Monday, December 13, 2010

It's An Atomic Christmas!

It's Holiday time! I love this time of year because of family getting together, the cold weather, food, parties, making cookies, and decorating!

In the past year, I have been transforming my house into an atomic, 50s abode. I have been having fun slowly collecting vintage housewares and textiles. So, when I pulled out my holiday decorations from my storage area in the basement, I realized I also needed to vintage-ize my Christmas wares! I started with the tree, as seen above.

Now, most of the decorations on my tree are very traditional. Meaning, they have that retro look already. My decorations include jewel-colored glass balls and painted glass in shapes of houses, mushrooms, and nutcrackers. I have found a few retro-inspired decorations at Michaels Crafts over the years since the husband and I got our first tree in 1996. 

A couple of weeks ago, I found this lovely, 50s-esque tree star at Michaels for under 15.00 USD!:
I love it! I reminds of the decorations from my parents' first tree in the mid-60s! 

I also bought a few vintage decorations on Esty for real cheap! I got three red plastic starbursts and a set of four ornaments that are made with clear plastic and have plastic flowers inside!:
Here is another one:
This is one the red starbursts! I love the way they capture the light:
Here is a 50s vintage red plastic and silver tinsel light decoration! I have a set of about 8 that were given to me by my mother-in-law. They used on her childhood tree! The set includes colors in blue, pink, yellow, and green!
The silver tinsel on my tree has the thinner look and feel of vintage tree garland/tinsel. Most modern tinsel/garland is very full, thick, and bushy. I bought two packages of silver garland at my local dollar store for a buck each! Can't beat that!

The above photo shows the holiday table runner my mother-in-law gave me about five years ago. It is paired with my vintage pink and gold starburst tray that sits on my living room coffee table!

And even though the DC area only got a mere dusting of snow last night, I really felt the holiday spirit when I looked out my back patio window this morning!  Even though I am disappointed at the amount and the fact it was melted before noon, I still enjoyed the look of the snow. I think "white Christmases" are magical! I hope the DC area gets snow for the holidays!

 So, will your area get a white Christmas? And more importantly, how do you decorate for the holidays? 

 


11 comments:

  1. I will get a white Christmas by going to visit my brother in Denver. If I would stay home, I'd just melt. I'm in Orlando! ;)

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  2. Kimberely,

    I love Denver and have friends who live in the Colorado Rockies! They have been getting lots of snow in the mountains for a while now! Lucky!

    My in-laws live in Boca. They told me it has been cold there lately, ie in the 60s! Too funny! I was there over Thanksgiving and the temps were in the 80s! So nice!

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  3. I love your decorations - they look great and add to the retro feel of your home! I love putting up the tree - we always get a real one, I love the smell of pine :)
    The snow here is getting a bit boring now! Whilst it looks prety at first, the -8deg C temps we have been having in England mean a hard frost, and the snow turns to ice and its like a skating rink. Still, its good for a picture postcard Xmas photo opportunity!

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  4. Your tree is fantastic,i love it!I really like your starburst dish too.
    No snow for us:)It's usually hot & sometimes we might get rain or a thunder storm.

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  5. Oh beautiful! Everything looks great!!!

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  6. My dream is to find a vintage 1950's silver fake tree. I know someone has one stashed away in an attic somewhere....
    I also collect "dead stock" Christmas decorations, because I love the old dime store, Woolworth's packaging so much. I don't take them out of the packages, though.
    I have lucked out finding a few vintage Woolworth's items at thrift shops. :)
    At an auction I went to in October, I won a couple big boxes of 40's - 50's glass ball ornaments in all colors and sizes. SO cool.

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  7. Your tree looks great I have put ours up and was going to blog about it but having blogger problems!

    We have had lots of snow in the UK this year so far and more to come in a couple of days, it's pretty unusual where we live so it's been nice but as Clare said cos of the temps we've been having it's just ended up as ice :o(

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  8. Love your new tree topper! I need to get a new star to replace ours. Vintage 50's Christmas stuff just rocks, no doubt about it. Here's my tree, and it's cutie little skirt:

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2-rddYi4bZ8/TPcIAdmtWAI/AAAAAAAAAeU/Co_tUlyAkWw/s1600/christmas10.png

    I need to invest in a color wheel one of these days, which I can buy new for $25, but still get that same look.

    I'm down here on the south end of COS and we don't have any snow at all, although it's rumored to be coming tomorrow.

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  9. Thanks for all your comments, ladies! I am sorry for being off-radar lately! Things are nuts with work and I still need to finish my holiday gift shopping and start wrapping presents!

    Fiona and Clare,

    Stay safe and warm over there in the UK! We only got a inch or two of snow here in the DC area last week. I am mad jealous of the snow you are getting but I heard it has been causing problems. My auntie in Shirley is sick of it. I am nuts I guess! I can never get enough snow!

    Erin: Cute tree! You can find great vintage-looking ornaments at Michaels. I bought my tree star there!

    Hosanna: I wanted to find a vintage silver, white, or pink tree but I found nothing. I did find a white tree at Ace Hardware but it was over 300 USD! No way! I simply used my fake tree from 1997.

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  10. You can go to Salvation Army Stores, especially around this timer (autumn) year and my most likely find one. St Vincent dePaul is yet another place to find one Silver Christmas tree,

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