holiday decor

The kitchen window sill is sporting red and white. Can you believe these candles were from the dollar store a few years ago? I can't bring myself to burn them. Isn't that silly?! I made the red paper ball. They are so fun to make and can be done in any size or color or patterned paper. You just cut a lot of circles, fold them so they have triangle centers and glue them together to form a ball. My friend, Sharon, taught me how to make them. The greeting cards are from the 1940's and the one with the tree sticking out of the car was signed from my Mom to my Dad in 1947.

This snowman candy jar is a treasured item that I grew up with each year for as long as I can remember. I couldn't wait for it to be unwrapped from the newspaper that protected it inside the box of Christmas decorations stored away since the Christmas before. I have continued to fill it each holiday season with peppermint nougats, like my mom did. Sometimes when I was little I remember my mom would fill it with ribbon candy, but I can't always seem to find ribbon candy in the stores. When I do, I get very excited. I love Mr. Snowman, dirty Styrofoam face and all.

I have been looking for my felt elves with the plastic faces. They are still packed up somewhere with the other Christmas stuff. I love Christmas elves because my Grandma's house was decorated with the same little felt ones from Japan, called knee huggers. She also had an aluminum tree in the corner of her living room with the color wheel that would spin and cast a different colorful glow against the tree as it turned.

I tucked this folding snowman card on the porch of the doll house. The kids have not yet decorated it this year and I thought it looked a little bare and neglected. Click here-the doll house decorated in the past.

N. commented, "A Snowman on a porch???Oh Mom!!!!"

holiday decorating with old books

The Santa book is from the 1950's and has flocking on the cover for Santa's mittens and hat. The open book is one of a series from the 1940's about three girls named Flicka, Dicka and Ricka. I love the colors of the illustrations. The book, A String of Blue Beads, was given to my Great Aunt in the 1950's. It is one of my favorite stories and is a twist on The Gift of the Magi story.
I read it over and over again as a child.


I really love these big old books. They are very tattered on their leather covers. The photo in the frame is of my Dad opening one of his Christmas gifts in 1967. I made the 3 dimensional Carolina snowflake. The book, The Shiniest Star, is one that Santa brought to me when I was in about kindergarten or so. It has wonderful illustrations and pop up pages. I remember holding it in my lap and running my finger over the embossed metallic star on the cover. I was always careful handling it and the plastic spiral binding is still very sound. The little pamphlet near the photo frame was featured on a previous blog post (here) and is just a hoot of fun vintage ephemera.

This is a great book. I like the ratty dust cover because it shows it was well loved. It holds significance for me as, when I was a child, my Mom sold personally engraved Christmas cards and wedding invitations in our home or other people's homes for several major greeting card companies. I would often go with her on her outings before Christmas time and many of her regular customers would sit me down with home made cookies and a glass of milk while they looked through the sample books and chatted away for what seemed like hours.

This Snowbound book is on display in different areas in my home until sometime in February each year. I love winter and being snowbound. I remember as a child how people would stock up on bread and milk when a storm was on its way to the point of emptying the grocery store shelves in a panic. I always thought it was exciting to anticipate a big snowed in storm. We often cooked in our big fireplace, while keeping warm when snowstorms downed tree branches, heavy with the weight of snow, knocking the power out-- for sometimes days. These days that happens less frequently in our heavily wooded area. Once the leaves fall each year, some crazy tree trimmers, hired by the town, come and trim (butcher) the trees that surround power lines to the point of ugliness.

The green books are from the 1920's and were my Grandfather's. A red taffeta ribbon dresses them for the holidays. I see from looking at this photo that I need to add some pine sprigs from the yard to the silver berries so it looks more full and complete. Do you ever see things after you take a photo that you didn't notice before?

Look through your own books and see if you can add them to your seasonal decor.