An Olde Fashioned Christmas: Homespun decorations
Merry greetings to you! Our little house is all dressed for Christmas and I must say, I think this is when she looks her best. This is our second year of an “olde fashioned Christmas” where our focus is on natural and simple decorating. I wanted to share some snapshots of our Christmas home and offer a few ideas for decorating and celebrating your own Olde Fashioned Christmas.
If you’ve been around here for awhile, you know that I love all things rustic, vintage, and homespun. I prefer homemade over store bought, real over fake, and frugal over frivolous. An Olde Fashioned Christmas is all of these things. It isn’t an abundance of cheap “throw away” decor that you may find from the craft store or the dollar section at Target. Instead it’s a thoughtful cultivation of homemade and gathered items. Homespun decorating is frugal, resourceful, and seasonal. While my family has our sentimental favorites like santa figurines and a Christmas village, the main focus is on natural elements like greenery, fruit, and homemade items.
My main goal in curating a Christmas home is to capture the feeling of comfort, offering a soft place to land after such a long year. It truly is the time for the weary world to rejoice! Our atmosphere matters and does have an effect on our emotions. This feeling of comfort is cultivated through the warm glow of lights and beeswax candles, the record player spinning softly, playing Christmas vinyls I’ve thrifted throughout the years, hot cocoa and coffee on repeat throughout the day, keeping us warm from the inside out. It is a hearty merriment that lasts all month long and carries us into the new year.
“our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at christmastime.”
I hope you enjoy these thoughtful decorating ideas and visuals. No matter your style or aesthetic, you can incorporate the idea of a simple and natural Christmas in a way that feels right for you. Now, let’s deck the halls!
Fruit
Seasonal fruit is a wonderful way to decorate for the holidays. Pomegranates, oranges, cranberries, and persimmons add a pop of color as we enter into barren winter. Seasonal fruits can be displayed fresh or dried. Try pairing fruit with greenery or pinecones for a natural look.
Pomegranates
Display them fresh and allow them to dry out throughout the season. Once dry, they can store for many years on end.
Purchase already dried pomegranates (shop here)
Oranges
Display fresh, whole oranges in a bowl or displayed in simple vignettes with greens
Make pomanders with cloves and cinnamon
Make dried orange slices by slicing thinly and drying out in the oven for a few hours on the lowest setting.
Cranberries
String them as a garland
Use as a bowl or jar filler
Foraged Greenery
Fresh greenery is a wonderful natural way to spruce up the holiday home. It truly adds a touch of cheer to every corner! I like to purchase fresh garland from a local garden center for around the windows. But for my vignettes, swags, and wreaths, I forage evergreens from my backyard. Check to see if there’s anything you can forage on your own property or from a friend’s yard for a frugal yet beautiful touch.
Cedar
Pine
Mistletoe
Holly
Juniper Berries
Use your foraged greens to make garlands, swags, tuck them behind jars, into crocks, or as added texture in vignettes or bowl fillers.
Bowl fillers
Bowl fillers are a simple way to display natural items that correlate with the current season. I collect antique wooden bowls, and you’re sure to find at least one or two in every room of my house! In the Christmastime, I like to fill bowls with various fruits—fresh or dried—popcorn, cinnamon sticks, candy, and other miscellaneous nature. You can use any sort of bowl, crock, or basket you have to display these items as well.
Cranberries
Popcorn
Dried orange slices
Dried apple slices
Pomanders (find a how-to here)
Pinecones
Chestnuts
Cinnamon sticks
Candy canes
Gingerbread men (recipe here)
Dried gourds (shop here)
Jar Fillers
Similar to bowl fillers, jars filled with seasonal delights are fun to display in the kitchen. Hot cocoa bar displays create a cozy inviting atmosphere with marshmallows, peppermint sticks and hot cocoa mix at the ready. This is a great way to put those old jelly or pickle jars you’ve saved to good use.
Peppermint sticks
Marshmallows
Hot cocoa mix
Allspice
Cinnamon sticks
Edible Garland
Edible garland is a cheap and fun way to decorate for the holidays. Garland can be hung across the mantle, strung on the tree, or across your windows. It’s fun to sit down with a needle and thread and simply string away while a Christmas movie plays in the background.
Popcorn
Cranberries
Orange slices
Apple slices
Gum drops
Other Miscellaneous Elements
There are other miscellaneous elements I like to add to my Olde Fashioned Christmas home, most of which I have collected overtime from various antique or thrift stores. Amongst the abundance of greenery, fruit, and pinecones, I like to add the warm glow of hand-dipped beeswax candles, knitted mittens, copper and aged tin elements, and plaid homespun fabrics. Aged wood, galvanized tin, and red and white enamelware also pair beautifully with all things Christmas.
Gingerbread men
I place these all throughout the house. On windowsills, propped up on the counter, in bowls, and hung on the Christmas tree as ornaments. Get my recipe here.
Knitted mittens
This is a cute idea that adds some texture to your displays. Mittens are an easy thrift store find, or you can knit your own!
Thrifted ice skates
Ice skates are simply adorable hung by the laces either as an outdoor or even indoor display. I always see lots at the thrift store this time of year.
Antique sleds
My antique sled is one of my favorite finds ever. It adds a touch of rustic wood and a pop of red and just creates a sense of “winter fun” in a way.
Beeswax candles
Beeswax candles give a wonderful warm glow to these dark evenings that inevitably come this time of year. I choose beeswax for the natural health benefits, clean burn, and rich yellow color. Learn more about candles here.
Aged tin or copper elements
Copper pots, tin colanders, cheese graters, and other old kitchen tools are always abundant at thrift stores and look cute paired with fresh greenery throughout the home.
Plaid homespun fabrics
I can never get enough of homespun fabrics. I love to make pillow cases, curtains, garland, stockings, and more this time of year with red and green plaid fabric. Shop homespun fabric here.
Stacked wood
Even if you have a faux fireplace like me, stacked wood can add a cozy feel to the home. You can stack it near the hearth or place it in a wooden box or galvanized bucket for a rustic feel.
May your Christmas season be merry and bright, and truly a time for your weary heart to rest in the truth that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever." (1 Timothy 1:15-17).
May peace abound,
Kaetlyn
“she will bear a son, and you shall call his name jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
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