Thrifty Vintage Christmas

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We need a little Christmas, right this very minute - - -

You know, when I was a full time mom and homemaker decorating for Christmas was fun. I didn't mind if it took me the better part of a week.

Now, Christmas time also means the end of the semester and final exams at school. For several years I could barely face decorating for Christmas. Then, just for self-preservation, I learned a little secret.

Do you want to hear it??? Are you ready??? Here it is:

A little bit of "Christmas" well placed around the house makes everything celebrational and you can keep your sanity while you do it!!! This year I spent about an hour and a half on each of two consecutive nights and VOILA:

We have a little Christmas, right this very minute!!!! And I call that a pretty THRIFTY use of my time. Since I didn't buy anything new, it was pretty THRIFTY for my wallet too.

(Disclaimer: Fisherhubby set up the tree and put the lights on it. I only fluffed and decorated in my hour and a half treatment of it - - - that's IMPORTANT, if I'd had to set it up, I might STILL be in there struggling with that monstrosity!)

True, there are still lots of Christmas items left packed away upstairs. But, who besides me would KNOW that?


I'm inviting you to come right in my front door and look around. You will find dust. But I hope you also find a warm inviting place to kick off your shoes and get comfy.


At the door my Kings will greet you. I have been adding to this collection for a long time, so some of them are quite VINTAGE by now and others are VINTAGE challenged. One year I'm going to have enough Kings to put one on each step.

You can't see them in this picture, but on the very top step are two small kings which my two oldest children gave me for Christmas when they were in grade school. They got them at the Dollar Tree for $1 each!!! I loved them then and I still love them now. So cool - - - they are both VINTAGE and THRIFTY.


The banister is bedecked with a THRIFTY VINTAGE garland and bells. Can't remember when I got these, but I know I got them for next to nothing at Wal-Mart one Christmas season.


Come on down the hall and into the part of the house where we "live." Straight ahead is my kitchen, and the island where I blog - - - now you can picture me perched up on one of those stools working away with lappy reading your blogs and creating my own!

There are lots of VINTAGE THRIFTY things in these rooms. The kitchen table and chair set belonged to my grandparents. The dresser and the mirror over the fireplace are both antiques. All my Christmas decorations have "history." I don't think I added a single new item this year.


In the corner you can see Fisherhubby's 9 foot tree. There's a WHOLE story about that - - - but suffice it to say, it was NOT my idea to get such a TALL tree.

I have trouble getting the ribbons and ornaments on the TOP. Even standing on a ladder and LEANING in, I can barely maneuver to get things "just so."

This year, as I was trying to accomplish this, Fisherhubby was LYING on that couch watching me. Every time I would sigh or spout about how difficult it was he would say, "Well, why did you MAKE me buy such a big tree." Oh that man I married - - - he is a funny one! (Or at least he THINKS he is!)


More Kings guarding the loon at the fireplace. I like the Christmas village so much I keep it up all year long! Sometime during the Christmas season I do take it apart, wash all the pieces, and replace the light bulbs. Right now, the little people who live there haven't been paying their electric bill, so NO LIGHTS.


Four little glass houses that my children gave me for Christmas one year. (They are the ones with the red and blue roofs.) Again, these were Dollar Tree beauties at $1 each. VINTAGE THRIFT at its best! The house with the snow on the roof was a gift from my S-I-L. It lights up and it is just plain adorable, isn't it?


An antique dresser, which I've talked about before, with the nativity scene. The nativity was a gift from my F-I-L and his wife. The little stocking hanging on the drawer pull was a gift from one of my students. The linens were out of my Grandmother's hope chest.


Now we're standing between the kitchen and the family room looking toward the dining and living rooms. Do you see that I didn't HIDE any of the "stuff" that is magneted to my refrigerator? That's 'cause I LIKE it that way. It's our family HISTORY book.

You can also see lappy sitting on the island - - - just waiting for me to come do some blogging.


Somebody was WATHCING me take this picture. I confess, I didn't notice her there until I was editing the photos. She too is rather VINTAGE, though I wouldn't exactly call her THRIFTY.

The little green tree on the table is wood and is actually two pieces that slide together. I bought it from Current years ago and it is still one of my very favorite little Christmas items.


Now we're looking around in the room that most people would call the living room. I call it the music room. No, I do not play guitar. Fisherhubby works at that.


I have seen chairs like these on other blogs - - - and those folks called them "Martha Washington" chairs. Theirs were VINTAGE. Mine are not - - - unless 6 years is vintage. I bought them brand new, so they aren't even THRIFTY. But I liked them, and I know where they've been, if you know what I mean. Wink. Wink.


Now into the dining room - - - which is, BTW, my favorite room in the house.

I never go in there.

Except to pass through to check/set the thermostat.

But still, I love this room. I like the color and the light and my favorite pieces of VINTAGE furniture are here.

Sometimes I go in, turn on the light, and just look.

Then I leave and go back to watching my college football games in the family room.

Oh yah - - - I EAT in here once a year on Thanksgiving, whether I'm hungry or not!


In my VINTAGE footed cut glass bowl, which was given to us as a wedding gift, I placed a sprig of my THRIFTY Wal-Mart garland. I fluffed it and added a bright red, crackle finish glass ornament which was a gift from a student. I love it. It is me. Simple. Christmassy. Red and Green.


Ohhhhh - - - and WHAT HAVE WE HERE?????

These are the NEWEST additions to our family, and they are both VINTAGE and THRIFTY.

My sister, Pam, is breaking up her Hoosier home and getting ready to move to Florida. She handed these two items UP to me. (I'm older, so she couldn't possibly hand them DOWN.) They have stories!

The washstand is "real." She got it at a flea market years ago. I am THRILLED to have it. I love how my VINTAGE bowl and pitcher look on it. The star candle holders are Moravian stars, and I've had them for nearly 30 years, so I believe they also qualify as VINTAGE. THRIFTY too since they were a gift.

The milk can is an actual, bona fida, Wisconsin dairy milk can. It was given to my sister by a dairy farming friend from Vernon County, Wisconsin. Pam painted and decorated it to give it its current "look." One day, if I ever get around to it, I will probably put it back to it's original color - - - which is silver. Just because that's who I am and how I roll.

All you girls with spray paint cans in your hands - - - you are of a different generation than I. I don't "do" painting if I can help it.


This year my Christmas Cat (the very best kind of cat in my opinion) is sitting in the wicker chair in the corner of the dining room. I bought the cat on sale after Christmas one year and the chair was given to me by our daughter Keri.

I think I'm a collector of cast-offs. But they are such SWEET cast-offs.


And now before you go - - - let me show you this little nativity, that Fisherhubby bought years ago, to remind us all of the "why" of Christmas.

Isn't it just amazing that the Creator of the Universe (oh yes, I do teach science and STILL believe that the order and plan of our galaxy had a Master Designer's hand at work in making it) not only LOVES us, but came to this Earth to be ONE of us and to make a way for us to become ONE with Him. Amazing and humbling.

And with that I say, Merry Christmas to you all.

Please check other Thrifty and Vintage Thursday posts by clicking on these links.

I'm also going to link this to "Get 'R Done" - - - decorating is a BIG project and I was really glad to Get 'R Done!!!!
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