As promised in last week’s Christmas home tour, today I am sharing my 2015 Christmas tree! All together now: “it’s the most wonderful time of the yeeaarrr!”
Along with 24 other wonderful home decor and DIY bloggers, I’m sharing my tree as part of the second My Home Style blog hop. The hop is organized by Stephanie of Casa Watkins, who has a gorgeous tree to show off on her blog. Thanks, Stephanie, for organizing this motley crew! If you’re joining me from Around the Watts House, thanks for stopping by.
You may notice [or probably not… as if you have nothing better to do that file away my blog posts in the prime real estate of your memory ;-)] from the last My Home Style event, that I’ve *gasp* changed one of my describing words! Yes, that’s right: I broke the rules. Because, though our tree definitely does evolve each year, “vintage” is a much better way to describe it!
You caught a glimpse of my antique glass chain, which has been in our family for almost 100 years, in my Christmas home tour, but here it is in its rightful place on the tree. I love how the light catches on it!
Many of my ornaments were inherited from my mother’s and grandmother’s trees, including my little antique glass bulb ornaments. I have such a huge crush on all my vintage ornaments. My husband can tell you: I do a (careful) little happy dance when I unwrap them each year. Even when I walk by an antique or thrift store in the July heat, I can’t resist a box of vintage ornaments!
I’ve never been a huge fan of ribbon on trees (sorry! It’s just not something we did in my childhood so it never caught on with me!), but I do love my beaded and glass chains! Subtle and classic.
Vintage ornaments are interspersed on my tree with newer (and yet very much vintage-looking) decorations, like this gorgeous silver ornament. I love that thing. It makes me SWOON!
The little tin stars and twisted tinsel are from Lee Valley and you can get them here. (That’s not an affiliate link, BTW.) I’ve never been a fan of disposable decorations (with the exception of my REAL tree – that’s a must) so I’ve never used plastic tinsel. My Uncle Ed bought my family some of the tin tinsel way back when and we were total converts.
We own a lot of artistic and handmade ornaments, like this carved wooden Santa from my Uncle Ed. He was a very accomplished woodcarver, and made us each an ornament or a figure for our crèche (nativity scene) every year. I always put one of his ornaments on our tree.
To me, no tree is complete without a couple of theme ornaments. This one is a nod to my husband, who plays the bagpipes. Bagpiping Santa. Gotta love him! (And for the record: it is not as hard as you’d think to find Santas playing the pipes. We own at least two of these.)
Another of our sentimental, handmade ornaments. These were purchase by my mother in a market in Mexico City. She picked them out because they reminded her of the doves that they always put on their tree, which were the topper on their wedding cake.
Of course, every teacher received many ornaments from their students each year, but this one is one of my all-time favourites. It’s always sweet when the students make the ornaments themselves, and this little guy totally nailed it with a swirled crayon ornament in blues and golds. He knows me well…
One of the great things about the layout of our main floor is the half-window from the kitchen into the living room. It means that we can enjoy our tree from two rooms! That’s the “back” of our tree.
And there’s the front! Our star tree topper comes from Mexico, and is one of my favourite decorations on our tree.
I hope you enjoyed taking a little sentimental tour of our tree. Thanks so much for stopping by! (And be sure to come back tomorrow for a great Christmas DIY project!) The next stop on the Christmas Tree Hop is Blue i Style. We have such different decor styles, but I always enjoy what she comes up with! I’m looking forward to seeing her tree, and I hope you’ll stop by, too.
Eager for more Christmas Tree styles?
Check out the other Christmas Tree stylings by these amazing bloggers.
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
That is beautiful! It’s amazing, but I have the same garland and tin stars on my tree every year. I wish I still had beautiful, vintage ornaments though.
Thanks so much, Lorna. I’m sure your tree is gorgeous, especially since you have that lovely Victorian home to put it in!
Lovely tree this year, Sarah! The tree itself is a very pretty shape, too.
Thank you! I may have asked the vendor to show me 50 different trees before choosing this one… 🙂
Love your tree and all the vintage ornaments. Wish I had more like them. Beautiful job!
Thanks so much, Bonbon!
It’s so much fun to hear the history and stories behind the ornament and decorations on your tree! Thanks so much for sharing! It’s been fun participating in this hop with you!
Thank you Angela! I loved your tree!
It’s beautiful!! I’m going to have to add Christmas ornaments to my antiquing hunts! 🙂
Thanks so much!
What a pretty tree! I love handmade ornaments! -Marci @ Stone Cottage Adventures
Thank you so much, Marci!
Just beautiful! Of course I love the vintage goodies and beads are lovely too!
Thanks, Sara. I just love vintage ornaments!
So pretty, Sarah! Love the colors of the vintage ornaments and the glow of your tree!
Thank you, Erin!
Your tree is gorgeous! I love the simplicity of the red, silver, and blue. You took some fantastic pictures to share with us. I’m sure you will enjoy just sitting near the tree and enjoying a mug of hot chocolate right there! It’s very inviting.
Thank you so much, Barbara. We are indeed enjoying sitting and looking at it each evening.
What a wonderful tree Sarah!! I love all the vintage ornaments. They are so your style. I can definitely see this as your tree! 🙂 pinned and shared my friend.
Thank you, Steph!
Your vintage ornaments are just to die for! They’re beautiful. I’m not a fan of ribbon on trees either. I don’t think your tree needs it anyways.
You are so good at storytelling. Your family’s heritage is so interesting. Lovely vintage ornaments and tree!
Thank you, Kathryn!