A Very Vintage Christmas

I guess all it took was a few inches of snow! This weekend I finally got the never-carved/now-decomposing pumpkins off of the front step and the decorative scarecrows put away. (I think the neighbors were starting to wonder about us.)

I got the shove I needed to make it look a little bit like Christmas around here when a friend gave us a little tree that was having a hard time finding a home. We are not hosting any events this year, so it will just be the four of us for Christmas Eve and morning. I really didn't want to bring out a lot of decorations and thought a little tree would be perfect. So, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care, the little bear family my Mom gave us is up on the high mantle, and we have a tree - that is it.

To make the decorating even more simple, I decided to only use the tree ornaments that Daddy inherited from his grandparents, along with some tinsel garland that I took from my Mom's collection when I moved out a hundred years ago (is tinsel garland from the 70's considered vintage, Lisa? Jeez we're getting old.) The ornaments are circa late-50's early-60's according to the dates on the packaging. They are stored in a box that traveled with KK's great-grandparents when they moved to Colorado from NYC. Daddy loves that box as much as the ornaments it holds.
I really love how it turned out, and it is very special for Daddy too. At first I was disappointed that I had only used white lights, but I think it ended up bringing out the little bit of color left on the bulbs (many of them hardly have any paint left at all).

KK's been pretty good with leaving the tree alone, which I'm glad for because I'm sure it's a lead-paint minefield. Today she sat by the tree and opened a few presents sent by Grandma and Grandpa K (with Grandma's permission of course). Minnie! Mickey! Elmo! Heaven!