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Decorating for Christmas With Traditional and Vintage Decor

By Rachel

published 12/03/2021

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Last Updated on December 7, 2023 by Rachel Granholm

Merry Christmas to you! Join me today as I walk you through decorating for Christmas with traditional and vintage decor!

My goal for this year’s holiday decorations was to achieve a vintage Christmas feeling. By really thinking through the process of what decor to use and where to use it, my vision of decorating for Christmas with traditional and vintage decor came to life. I’m here to tell you that you can create a beautiful Christmas display without hardly spending a dime. I hope you find inspiration here today on using thrifted Christmas decor throughout your holiday home!

Table of Contents

Decorating for Christmas With Traditional and Vintage Decor

The Mantel

The first area of my home that I focused on was the fireplace mantel. I’ve written about this mantel before and the unique shape that it is. It always poses a decorating dilemma because it is not straight across.

It did take almost two days to get the mantel to look right. I shifted things around endlessly, would get stuck, and even ended up walking away from it a few times out of frustration.

Then, my husband chimed in with the idea to work with it instead of against it! And that’s exactly what I did.

Below is the right side of the mantel. I basically created a Christmas vignette using vintage pieces, flocked Christmas trees, and berry stems.

The vintage green jar I found recently at the thrift store for $2 but everything else either was in my Christmas stash or already being used elsewhere in my home.

A vintage Christmas book adds color and helps everything feel cohesive.

To add height in the back, I placed a flocked tree on top of a small glass cup and used a vintage tea towel to cover it, adding a tree skirt type of effect.

Milk glass is timeless and always works beautifully in Christmas decor so I added that in because that spot felt a little empty.

The berry garland was created by using berry stems, simply laying them end to end all the way across the mantel.

I love how it adds so much texture!

Above you will see the left side of the mantel. Because of the mantel clock, my main objective here was to add height all the way around.

To keep things cohesive and simple, I just used the rest of my flocked trees and continued the berry garland.

For added height and that classic Christmas feel, I brought in this vintage red print milk jar and filled it with berry stems.

With both sides put together, it is a cozy and nostalgic mantel, brimming with Christmas joy.

Traditional Christmas Trees

This is our main Christmas tree and it is stunning. My husband and I were gifted this tree years ago and I love it just as much now as when we first received it.

It is very traditional featuring heirloom ornaments, red ticking stripe ribbon, and my late grandma’s angel as the tree topper.

I also put a Christmas tree up in our bedroom which I’ve never done before!

This tree is tall and skinny so I wanted to keep the theme of it very simple. Donned with red and burlap, this tree has a rustic essence.

To be frugal, I only used what I had on hand to decorate this tree. The ornaments were in my stash, the tree skirt is a vintage lace table cloth, and the pinecones came from the woods near my house!

I just love looking at it as I lay in bed at night. It truly is magical.

Vintage and Thrifted Christmas Decor

Throughout the rest of my home I arranged small displays and vignettes to create a cohesive space. These small displays consist of thrifted and vintage finds as well as items that have been gifted.

Just like everything else, I really just played around with each of these displays until they looked pleasing.

This vintage Santa belonged to my husband’s late grandma. We have 4 of them, each a little bit different, and I think they are just the cutest. This Santa just oozes a classic, vintage Christmas, doesn’t it?!

Anyways, I placed this vintage green bowl, which I found a few weeks ago at the thrift store for .99, next to the Santa.

I wanted to keep this display really simple so I just added sparkly ornaments to the bowl and used a few books to give the display some dimension. It’s a happy little area!

Christmas Shelves

For this shelf, I simply paired vintage decor with rustic wood. The brass candlesticks came from the thrift store last year for around $2 each.

You know my love for vintage enamelware so I had to incorporate my newest collected piece by placing berry stems inside it.

After all, decorating for Christmas with traditional and vintage decor is all about embracing items that you already have and re-using them in different ways!

I found the vintage wood masher at an antique store recently for $10. I love the green handle on it and thought it would be a unique addition to this shelf.

The wooden signs I’ve had for years. Because they are so simplistic, I haven’t grown tired of them!

The rustic wood and brass elements pair so nicely together with the berries giving that extra Christmas touch.

This little scene brings me so much joy. The barn was found at the thrift store last year for $4.00 and the little cottage I found a few weeks ago at the same thrift store for $3.00. I placed large wood rounds underneath each building for added texture and height.

The tall Christmas tree I found at an antique store years ago and just added plaid ribbon to it. I needed height in the middle and my tall milk glass vase was just the ticket.

As far as nostalgic Christmas goes, this is totally it and reminds me of an old-fashioned Christmas in the country!

My vintage milk glass collection looks so pretty during the Christmas season. The red berries make the white color look so vibrant!

I layered in small ball ornaments, dried eucalyptus, and wooden trees for a simplistic and bright display.

Closing Tidbits on Decorating for Christmas with Traditional and Vintage Decor

Each area of my home this year is brimming with Christmas cheer and am so happy with how it all turned out. I hope that this walk through on decorating for Christmas with traditional and vintage decor is a source of inspiration for you this year.

Decorating for Christmas can be such a simple and creative process if you let it.

You do not need to spend hundreds of dollars or put pressure on yourself to create a perfectly curated and decorated home. Just take a minute to connect with you and feel what you want your home to resemble this Christmas.

My sincere hope for you this Christmas is that you can find the love, hope, joy, and peace that are present in each moment. Like the twinkling glow of lights on a Christmas tree, there is a quiet magic in this season. Merry Christmas!

Leave me a comment! How do you like to decorate your home for Christmas? I love hearing from you!

If you are new here, I’m Rachel, the writer and content creator here at The Antiqued Journey. I’m so happy to have you! I encourage you to stop by the ‘about me’ page to get to know me a little more.

Here on the blog, you will find loads of inspiration for decorating with vintage and antique decor, simple DIY crafts and many thrifting adventures. If that interests you, I invite you to sign up for my e-mail. You will receive a free digital download as a thank you!

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The Antiqued Journey Christmas Candle Collection

I want to remind you that The Antiqued Journey Christmas Candle collection is live in the shop! I only have four candles remaining and three scents left. The candles are made with organic soy wax and hand poured, by me, out of my kitchen.

These make amazing gifts for those on your list that have everything 🙂 Thanks so much for your support!