VINTAGE CHRISTMAS

Today is Vintage Christmas day at

Have A Daily Cup.  Since practically everything around here is vintage (including us), I wasn't going to miss this opportunity to celebrate with Jann.  Be sure to hop over and visit her delightful blog!

 In my last post I said I wasn't the glitzy, sparkly, glamour type --- well, I lied as I do have a fondness for shiny, vintage ornaments.

Ever since I inherited my parent's and grandmother's Christmas stuff in the 1990s, I have been searching for more vintage ornaments.  I've been keeping the collection under control, however, by buying only those priced way under the current market value.  My search centers on the balls with the cardboard hangers from WW II.  In all of the years I have only found three.  In our part of the country, they must not have been into conserving metal for the war effort; because they sure are elusive!!

In addition, I'm attracted to the vintage tree toppers and bottle brush trees.

I inherited several of the bottle brush trees from my grandmother when I received her collection of cardboard houses.  I love this little church and its tiny bottle brush tree.

We also like the old Christmas postcards which we display on this vintage grocery store receipt rack along with some pictures of our Christmases Past.

Look at this picture of our children taken 40 Christmases ago.  Santa has a death grip on Jenni, and Mike was ready to also grab her if she tried to escape.  Later in the day, we discovered that Jenni had come down with the chicken pox -- we have often wondered if we were responsible for Santa later coming down with the pox.  Plus, did he then have shingles later in life?  He looks a little scared, doesn't he?  I feel guilty........but at the moment we didn't know.

I guess you could consider some of our stockings vintage -- I knitted the first one for Bob before our first Christmas in 1958.

Another touch of vintage - my two grandmothers' and my mother's rolling pins.

I'm joining the following:
Have a Daily Cup for Vintage Christmas Thursday
From My Front Porch to Yours for Treasure Hunt Thursday
The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home Friday
Nancherrow for Fridays Unfolded
Pieced Pastimes for Saturday Sparks

VINTAGE CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

We've spent this week decorating for Christmas.  And after 55 years of marriage, it is so fun to relive Christmases Past as we unpack each decoration.  Below, are some of the vintage decorations that we have picked up over the years while out antiquing and some that belonged to my parents.  My mother always decorated so beautifully for Christmas -- it was a magical time!

 I'm particularly partial to the balls that are indented in design and the ones from WWII that have the cardboard hangers

                      INDENTED ORNAMENTS                             WWII ORNAMENTS                               

                                    GLASS TREE TOPPERS                   GLASS BALL ROPING                                      

On a future post, I'll show you the two trees decorated with more vintage ornaments.

 But now, something vintage with a story -- you probably know we have a story about almost everything in our home!

In 1971 the week before Christmas, our then 3-year old son and I were out doing errands, and we stopped by the dry cleaners to pick up the cleaning.  Why the cleaners was selling Santa Clauses, I don't know; but they were and our son (the Prince of Tantrumland) latched on to one.

 When time to leave, he wasn't about to put Santa down and proceeded to throw a doozy of a tantrum.  I don't know what the child psychologists of today say about tantrums, but my mode of operation then was to get him out of the situation in anyway available.

So, I did what any panicky mother would do -- I paid for the Santa and the dry cleaning and got the screaming kid with a death grip on Santa out of there!!!!

 No harm done, I guess, as I now have a vintage Santa apparently worth more than the $3.00 I paid plus the priceless memory ----

and, our son learned how to behave eventually.

In celebration of this wonderful season, I'm joining the following:
Organized Clutter for Vintage Christmas on 12/7
Pieced Pastimes for Saturday Sparks
Sunday View for Vintage View Sunday
So Much Better with Age for Give Me the Goods Monday
The Dedicated House for Make it Pretty Monday
A Stroll Thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday
Knick of Time for Knick of Time Vintage Tuesday
Ivy and Elephants for What's It Wednesday
No Minimalist Here for Thursday Open House
Common Ground for Be Inspired Friday