I was doing a lot of perfecting right up until the last minute, but I finally am ready to show off how I brought vintage flair to my Christmas decor this year! Last night was the night of my Christmas cocktail party, so everything was clean and pretty and perfect.
I love Christmas. There’s a reason they call it the most wonderful time of the year! I can never resist the shinies and sparkles and general feelings of good cheer. As with most things, I definitely aspire to a beautiful mid-century modern Christmas, but I have to be budget conscious as well. I do my best to incorporate modern versions of vintage favorites and retro-inspired DIYs alongside true vintage pieces to create Christmas decor that’s fabulous in any time period.
My living room is unsurprisingly where I put pretty much all my Christmas magic. I do have a mini-holiday set up in the bedroom, but I try to practice good sleep hygiene, so if I’m awake, I’m most likely in the living room.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree! I would really love a true vintage aluminum tree, but I’ve had a hard time finding one in good condition within my price range. So I decided to get my silvery fix with this amazing giant tinsel tree! I really wanted to incorporate pink into my Christmas this year, but was having a hard time finding pink ornaments I was satisfied with…until I randomly stopped into a little local antique shop and found a whole stack of in-the-box Shiny Brite ornaments! I picked up a set of various matte pinks and one set of shiny, and supplemented them with silver ornaments from last year and a few specialty ornaments I’ve collected. You can’t really tell in this photo, but I also have a strand of pink pearl beads wrapped around the tree.
Continuing the pink theme, I ordered a pink wreath…and received a blue one. Blah blah, various customer service mishaps, which ended up with me getting the wreath just a day before the party and not having time to set up an extension cord so I could light it up 😦 Next year.
Here’s a detail shot of decorations on the credenza! Vintage and modern bottlebrush trees (click here for my ode to bottlebrush trees), sparkly ornaments, and a table runner from TJ Maxx. I love using table runners to add some color and style to a piece of furniture that might not be obviously holiday-ified.
Let’s turn around! I posted a little preview of my ornaments DIY on Instagram, and I’m really pleased with how it all turned out! I created my own patterns from illustrations of vintage ornaments, cut out a bunch, and hung them and strips of ribbon with sticky tack. You can also see that I’m using ribbons wrapped around cabinet doors to display my Christmas cards.
This part is a little bit decor, but mostly party prep! I dug out my somehow constantly growing collection of various sized decorative vases and filled them with some blue ornaments (pink and blue go together, right?). Here’s another table runner, originally bought for a Friendsgiving, to class up the joint. I bought a new cheeseboard (yes, I already owned a cheeseboard and decided this party required a whole new one…I’m from Wisconsin, okay??), and I did put food on it before the party started. Don’t want your cheese to sweat too much! (Let me know in the comments if you want more cheese details…I am more than happy to share them.)
Here’s my little cocktail set-up for the evening! My ice bucket is vintage, and I completely fell in love with these acrylic “Merry Christmas” swizzle sticks and HAD TO HAVE THEM. Grasshoppers were the seasonally-appropriate house cocktail of the night.
I had such a wonderful time decorating my apartment this year and welcoming a lot of old and new friends over to help me celebrate one of my favorite holidays! It was such a fun, festive night, and the best part is that the real deal is still to come.
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Penny Snark 