Christmas Around My House | 2011

Every year, I try to keep a theme for my Christmas tree. But this year something happened... I went wild with the bags and bags of ornaments I had in the closet. I started my tree colors out in a soft gold and soft red only. With white lights as the main (cause their made in the tree) and threw on a strand of red to make it match. Started putting up red and gold balls and ornaments then the tree topped, also red, and a red poinsettia under it, then before I knew it, I had on gobs of every color ornament all over the place. lol.
So, there for a minute, I actually thought about taking them all back down and starting over, but there was just too many. And so I left them alone and finally realized that without a theme, it's actually pretty cute. But next year I have my mind set already... It's gonna be a soft white and blue.(I picked out the tree topped for next year today, blue & white.)


Here's some random photos, below, from around my house this year for Christmas. I got the idea for this post from a fellow Gather, Adelaide. She had a great post on her blog, Norwegian Phoenix.




Below is the fireplace mantel I asked my husband to build to go around the great stove I found at the flea market last week, here's that post. He got it done, but I haven't painted it yet or added any embellishments. But had to hurry up and get some things on it for Christmas, as I couldn't wait. lol.



Here below is a wreath I made last night. I saw in one of Adelaide's pictures that some had the cute xmas balls on them. So I tried to make one but I need some more smaller, red balls to really finish it up. And I also decided to make it on a grapevine wreath instead of the traditional green ones, just to fit with our house's primitive theme.







Below is a pic of lights on my garden trellis.

Candy Canes

Wikipedia states that the first mention of candy canes in association with Christmas was in 1874. But yet dating back in 1844, there had been published a recipe for the straight peppermint candy sticks that we now know as the "old fashioned" types.

Some years I do hang the candy canes on our tree, it just depends what that year's theme is. This year they wouldn't fit in, so I didn't. But I do still buy them and hang them from a Christmas themed jar (see photo) right by the entry. People can grab them as they come and go. My favorite flavored candy canes are the ones made after popular candy, such as Smarties, Dum Dum and Jelly Beans.

Do you have a favorite candy cane flavor, or is it the original you love?

Do You Send Out Christmas Cards

Do you send out Christmas cards to your family and friends?

A statistic found here shows that on average, American send out 28 and also recieve about 28 during the same time frame. I don't send out but approximately 20 and usually recieve about, I'm guessing here 15 or maybe 20 a year. I don't have alot of the traditional type family members around anymore. Most all nowadays just send me emails.

Do you send out Christmas cards and if so about how many do you get in return?

WOW! That's alot of Aluminum Foil.

The Reynolds Co. reported to Christmas Facts that each year approximately 3000 tons of aluminum foil, also referred to as Reynolds wrap, is used during the holiday seasons to wrap turkeys.

The name Reynolds wrap got pinned due to the fact that the Reynolds Metals company produced it. The Reynolds Metal company is also the largest manufacturer of aluminum foil in North America.

Interesting Facts:

• In the USA, foil was first used in 1913 to wrap Life Savers, candy bars and gum.


• The first audio recordings were made of tin foil on phonograph cylinders.


• In America, people recycle approximately 65-70% of aluminum foil.


• In a landfill, it will take approximately 400 years for aluminum foil to break down in a natural state.

Wow, 3000 tons of aluminum foil used on a yearly basis is staggering! Do you use aluminum foil? I know I contribute my share to the usage, but only about one roll a season.

Photo curtosy of RealSimple

Knock Knock | Santa's Here

That's what I said as I knocked on each door tonight.

Sitting here thinking, I feel pretty good about my days work. Well, I would hardly call it work. But I did get a lot done.

Even though we will be spending another day finishing up our Christmas shopping tomorrow or Thursday. Today I was able to deliver a load of gifts tonight to those whom I had already finished shopping for. And it felt good. My husband was a great little helper also! Mostly the good feelings came from getting to see those people I hadn't saw in like forever! Life is just super busy and many reasons are there to keep us from visiting as much as we like.

I believe I will put that in my New Years Resolutions for 2011, to visit family & friends more often!

A Vintage Christmas

The Story of Christmas Cards

How did the tradition of giving out Christmas cards even begin? Well, Collectors Weekly proclaims that over in Britain in 1843, a rich man named Sir Henry Cole, had a terrible problem. It seemed he had so many people to send a greeting to that he couldn't possibly hand write them all. So being a man of wealth, he had a card made showing charity to the poor. He then sent that out to all on his list. And there you have it, the Christmas card was born.

Christmas cards, along with all other holidays and even including the postcard form has always intrigued me. Being as I have a love for arts and almost everything vintage anyway. And as many people already know, I am an avid auction goer. All consisting of auction houses, estate sales, and storage units. Seems like whenever I hear an auctioneer bellowing out those jibber jabbish words, my blood gets to pumping. And I'm there!

Well, since it is so close to Christmas I thought I'd share a good ole' auction find here with you. In one of the last estate auctions I went to this past summer, I bought a couple boxes of old books. My husband loves them and has bookcases full. So I always try to buy them when I can. Well, when going through them at home, I discovered that one of the "books" was not actually a book at all. It was a fake book. A fake book that was like a mini safe. Really cool, let me tell you. I couldn't wait to slide it out of the fake book case it was in and see what was inside. And when I did, I found oodles of old love letters. And lots of keepsake post cards & vintage Christmas cards.

So I have scanned some of the vintage Christmas cards that I found in that sale to share here. Going by the postmark, all the ones below are from the early 1900's. Enjoy!

I also collect postcards of my hometown. It's a cool way to see how it was before I was around.

Notes of Interest:

Collectors Weekly says, "The most sought after vintage Christmas postcards are those featuring Santa Claus dressed in a color other than red – such as purple, green, yellow or orange."
That is cool! I have never saw Santa in a purple outfit before. Have you?

Do you collect vintage holiday cards or postcards? If so, what holiday is your favorite?

~*~

INTERESTING LINK:

From Collectors Weekly, you can see how these vintage cards are selling on eBay:
View by: most watched • high bid • ending soon • completed

~*~

Christmas Crafts |Creating A Snowman

I enjoy making crafts almost on a daily basis, if time permits. And want to share a previous post I wrote on how to make a snowman, found here.

Christmas Cards

Do you send out Christmas cards to your family and friends?

A statistic found here shows that on average, American send out 28 and also recieve about 28 during the same time frame. I don't send out but approximately 20 and usually recieve about, I'm guessing here 15 or maybe 20 a year. I don't have alot of the traditional type family members around anymore. Most all nowadays just send me emails.

Do you send out Christmas cards and if so about how many do you get in return?

Christmas Dinner

Be careful with leftovers after your Christmas dinner. Christmas Facts claim that there are 400,000 cases of illnesses reported, from spoilt leftovers after Christmas dinner each year.

Have you ever been sick from spoilt leftovers?

Thats alot of Aluminum Foil

The Reynolds Co. reported to Christmas Facts that each year approximately 3000 tons of aluminum foil is used during the holiday season to wrap turkeys.

Wow, that is alot of aluminum foil!

Do you use aluminum foil?

Ugly Christmas Lights

I was thinking of something interesting I could share in this evenings Gather post. My mind was rambling of family recipes, quotes and my little dog. Then I got a thought bubble that said, "Ugly Christmas Lights."

There has to be pics out there on the interent of stuff like this. Then my fingers went to searching. And here's what I found. Yes, at UglyChristmasLights they have a ton to pic from. Heres a couple from thier site found here:

This one is a real mess. I bet they go out the backdoor! lol.

This one is called Jumble.

If you look closely you can still see a tiny bit of the house under the mess of holiday blow-ups.

To see many more, you may like to visit UglyChristmasLights!

Break Time!

I am sneaking a break from painting Christmas balls. I have bought a few boxes of them to paint for my Peddlers Mall booth. I'm mostly putting primitive looking snowmen and old crows on them with santa hats. lol.

The snowmen still seem to be the hottest. So I do all types of them.

Well, a few more posts, maybe, and then back to painting. I cannot believe it is already 2:15pm. Gosh, this day has flew by!

What was your most memorable gift as a child?

What was your most memorable gift you recieved as a child? Whether at Christmas time or another occassion.

My all time favorite Christmas gift ever has to have been when Santa left me a little red tricycle. I believe I was maybe around 5 years old or so. It had those little tassels on the ends of the handles. And I thought that made it super cool. For whatever reason.

I loved it. That is, until one day I left it parked behind my mom's car and she ran over it. But I still remember it being oodles of fun before it was crushed. lol.

Spooked by Santa Photo Contest

Is your child scared of Santa? If so, you could win $250.00!

I was just on the Parents magazine website and discovered they are having a photo contest. Not any ordinary contest though. It's actually a photo contest for the worst pic! Yep, they want bad pics of your child sitting on Santa's lap!

If this is something you'd be interested in, here's the link:

SPOOKED BY SANTA photo contest

A Trip Down Memory Lane

"A Trip Down Memory Lane"

Photos from the Past

This is me at Christmas somewhere around 1983 or 1984.

My favorite toys that year was the red head doll, and a jewelry box that wound up on the bottom to play music. That is the year I got my first baby diamond ring from my aunt Joyce. And I had it in that jewelry box for many many years.

Join in on my trip down Memory Lane!

Post a photo of you at Christmas or the Holidays as a child and leave us a link to it.