The decorating begins!
Posted: December 4, 2013 Filed under: Holidays, This Old Row House | Tags: Christmas decoration, Mirostar, vintage Christmas crafts 3 CommentsChristmas Kitsch started coming out of storage yesterday morning while I was waiting for the Verizon guy to install FIOS. There’s not a single dish or tablecloth in the lot!
First up, a crazy eyed Santa on a tray.
It’s part of a trio. They’re displayed on my custom painted parquet floor in our TV/computer room. When they’re not posing on the floor they make great TV dinner trays for guys who like to eat while watching football. 
One of my favorite decorations is a candle made from Styrofoam egg cartons with a fur flame. The “naughty” side of me daydreams about collecting egg cartons and making lots of these for Christmas gifts. The “nice” part of me leaves that idea as a pure idea. I’m sure everyone will thank me for abstaining!
Number two tacky favorite is a Santa made from a Clorox bottle, pompoms, pipe cleaners and dry cleaning bags. I’m amazed he survived the thrift store culling process in the first place. The cashier actually gave him to me for free. How cool is that? Want a tutorial on how to recreate him? 🙂
Then there are Mirostar candelabras with faded foil leaves. My heart goes pittypat over this foil stuff. I’d decorate the entire house in vintage foil if I had to narrow it down to one theme. But I don’t. So there.
And a Mirostar tabletop tree. I’m sad that it’s balding. The tinsel trimming is made out of a plastic that has gone brittle. It’s breaking off bit by bit. It still looks wonderful to me. Maybe this year I’ll switch out the bulbs to an assortment of colors and add some more ornaments to fill in the gaps.
And this is just the beginning. So much more to come. How much decorating have you done? What do you love to put out for Christmas?
luray
janeray
dish sisters vintage home and housewares 
Yesterday we got out the tree and put it up. I just had time to put on the antique bead chains and unwrap all the ornaments, ready to hang tonight. But I did put out my nativities. Here in the Africa room where I am sitting, there is a musical plastic one given me by a friend 20 years ago. One of the wise men is missing a limb. Joel says he has been disarmed. It is surrounded by small African animal carvings. On the other side of the mantle is a Hungarian wooden silhouette nativity, with three giraffes and a huge elephant gathered round the stable. On the table in front of the sofa (one from you father’s collection) is a small olive wood set my mother brought me from Jerusalem, and on the hearth there is a large printed cloth one I made to use as a prop in a Christmas play when the girls were small. Finally, on the other side of the hearth is a huge pop-up book nativity patterned after a renaissance era painting, which I got in the book store in New Hope a couple of years ago.
The Living room has only two, the large modern set the girls got me for Christmas years ago, and a small one that looks just like the set I remember playing with at my Grandma’s house when I was small. I like that one because the wise men are Africans. There are five other versions set up in the dining room. I saw a thorn carving set in a world villages shop that I would buy if it was less than $100! But I probably do not need another nativity, At least not this year.
Ooooh, yes, Cynthia, let us see the pictures! Especially the Hungarian one with wild animals, which sounds wonderful.
I love your nativity scene theme! I’ve never found one I liked well enough to buy. I’ve got a paper pop up one that sits on a bookshelf, but that’s it. Can you post photos on FB?