Our Vintage Christmas

I can't resist sharing a few pictures with you of our house after CJ spent most of last week putting together Christmas at our home. We had a neighborhood party at our house on friday that we wanted to be ready for. So alot of effort on CJ's part went into cleaning and bring Christmas up from the basement. We always have a great spot for our tree in our large front living room window. I few years ago I built a box to elevate our tree. After we mounted the tree in it's stand and put it on the box, CJ covers the box with vintage fabric and then the whole tree gets decked out with our collection of vintage ornaments. It than gets topped off with an angel from my childhood. This vintage plastic angel tree topper dates to the 50's or early 60's . I remember as a child my parents putting an angel just like this on the top of their tree. So a few years ago I found a duplicate of it on ebay(don't you just love ebay).

                                                               The fireplace mantel got the white treatment this year. We brought in greens and pine cones salvaged from outside. A chippy white mirror off an old vanity became the focal point. Candles, mercury glass, a vintage porch spindle with candle on top, cake plate with glass dome were all added to the mix. It is takes on a magic of it's own when we light the candles and fireplace at night and turn out the lights.

                                                                      The side table next to the sofa has our collection of choir candle people. The vintage church sitting on the table is a duplicated of a church that my German Grandmother had set up in her living room every Christmas(again another ebay find). The church winds up and plays Silent Night, Holy Night.

                                                              Our old chipped green paint cupboard between the kitchen and the dining room has CJ's collection of glass tree toppers on it along with a collection of vintage Christmas houses I have collected and given to CJ over the last few years. My criteria for buying a house is that it has to have both a Christmas tree and a snowman on it. Houses that have both are not so easy to find.

We got our first dusting of snow this week and because it turned colder it has stayed around. We are beginning to catch most of our favorite Christmas movies on TV. CJ managed to fill almost every nook and corner in out place with Christmas. Most of our shopping is done. We have successfully had our first Christmas party and downed our first glass of eggnog for the season. So I think our Christmas season for 2011 is off to a great start. It really is a wonderful life isn't it.