'TIS CHRISTMAS & THERE BE DECORATIONS

 

The woman sitting at the table may be sending out Christmas cards (?), but she’s not the focus of my post.  The decorations behind her on shelves and in cases are.

The house I grew up in had a cheery fireplace, so for my first Christmas in my apartment (and Christmases thereafter) I determined to have a fireplace.  It was only cardboard, but it fit the bill and stored easily till the next Christmas.  

My two favorite angel trios.  The ones on the right are from 1963. The little tree is from the same period.  It sat on my desk at work.  I acquired the ‘mod’ angels on the left about 25 years ago.  I won the golden reindeer at a silent auction.  You'll see them again in another picture.

I bought this very special quartet of angels in 1960.  Their halos have come off – I’ve glued them back.  Sometimes their heads disassociate from their bodies.  I re-associate them.  They will always be part of my holiday decorations! J

These angels are newer, and I have a moderate collection of nutcrackers – big, small, and in-between, but only used some of the smaller ones here.

My nutcracker collection in its heyday.

I also had quite a collection of Santas and snowmen.  Now I just have a few favorite pieces from each collection.

My Nativity scene came from Woolworth’s dime store back in the early ‘60s.  The price tag is still on the bottom of one of the pieces - 29₡.  The special quartet of angels are standing on the far left.  I made the little choir boys out of construction paper & etc. in 1963 and they’re still hangin’ in there.  There are 6 of them, but I only used two here.

I had this little lighted village for years, but no longer.  When we moved into a smaller house I consolidated our Christmas decorations to fit into fewer boxes and some things had to go.  Now I have a few ‘paper’ houses to set in a snowy scene without lights.

One of the larger things to go was this hanging Christmas wreath made with a hula hoop.  I saw one hanging from a friend’s ceiling and had to make one.  Takes a hula hoop, green florist’s tape (wrapped round & round the hoop), artificial green garlands, and red ribbon.  I always meant to string tiny lights around it too as there was a place to plug them in at the bottom of the chandelier, but I never got around to it. 

When we lived in Groveland, the coat closet with louvered doors next to the fireplace was the perfect place to display Christmas cards.

There were no louvered doors in the next house we moved to, however, so the cards were displayed on the piano along with a candle display on top.  One of my favorite things is making candle displays for the holidays.  I use stemmed water goblets (in this case amber thumbprint) turned upside down to perch some of the candles on.  Looks like I stuck a couple of short nutcrackers in there too.

I’ve used some of the same candles for years.  The Santa & Snowman candles go way back as well as the tall Santa candles.

I did this display on the raised hearth in front of our fireplace.

The year my husband was turning his deer & elk antlers into candle holders.  I loved my little elves, but my grandkids loved to play with them when they came to our house and wanted to have them on their Christmas tree, so Gramma gave 'em up.

And then there’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer made from one of those brown socks with a white toe.  I didn’t make this one, I found him at a Christmas craft fair and simply had to have him.  One of my daughters has him now.

At Christmas time I pop a Santa hat on my front door greeter, Estelle.

And finally, this is the skinniest tree we’ve ever had.  It’s artificial – we needed something small in our smaller home, but I didn’t want a short tree, so this one is perfect.  It’s 5’ tall and 30” wide and fits in the corner quite neatly.  Several of the ornaments on it are 60 years old or older.  The tree top angel is from my very own first Christmas tree in 1963 when I moved into my apartment.  Our family Christmas tree at home was decorated mostly with shiny colored balls and lots and lots of tinsel, but I had different ideas, opting for a wide variety of ‘character’ ornaments and no tinsel to hide them.  Sometimes I put a silver or gold garland around the tree, but not this year.

:->

La Nightingail

Oops, almost forget Lucy Goosey dressed in her Santa outfit. She’s not exactly “indoors”, but sitting immediately outside the front door under the porch roof, so kind of qualifies.  She has other outfits (if I remember to dress her in them!) for New Years, Valentines, Easter, 4^th-of-July, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.