A Nostalgic Christmas

It was crazy warm in the northeast today....70 degrees! I was driving around with my window down listening to Christmas music on the radio. We had just put our tree up. I was out buying the last of the Christmas gifts. What is wrong with this picture? I know to those of you that live in the south there is nothing wrong with this picture. But in the northeast the cold and wind and snow just add to the ambiance and "feeling" of Christmas in the air. It better get cold again soon!

I have gotten nostalgic as Christmas nears this year. Maybe it is all the fabulous vintage holiday stuff I have been finding to sell in my NaNa's Things shop on Etsy. Whatever the reason, I wanted a Christmas with things to remind me of my past Christmas'.



These two light up blow mold Santas are from the late 1960's  - early 1970's

A few years ago I gave in and we bought a pre-lit faux tree. My husband was never one to go out in the woods and saw one down, so after many years of doing that I found a really nice fake tree all pre-lit and perfect size for in front of our pocket doors in the living room.

I am so sick of that tree!



It is a pretty tree.....I am posting it so you can see what we had to what we have now!

It looks the same EVERY YEAR!

This year I was not at all into decorating for the holidays with the same old tree and the same old wreaths and the same old, same old. I have ALOT of Christmas decorations because I tend to use them forever and then get sick of them and then NOT get rid of them.

I wanted something different and nostalgic and vintage and reminding me of my childhood.

I really, really wanted a live tree again.  After saying no way for years my husband agreed to go look at pre-cut ones....he drew the line at cutting one down. We have many tree farms near where we live so we decided to just go driving by and see what they had for pre-cuts. The first place we stopped at had the most fabulous tree I have seen. It was 9 ft. tall and 5 ft. wide at the bottom. I brought my tape measure because we do have restrictions on size for our small living room. No way was 5 feet wide on the bottom going to fit anywhere. But I had to have it so we got it and we made a way by moving furniture out and around....

That is a handpainted wooden Santa crouching behind the tree with his bag of toys.

From skinny tree to fat tree. It is a Turkish Fir. I love it! See that shimmer on it? That is tinsel! Something I have not used since childhood and I thought I would try it again. It makes the tree sparkle. Now I've got to find my angel for the top and the tree is done! Just my vintage ornaments some lights and some tinsel.

I wanted something homey and inviting for my front door. So when I saw the natural pine roping garland for sale at Wegmans (a grocery store no less) I grabbed it. It reminded me of how that is all I used to buy and decorate with in my farmhouse in Williamson. I had been wanting to put garland around the front door for years and never did...this was the year.

I found a really pretty plaque at JoAnn Fabrics that I had to have, not knowing what I would do with it. When I saw the huge natural fir wreath at the tree farm, I knew what I would do. I would have an all natural woodsy front door!

 

I have a lot more decorating to do as it usually takes me 2 weeks to do it all. Although I am scaling down this year and trying to keep things simple with a nostalgic feeling throughout the house. I even found a yule log at a local church bazaar handmade by the youth group. Adds just the right old tyme feeling...

 

 

 

Have you started decorating yet?

 

 

AnnMarie :)