A Vintage Christmas

Welcome to our Vintage Christmas

We hope to fill this page with some of our favorite things. I find that I love looking to the past for those one of a kind, beautiful, unique and special items that just brighten up a room. To me vintage is very charming, it has such a lovely patina and I think it represents a time long ago where quality was important.

Some things on this page are not vintage. Sometimes I am drawn to something that has that vintage look about it. Or something that I feel would blend well with whatever theme I have going on.

Vintage isn’t always about a material item you own, sometimes it’s about tradition or behavior.

I’m glad you are here and I do hope you will stay awhile.

Merry Christmas,

Julie

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Merry Christmas

Placing the crown on top of the tree.

Pomegranate Martini anyone?

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My Vintage Jewelry Tree

This is one of my favorite things. I wanted to create a lovely tree using some vintage jewelry that once belonged to my grandmother and great-grandmother’s, and even my great-aunt. I purchased a pretty urn, filled it with some florist foam, spray painted some sticks that I found in my yard a pretty glittery white, stuck them all around the inside foam, then I added some moss that I bought at a craft store to hide the foam, then sprinkled some glitter onto the moss, after which I went to work decorating the little “tree”.

I Added a Pearl Choker to the Top of the Urn

In addition to the jewelry I also added some pretty birds and even an ornament or two.

This tree doesn’t need lights to sparkle.

I did add a few candles around it just to accent the faux jewels for the light to reflect off of.

I placed this tree up high, sitting atop an old vintage silverware box that I purchased at a thrift store in Maryland for $7.00.

It’s something pretty and sparkly to look up at.

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Vintage Christmas Tree

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White Sitting Atop the Tree

I have another Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Christmas tree as well……..

Click Here For: Julie’s Vintage Snow White Birthday

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But here, on this tree, I wanted to add an old faux mink collar that I found at a thrift store, and bunches of golden poinsettias, along with my vintage Snow White dolls and ornaments.

I even added one small touch from my childhood to this tree.

My very first Christmas ornament that I made in Kindergarten, when I was 5, which coincidentally is when I first saw Snow White at the movie theater. It was at my 5th. birthday party.

Note: I did use some very old lights on this tree, something that I won’t be repeating in the future. They would get very hot so we couldn’t have them on as often. They really were a safety hazard. Some things vintage really aren’t a very good idea to use anymore.

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Christmas in The Nook

I have been happily decorating my nook. It is raining outside and that is contributing to this beautiful “sparkle” everywhere. It couldn’t be more perfect!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful……..

(We are having thunderstorms.) 🙂 I do love a good thunderstorm!

I do have a thing for vintage ornaments and vintage birdcages.

Christmas in My Nook

I like decorating the whole house for Christmas and not just one room.

Little Sparkles here and there……

I Love the Silver and Gold

There is nothing like the true sparkle of Christmas.

—————————————————Christmas Day Cocktails

Hey, welcome! Come on in!

Can I get you a drink?

Pomegranate martini?

(My favorite. With extra seeds.)

What about something sweet?

Perhaps a slice of our Christmas cake?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Cheers!

With much appreciation,

Julie

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Wine Party Favors

I always have party favors on Christmas, it’s one of my most fun things to do. Here each guest gets to pick out a bottle of wine and a wine bottle ornament, and a take home ‘cracker’.

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Turning an Urn into a Christmas Tree Stand

We bought a new Christmas tree. We prefer an artificial tree because it is less maintenance than having a real one. We also opted for a smaller, thinner tree as opposed to the fat tall one that we have had for the last 21 years. Our children are grown now, Gordon and I are in the process of downsizing our lives a little bit more so we thought what better place to start than with our new Christmas tree?We bought a beautiful spruce but I was a bit disappointed with how short that it was. We were used to having a very tall tree. So it was my idea to place the tree into this lovely black urn that we had laying around the garage. ————————————————–Our New Christmas Tree

Come on in!This is another reason why we bought a new Christmas tree. We had bought some new furniture and no longer had a place to put our old tree so we got this new spruce and sandwiched it between some tall furniture pieces . But it is the first thing you see when you walk into our home. Not the most prefect solution but if not for this then there would be no place for us to put a tree.

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Here are the How-To’s for Creating This Tree Stand for YourselfThe first thing that you need is a “pipe” of some kind for the tree itself to sit in, once inside the urn. You will also need something to steady the “pipe” so that the tree will stand straight. Here Gordon used some leftover pvc pipe and a plastic flower pot liner that we had laying around the garage that he cut a hole in so that the pipe can slide into.

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The next step is to add something heavy to the bottom of the pot. Here we used some leftover pea pebbles from one of our outdoor projects. Gordon fills the bottom, with the pipe in place in the center, and then slides the white plastic liner over the pipe and above the rocks.

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Next he added rocks to the top of the plastic liner to make sure the “pipe” is firmly secure inside the urn. Not quite to the top. Next Gordon covers the rocks with some paper towels.

Then comes the “snow”. Well actually, just lots of glittery cotton to hide the rocks and the paper towels. Now time to insert the tree into the pvc pipe and then you have a lovely one of a kind Christmas tree stand.

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Ready for the Tree——————————————————————————————-

Hanging Christmas Decorations

I found the large vintage green and gold ball at a thrift store a few years ago. It reminded me of something that would be featured on How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Something from Whoville. The other green paper lanterns are from Germany from the 40’s.

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Pretty silk poinsettias mixed with chenille poinsettias.

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Grammaw’s Here!!!!

I can’t tell you how many Christmas’s that my brother’s and I yelled that when she would arrive.
Below is my Grandmother’s luggage set from the 50’s that I inherited when she died.

She carried our presents inside these suitcases when she would come visit us.

So this is my recreation of that memory.

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I always think of her this time of year.

The keys.

All rusty but they still open her train case.

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Rockingham, North Carolina 1980

This is me baking a cake for Christmas.

Grammaw Nell, and my little brother Ben.

——————————————————————–Welcome to our Home for Christmas

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I had nowhere to place the kids stockings this year so I decided to hang them from the

archway. They will have to get a ladder to get their goodies. I like making Christmas hard.

Brodie and Veronica.

My Grandmother gave the kids these stockings when they were little.

She had them made, they are hand embroidered.

A forever gift from her.

Evening Ambiance

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Gordon Working the Bar

Serving Drinks

Brian and Veronica

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Here I have my vintage Santa’s and little kids dressed as angels hidden within the beautiful silk flowers.

The Crackers

A gold bird nest with a lovely golden bird.

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One of my many vintage Santa Claus’s with some lovely bottle brush trees.

Our drinks table with one of my candelabra’s and some ornaments.

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Here I am totally exhausted!

But very happy!
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Christmas Tree

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Tree Topper

Our little deer looks so sweet here.

I have some vintage Christmas boxes underneath the tree filled with goodies.

I also wrapped some of the gifts with vintage print wrapping paper.

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Putting the finishing touches on the tree on Christmas Eve.

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Gone With The Wind

Gone With The Wind is a favorite movie of ours and especially my daughter Veronica. She loves anything Scarlett. Below I found these lovely old vintage prints at a thrift store for only $6.00 each. Two of the women look so much like Scarlett and Melanie and I knew Veronica would love them.

I don’t wrap all my gifts when I put them under the tree. I like for some things to just be placed under the tree surrounded by other wrapped gifts. Like in the photo above.

Scarlett in the Red Dress

Here are a few of Veronica’s Hallmark Scarlett ornaments.

Always a Scarlett Christmas gift for Veronica.

Rhett and Scarlett

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I realize having a Gone With The Wind Christmas is a bit controversial, but we love the movie because of the characters of Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie, Ashley, Mammy, Prissy……

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Our Topiary Tree

I love this area.

I have some of my vintage Santa’s, my old jewelry boxes and even some opera glasses.

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This lovely spire atop the tree is very vintage. I love it.

It is hand painted from Germany, where so many lovely things do come from.

An Old Ballerina I found at a Thrift Store

My 60’s Santa Clause

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My Great-Aunt Margie’s Opera Glasses I Inherited

The Avon perfume stocking was a gift from my Grandmother Aycock when I was very young.

My Grandmother’s Vintage Corsage

The Christmas mice that I got from our old bookstore, The Book Nook.

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My Grand-Parents Stereo

I love listening to vintage Christmas music on this stereo.

Perfect!

Have yourself a merry little Christmas……..

Ahh…. Just wonderful to listen to.

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Vintage Photo Christmas Card

I had an idea for my Christmas card a few years ago.

I took old photos of my brothers and I when we were little, also of myself and Gordon, and our children, and even one of my Grandmother, and created this card.

I photo copied it all together and tied it with a ribbon. That is me sitting on Gordon’s lap when we were dating. He played Santa Bear one year at Miller’s Department Store in Rome, GA. I was working there at the time.

My little brothers and my children.

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I love these old Christmas photos.

My Grandmother whispering something in Santa’s ear.

Nellie Mae Haskin was a character!

Merry Christmas!

Sending Christmas Correspondences the old fashioned way.

Bright red envelopes, gold parchment paper and a jeweled pen.

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Merry Christmas

These were my Grandmother’s.

I don’t know where she got them but I wanted them after she died.

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O’ Christmas Tree……….
(Christmas Project)

There is a story behind this Christmas tree. It was a gift to me from my Grandmother in the early 90’s while we were living in Hawaii. I asked for this tree as my gift. The reason is that in Hawaii Christmas trees have to be imported in. They all arrive on the island in early December after being in a freezer for the two week journey to Oahu in a barge. They are then placed out in the hot sun on the island while the seller’s try and sell them. If you don’t buy your tree within the first week or so in December then they are all sold out. By the time Christmas day rolls around your tree is totally dead and you are afraid to turn on your Christmas tree lights for fear that the tree will catch on fire.

This is why we wanted an artificial tree while we were living there.

However through the years the tree has lost so many of it’s needles that it is starting to look a bit shabby.

So I decided to revive it a bit. I got the idea to use some spray paint to make it look a bit better. So this is what we did.

Gordon and Veronica

I swear that Gordon is so smart! Originally he set the tree up in it’s original classic tree stand but the wind kept blowing it over. So he tried a few things from our backyard. First he tried this fountain piece that I use as a garden accent but it didn’t sit right. So then he retrieved the cement umbrella stand and placed the tree inside it. A perfect fit!

I then covered the cement stand with old towels to protect it from the spray paint that Veronica and I will be applying.

I am cutting all the ends of the branches that have become so bear of needles through the years.

I’m using a wire cutter.

To the left you can see how barren some of the branches have become.

Now Veronica and I are applying spray paint to the tree. First we used a silver, then gold and then a copper color.

We do NOT want to totally cover the tree. We still want some green to shine through. We just want to revive this old tree and bring it into the next decade looking lovely.

Here Veronica is really getting deep into the tree with the spray paint.

Totally finished!

So what do you think? It may be a bit hard to actually see but it looks so much better than it did.

Gordon and Brodie have brought the tree inside and it looks great!

Next comes the fun part…

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Christmas Mess!

Decorating!

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without starting off with such a huge MESS!

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Christmas Craft

Snow Globes

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This was so fun and so easy to do.

A few years ago I found these cute little plastic figurine ornaments at an after Christmas sale for hardly anything. I started saving lots of jars over the past year and now I am ready to start the project.

Season’s Greetings!

My biggest purchase was probably the glitter. Here I am using different kinds. I even have some ‘snow flakes’ that I bought on sale after Christmas one year as well.

Santa’s, a Jar Full of……

I wanted to do something different here but it flopped at first. I wanted to have a jar full of Santa’s that would float around. Well, they didn’t.

So, Gordon and I got the idea to glue the Santa‘s to the inside of the jar. I would glue one a day until I had all sides of the jar finished. Then we just added the water and the glitter and it looked great.

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After adding the glitter we secured the lid and now we have a lovely snow globe.

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Here are some more examples of our snow globes.

We glued these figures to the lids with a good waterproof glue.

Then let them set for a few days. Then the fun assembly begins.

These cute snow globes also make cute gifts.

The Assembly

Some Fake Snow Also Works in Place of Glitter

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They look nice here with some of my Grandmother’s vintage Christmas Hankies.

I also like placing some of the figurines on top of the snow globes.

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Chex Party Mix

It just isn’t a vintage Christmas without Chex Party Mix.
This is my all time favorite!

(Although Chex Party Mix may be a staple in Western civilization I have readers from all over the world who may not know of it).

Chex Party Mix

3 cups Corn Chex cereal

3 cups Rice Chex cereal

3 cups Wheat Chex cereal

3 cups Cheerios cereal

1 cup mixed nuts

1 cup pretzels

6 Tablespoons butter or margarine

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 ½ teaspoons seasoned salt

¾ teaspoon garlic powder (I never add these last two ingredients. I just add extra seasoned salt)

½ teaspoon onion powder

Preheat your oven to 250*.

I am using a very large pan here. 12 x 18. I pretty much don’t follow the recipe and just throw everything in the way that we like it. Extra margarine, extra Worcestershire sauce, and extra seasoned salt. Oh, and extra cereal.

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Melt your butter in the oven. When melted remove from the oven and add your Worcestershire sauce and your seasoned salt.

Just stir the liquid together. Next you want to add all your cereals.

I just dump everything together in little piles.

Now just stir it all together, coating every piece.

Then you place in the oven for an hour. But, you need to remove it every 15 minutes to give it a good stir so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

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1 Hour, every 15 minutes, stir.

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See the little dark bits in the photo at right? My son Brodie and I fight over those. We love them!!

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Now just place them into something very festive and you have a nice Christmas snack to help you get through all the holiday stresses. Well, it helps me at least.

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Decoration Memory of my Grandmother

My Grandmother would always put together this lovely little display every Christmas.

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She used a large glass globe with artificial snow and some of her cute little vintage ‘made in Japan’ figures.

I have some of them here.

I have also bought a few of my own.

I also had to buy a new “globe” for this project as my brother Ben took hers when she died.

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These are paper mache figures.

They are lovely.

Some even have little price tags on the bottom. 10 cents each.

Here I have put them with my vintage green glass.

Green glass, snow globe re-enactment, and my peppermints.

Just like my Grandmother would have done herself.

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Vintage Birdcage

I bought this birdcage a few years ago. It is vintage and so pretty. I love it. For the holidays Brodie added the lights inside the cage for me. I added some pretty birds to the outside of the cage. Notice the cage doors are open. It signifies freedom. No one is caged here.

I added a pretty swag around the birdcage.

I think it looks so nice reflected in the mirror.

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Silver Sparkle

Adding some sparkle to a vintage set of silver that once belonged to my Great-Grandmother.

Some jeweled fruits, a vintage looking Santa and some palm leaves.

The following year I made it a little bit different by adding some vintage ornaments and a tree topper.

But this year I added the lights.

I make things a little different each and every year.

But either way I think it looks very nice.

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Every year I also do this section a bit differently but you get the gist of it. A pretty wreath with vintage silver ornaments on my “spooky” mirror. My Grandmother’s vintage punch bowl either filled with more vintage ornaments or filled with a Christmas punch.

Also my Great-Grandmother’s candelabra with beautiful tapers.

I love this section, I think it is just lovely.

Christmas Punch in a vintage punch bowl with matching little tiny vintage cups.

Christmas Eve

I added a few more ornaments to the wreath this year.
It is so simple to add these little ornamental balls to a wreath. Just slide the hoop that is on the ornament to a branch on the wreath and then just bend the branch a bit so that it doesn’t fall off.

Like So

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This year I added some vintage Santa ornaments to my candelabra. Also a crocheted silver collar to the base of my candelabra. I found it in my Grandmother’s things when she died. It is a collar for a dress or a blouse. I think she made it herself as she did make these kinds of crocheted things. I’ll bet she wore it to many a Christmas party in her day.

Here I’ve substituted the center candle for an ornamental piece.

Ah, her Punch Bowl

Whether it is empty or filled with ornaments, it is a thing of beauty.

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This piece filled with little ornamental balls was my Great-Grandmother’s. It sat by your front door of her house and when people would drop by to visit they would leave their ‘calling card’.

I’ve added some vintage cupcake picks to the pile. I couldn’t decide which way I liked it best. With, or without.

Just a little added Christmas touch. Some gauze with frankincense inside and tied with a pretty gold strand.

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Elegant Festive Table

Whether it is day or night, it looks festive.

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Vintage Themed Gifts
( Retro)

The All-American Christmas Cookbook

This is a lovely book that features all 50 states and just what recipe or event, that makes that state unique and special. When I gave the book to my mother last year for Christmas, she loved that it featured the Riches Department Store Christmas tree in Atlanta, Georgia, that would sit above the highway, that you could drive underneath in the 1960’s. It was a memory from her youth that she had forgotten, but loved. So no matter what state you are from, you will appreciate this little cookbook as it features things like that.