Vintage Thingies Thursday- Christmas in July

I'm finally participating again in Vintage Thingies Thursday, hosted by Lisa over at Confessions of an Apron Queen. Visit her blog to see all of the other people that are participating too!

Today I'm sharing with y'all some of my most favorite possessions - my collection of vintage Christmas ornaments. Back in the fall of 2003, shortly after Will and I got married, we went on vacation with my parents to the mountains of east Tennessee. One day my husband and dad were off doing some manly things so my mom and I set out to find thrift stores. We ran across one that had an entire section of Christmas stuff, including tons of vintage and antique things and it was almost like I had died and gone to Heaven! All that glittery goodness just waiting to be purchased and I couldn't wait to get my hot little hands on all of it! Okay, maybe not ALL of it, but a lot of the stuff that was vintage found a way into my cart! Thus began my obsession with vintage Christmas stuff, especially Shiny Brite ornaments!

Here are some of my fine purchases from that day back in 2003-

First this lovely set of lights. Aren't they adorable? I actually have two sets of these and they are quite old but don't work. So, they sit in their boxes and each year I open the box and stare at them and wish I was able to string them on my tree. Oh well, I still like looking at them even if they don't work!



Next are several boxes of misc ornaments. Some are starting to show wear & tear, we've even broken a couple over the years which makes it even more amazing that they've survived for all these decades. Of course they were probably bought at a store, brought home and lived in one house for the next 50 years. Unfortunately, we move a lot, which means a lot of things are broken. Such is the life of the military family I suppose.









Here's a cute little set of bells. I love these. One year after we moved to Maryland we were living in the cutest little beach cottage and the entire front of the house had been converted to a sun room which the owners had painted a pale yellow. I went out and bought tons of gold, yellow and sage green ornaments that year and then added these little bells. The tree looked so fabulous!



And here are some of the great ornaments I bought earlier this spring at one of the first yard sales of the season. I drove 30 miles to go to this sale that was advertised all over Craigslist as being full of vintage things. Either I got there way too late or the people selling stuff exaggerated just a bit but I did manage to snag all this Christmas stuff for just a couple of dollars. I didn't look thru the box of misc ornaments at the time since everything was wrapped in Kleenex but I was THRILLED when I got home and started unwrapping and saw all of those hot pink ornaments. I looove hot pink.












I also picked up this little strand of lights that have glittery covered bells. I didn't expect them to work either but I was pleasantly surprised when I plugged them in!!



And finally, when the husband and I married, we inherited one of those huge ceramic Christmas trees that his great grandmother had painted some time back. I instantly fell in love with all the little plastic lights and how it lit up at night and was just so pretty. Imagine my surprise when a couple of years later I went to an estate sale and found a lovely trio of white ceramic trees. They were so gorgeous. I really, really wanted to buy the whole set but they were so pricey. I opted for just picking up the smallest one and left the others. Each year I kick myself for not picking up the others and having all 3. Oh well, live & learn I suppose!



Yes, I am clearly obsessed with Christmas. We've always had numerous trees. I cannot wait to start decorating and I think I even get slightly depressed come January when it's time to take all of our decorations down. If the husband and I ever move to a location that has a Christmas store year-round I am seriously going to have to go back to work and apply for a job there. So, tomorrow is the 25th which means only 5 more months until Christmas right? I cannot wait!!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out all of my vintage thingies this week!