Farewell Christmas, Welcome 2012!

 Christmas may be over, but traditionally speaking, "Happy Holidays," is a plural term to describe both Christmas and New Year's celebrations. I grew up watching the Times Square ball drop by the light of our Christmas tree with family and friends, and I could never understand why anyone would  want to take down holiday decor the day after Christmas, being that the holiday season had not yet ended. The holidays come and go so quickly, so our family chooses to make them last a bit longer by holding off on the trashing of the greens. After all, my son is home from college for the holidays and my husband, younger son and I are all on break from work and school and that is worth celebrating so why not keep the house festive? I will be taking most of it down on New Year's Day (sniffs) since I will be starting a new job on Monday, but I guess I can always come visit my Christmas blog posts anytime. (sighs)

For my last post of 2011 I will begin by highlighting favorites from my mom's house and then I will finish up with one last look at favorites at our house this year.

My mom is crazy about vintage junk too and she has tons of Christmas decorations. I never know exactly what kind of trees she will be using but I always know I will love whatever she uses!

A Santa collection on a very old white tree

My mom has been so busy that she was decorating right up until Christmas too. When I visited her last week she had not yet put up her vintage Santa tree. I was ecstatic on Christmas night when I got up to her back door and saw these blow molds through the window.

I am on the quest to find one of these these blow mold Santas sitting on a fireplace starting right now!

I NEED this Santa for my creepy Santa collection!

She found these cute vintage reproduction signs at an estate sale that I had been to the day before. Somehow I missed them.Grrrr.

 I fell in love with this old ceramic Santa bank, another of her estate sale finds.



She used a pretty vintage deer planter filled with berries for her centerpiece.

I learned to create eclectic vignettes from my mom. Here she mixed both vintage and primitive Christmas pieces to make a sweet display.

My mom and I are always on the lookout for the same sorts of things, and she even beat me to this large creepy vintage Santa at the consignment store near my house. I had contemplated getting him but decided to wait until after Christmas to see if he would be marked down. She had no idea I was going to buy him since I hadn't mentioned him. I was just a wee bit envious but excited to find him in her family room.  If someone else is going to own him, I am glad its my mom!

So ugly, its not even cute...but sooo vintage!

Although she didn't give the large Santa to me as a Christmas gift, I was thrilled when she gave me this knee hugger ornament. Thanks Mom for the ornament, and for giving me the love of Christmas and vintage junk!

I decided while I was photographing my ornament to go ahead and take some more pictures of my decorations so I could mess around with my new camera.

I am going to have fun with this camera. The Shiny Brites are much shinier and brighter than in my previous pictures.

The cheapest find of summer yard sale treasure hunts was this hand-sewn Santa for a nickel.

My small ivory tree holds ornaments from the 1920's and 30's, as well as other vintage and handmade ornaments. I made the collage picture to right a few years ago using old cards, wrapping paper, vintage book pages and scrapbooking materials decoupaged over top a painting. The Santa head plaque in the middle was a second-hand find.

I handmade some ornaments for gifts this year. I loved this one where I used a piece of a white feather as its hanger.

In the kitchen I have a white tree filled with ornaments that were on my grandparent's first tree 55 years ago.  

In the guest room is a slim alpine tree filled with all of my childhood ornaments, as well as some of my childhood Christmas knick-knacks on the nightstand. I am so blessed to have a mother and grandmother who saved everything for me.

 Dear Mom: I know you know how much I appreciate your passion for hoarding collecting. It is wonderful to still have the star from my first tree in 1975 because you knew I would want it some day. You are the greatest!


 More vintage elf mischief...

This one obviously had a little too much Christmas Ale...

Some friendlier elves. My son calls them "brownies," because they look like the brownie elves in his favorite Christmas book.

The 2011 Christmas tablescape

Yard Sale finds.

Christmas Eve. My husband getting ready for Santa in the kitchen and avoiding the camera.

My favorite primitive Santa

The living room tree had a Victorian Santa theme this year and burlap garland

I love the primitive handmade ornaments

Christmas dinner. My husband took this picture and forgot to take the foil off the turkey...

Getting ready for Santa

Santa filled the family room!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!

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