer decor and let the Christmas decorating begin.

Summer decor items

I haven’t decorated for Christmas the past few years, but want to bring it all back out this year. Start the holiday memory foundations for Dani, the only grandchild who will be around here this year. Wish we all lived closer together! We’ll all pile up in the car and drive 12 hours to go see Sophie – and her parents, of course – after Christmas.

So decoration #1. Mr. and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shakers sitting on top of a shabby, chippy, white, box and a hand made Santa ornament hanging on front. The inside of the box has cubbies, but I haven’t decided what to put in there yet. That decision will be made as I go through boxes.

Christmas decorating with a chippy, shabby box

How about you? Did you start early, before Thanksgiving, and git ‘er done or are you hanging back? Are you not decorating at all this year or going all out? Or somewhere in between?

 

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Vintage Bottle Brush Tree Forest and Jeweled Trees – Decorating with Vintage Christmas

Lessee. Five more days til Christmas? Hmmm… I’d better hurry up and get all this in. First up, decorating with vintage Christmas, is the small dining room. I’ll explain that. The living room is long enough for a living room and dining room. That room has the big table. The room that’s always been the “dining room” is very small. And it’s between the kitchen and the living room/dining room. So. Here’s the small dining room decked out for Christmas.

Patchwork Quilt Christmas Tree

Vintage Bottle Brush Tree Forest

I pick up bottle brush trees whenever I find them and over the years have accumulated quite the forest. This is the first year I’ve used them like this. It makes me happy when I look at them.

Vintage Quilt Christmas Tree

 

 

As part of my Christmas gift, Melanie used an old quilt I had and made this tree. I absolutely love it!

 

 

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Below is a round table at the end of the sofa in the living room. All out of place because of the Christmas tree that is not in the pictures yet.  This little table got some glitz and glitter. And I’ll tell you a little secret. After I took the picture, I saw that there was a piece of fabric on the floor down the hall. It was edited out. Gotta love those photo editors! The mess may be there in real life, but we can crop or erase a lot of it out of the pictures!

Vintage Glitter and Jeweled Christmas

Vintage Shiny Christmas Ornaments

Vintage Shiny Christmas

 

 

 

Now, here it is five days til Christmas and I still need to buy the two hardest gifts. And I still have no idea what to get. The house is also still not completely decorated and SO not cleaned or even straightened. And there’s cooking that needs to begin. And I need to work at the shop. I need to be here, I need to be there, and I need to be somewhere else and even another place. I need at least three clones! Bet you could use some too!