One of the most loved Holiday activities is decorating for the Holidays.
Time to get your favorite Christmas collectibles, decorations and ornaments out and deck the halls!
Everyone from children and adults love to partake in Holiday decorating parties and festivities.
Everyone is preoccupied with trimming their home and tree, and some even go as far as decorating their car for the holidays with antler or Christmas light bulb magnets and wreaths on their front grills!
But the spirit of the Holidays lies in many old traditions. Vintage Christmas ornaments, handed down from generation to generation are carefully unwrapped from their tissue paper and placed in spots of honor on the Christmas tree.
Christmas tree skirts are placed carefully around trees, and Christmas tree lights sparkle in the branches. The Christmas tree decorations are each inspected carefully, with tender touches and nostalgic feelings.
Let’s take a look at some old, and new, ways to decorate this holiday season!
Your Christmas tree is usually the centerpiece of your holiday decorating efforts. Vintage ornaments, crafts made by children and personalized ornaments with names of loved ones sparkle in the glow from the Christmas tree lights. Your Christmas tree topper may be one handed down from generation to generation, or you may purchase a new tree topper every year or so! Letting kids do crafts to decorate the tree is a time-honored tradition in our home! We actually have a ‘kids tree’ where they can make loops from red and green construction paper, and strings of popcorn, and rearrange their own ornaments, without causing any risk to the ‘official tree’. Your Christmas tree skirt may be one your grandmother made decades ago, or purchased at an after Christmas sale!
Each year the children do crafts, which include making personalized Christmas ornaments…names and years written in glitter paint paired with school pictures and drawings of Santa! There are so many easy Christmas Crafts for kids available in craft stores and online that the possibilities are limitless! The children’s’ Christmas crafts are as much fun for the adults to supervise over and hang, as it is for the kids to make! Encourage your little ones to make crafts to give as gifts to their friends, family and neighbors! Easy kids crafts are fun, and cater to the ability of our littlest family members, who sometimes feel left out in all the decorating hubbub!
Fireplace mantles are decorated with garland, lights and bows, and stockings are hung with care! Candles and other heirloom decorations are arranged carefully on accent tables and wherever space can be found for these Christmas keepsakes. Staircases are adorned with more garland and holly, and mistletoe is strategically placed for chance encounters!
For many people, decorating the outside of their home is just as important as important as the inside! From Christmas light ropes or icicle lights along rooflines and window, to larger than life inflatable decorations that glow all night long, and lighted decorations of Santa and his reindeer on the rooftops, creativity is endless! Many neighborhoods have competitions for the best decorated house! Others opt for a more elegant and low-key style, opting instead for a simple wreath on the door, and perhaps some electric candles in the front windows!
Perhaps you will be spending your first Christmas away from home and are looking to start your own collection of keepsakes? Online auctions are a wonderful place to find terrific deals on vintage Christmas tree decorations. Yard sales and flea markets also offer wonderful opportunities to add to your collection. If you buy a few unique items every year, instead of stocking up on mass-produced holiday fare found in popular discount stores, you will soon find you are on your way to having a stellar collection of your own! Let your family know you are starting your own collection, and you may be surprised to find that you are given some! And if there’s a particular vintage ornament you desire, ask for it! The worst they can do is say no, and oftentimes you’ll find that the ornament that has the most sentimental value to you has little value or meaning for the owner!
Most of all enjoy the Holidays. Take the time to do some crafts with the children, and to hang the Christmas tree lights. Take the time to reminisce over vintage ornaments and collectibles, and to make homemade ornaments with friends and family! After all, it is the memories of Christmas that we take with us, long after the gifts have expired!
