One Vintage and One Victorian Christmas Tree and Village in the Living Room, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 Welcome to my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!

 I am so happy you decided to stop by my Christmas Blog!!

 I want to mention that since Blogger changed to a new format for posting, if you can click on each picture if you care to enlarge it...... 

 

 Every room in our townhouse has a different Christmas Theme and Color Scheme!!

 

 I prove that you do not have to live in a large home to have several Trees, over 20, in all shapes and sizes!!

The majority of my Christmas decorations are placed in the same room every year and I know that this is not what most Decorator's care for but to me, it like seeing old friends again when I decorate each year for Christmas as many of my decorations were gifts from family and friends........... 

I do try to add a few new things and change up things a bit but for the most part, these decorations are part of my Christmas Traditions and bring back a lot of treasured memories.....

Today, I will start to share my Living Room decorated for Christmas.....

But first, I want to Thank Katie, over at Let's Add Sprinkles. for featuring my post, Sweet Treat Tree and Hutch in the Kitchen, from last week's Keep in Touch Linky Party!!

 

Thanks Katie  and also for your kind words!!!

 

I also want to Thank to Rebecca, over at Zucchini Sisters, for featuring my post, Gingerbread Land, Beverage Bar and More Christmas in the Kitchen, from last week's Celebrate Your Story Linky Party!!

 

Thanks again, Rebecca!!!!

 

Please stop by and link up to these charming parties!! 

On a Personal Note:

We celebrated our son Jim's 37th birthday this past Monday!!

We ordered his favorite pizza for our celebration and had a Carvel ice cream cake!!!

The highlight was, of course, little Miss Faye!!!

Uncle Joey even let me take pictures!!!!

She was in her play pen while we ate and of course, Joe had to keep playing with her and petting her.....

And Joe just had to take some pictures of me and Faye!!

 

And getting ready to go home with her Mom and Dad!!!

 

She is getting groomed this weekend for the first time so we can not wait to see her afterwards!!

In my last post, I shared the outside of our townhouse all decorated for Christmas......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click HERE if you missed that post......

In today's post, I want to share 2 of the Trees in the Living Room ......

This is the corner area by the stairs......

This is where I set up a Tree displaying my red, green and gold vintage Shiny Brite ornaments.....

The color theme of the Living Room for Christmas is the traditional red, green and gold colors.....

And there is a mix of Vintage, Victorian and Traditional Christmas decorations in this room.....

I am also going to be sharing the stairs right behind this Tree and the area surrounding it......

The wall by the stairs......

A swag that I made.....

On the stairs, is a nutcracker and lanterns......

There is also a gold lighted globe......

When you walk in the front door, this is what you see next to the stairs.....

I like to set up seasonal displays on this vintage chair......

And underneath and to the side of it.....

A Bear Nutcracker bought at J.C. Penney's......

On top of the chair......

I did a different display this year with "toys"......

A drum planter turned upside down......

With one of my Bearington Bears sitting on it along with a replica of a Radio Flyer sled.....

A replica of a vintage rocking horse, an Avon ornament decanter and a little skating doll that my Mother bought for me about 55 years ago in a Hospital's hospitality shop when my mother was in for surgery.....

She helped calm my fears about my Mother returning home from the hospital.....

Underneath the chair......

In 2 lanterns......

A vintage reindeer in one with the bottle of reindeer food I made from an A1 Steak Sauce bottle.....

The deer is actually a planter with a hole on top for the Christmas picks that I added to it....

And in the larger lantern is a vintage boot .......

I placed a Santa head inside of the boot......

A set of vintage Boy's training skates ( double blades) sit next to it....

Next to the chair on a gold cherub planter that I bought in Salvation Army and topped with another Salvation Army find, a marble round, is my new Tree.....

 

 I bought the Tree in Boscov's last year on clearance as I liked the urn it was in......

 

The Tree that I had decorated with my vintage Shiny Brite ornaments in previous years, ended up in the Den and decorated with Thomas Kinkade ornaments......

Click HERE if you missed that post.....

I love to use these outdoor pathway Trees inside because they can be tucked into corners or displayed nicely on a table.....

This is my Vintage Shiny Brite Tree.....

 

 I started with a small gold and silver tinsel like garland that I bought a few years back in Target..........

  I topped it with a bow made from the same ribbon that I used throughout the Living Room.......

 

And a small red finial topper.....

 

My Mother had thrown away the vintage ornaments that she had so I collected these at Estate Sales and church Flea Markets.....

 This Tree has ornaments all around it because of where I have it......

 

I will let the pictures do the talking.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I did add 4 red candle ornaments to the Tree.....

 

 I found this vintage pop up Christmas card in my neighbor Elly's house when cleaning it out for her sons......

And I have displayed it here ever since....

Notice the Post Office on the card ( Joe is a retired Letter Carrier)....

Next to the Tree is a curio......

 

The top of the curio....

 

 

Santa.....

Inside the curio are several sets Angels from Sam's Club.....

I added some Christmas florals......

And Ornaments......

To give it a bit of Christmas cheer.....

On the side of the curio ......

Is an angel that I bought in J.C. Penney's several years ago....

      

 

Now we will take a look at the main Christmas Tree in the room......

Again, this Tree is decorated in red, green and gold.....

But this is very much a Victorian Tree.....

Last year, I bought 2 sets of red, green and white LED lights to add to the Tree for Christmas.....

I started with a green beaded garland that I wrapped around a gold and white beaded garland.....

Then I added a red, green and gold beaded garland.....

I topped off the Tree with a gold finial topper, a bow that I made and 2 gold floral branches.....

Added red and green filler balls, tucked within the Tree.....

 

And then added all the Victorian styled ornaments that I have amassed over 25+ years....

I even made a few.....

I tucked gold glittery picks into the Tree....

 

And finished it off with the red and white striped candle ornaments that I bought one year at J. C. Penney's.....

Victorians added candles to their Trees prior to the discovery of electricity and only lit them  on Christmas Eve....

They always had a bucket of water handy to throw on the Tree in case it caught fire!!!

I will let the pictures do the talking.....

At my request, my Dad built me a platform like his the first year that I was married at my request.....

I have covered it with white felt and this is where I set up my Lemax Christmas Village.....

For the first time, I am going to share how I set it up.....

I use the boxes that the houses and other pieces come in to create "mountains"  along the sides.....

I then cover them with white felt......

A few years ago, I realized that one of those grabbers for reaching things work quite well in adjusting the pieces of felt, especially in the the back corner......

This saved me from having to lay on the platform trying to adjust it which was no easy feat for me......

I then added my "mountain" props.....

Next came the houses and how I wanted to line them up this year.....

This year, I decided to put the light house on the "cliff".....

And the church and Queen Anne Victorian on one of the "mountains......

Now that I had my Village set up, I added everything else that I had collected since the birth of my first son in 1981.....

Several of the houses are dated 1981 on the bottom!!!

When I started to use this 7 foot Slim Tree in the Living Room, it exposed a lot of the platform......

Making the Village easier to see and easier to set up!!

Over the last few years, I passed on a piece or 2 that was not part of my original Village.....

Now I am back to my original houses that I started to buy in 1981, all of which have a Victorian look to them and all of them have a particular meaning me.....

Bare with me since I have told you about these houses over the years.....

Just scroll through the pictures if you read it before.....

In the left corner......

The lit Christmas Tree was actually bought from a craft vendor who makes ceramics a few years ago.....

The Light House was bought to commemorate the yearly vacations that we took to Wildwood, N.J., where we visited both the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse in North Wildwood and the Cape May Lighthouse in Cape May.

This light house is similar to the Hereford Inlet one as it was connected to a house.....

The blue building is Joseph's Seafood Restaurant, bought because we stopped ordering Lobster in restaurants because it could not compare to how good the lobster tails that Joe makes are....

I bought the Train Station because at the time, Joe and I frequently went to dinner at the refurbished local historical Train Station that was a Restaurant and Night Club.....

Sadly, it has fallen into a state of disrepair but there are plans to restore it once again....

 

The covered bridge is for the covered bridges in our area in PA......

I set up a Park with a Gazebo, a Nativity set and Santa  Claus.....

I bought the Gazebo because it reminded me of the local Historical Victorian town, Jim Thorpe , where there is a Gazebo in the Center Square where you can take advantage of Train Ride Tours....

I used to meet friends there in that town to shop quite often many years ago......

Ironically, I bought the Post Office for no special reason, never realizing that soon afterward, Joe would start his career as a Letter Carrier for the United State Post Office......

I bought the Church because church has always been an important part of my life.....

And that blue Queen Anne Victorian house is my Dream House......

Maybe in my next life time or maybe I lived in a house like that in a past life....

The General Store and Carrington's Department Store were bought because of our love of shopping!!

The white fence is a Plasticville fence and to me, it symbolizes the fence that my Dad had made to put around the platform that he built to use under my childhood Tree.....

On the side of the  platform , in an urn is a lighted Cardinal Globe that my Niece and Great nieces gifted to me last Christmas which was the first Christmas after my nephew, her husband, had passed away.....

I am sure you may have heard the saying about a red cardinal......

I have said this every year when I do this post about my Village......

As I work on setting this all up like my Dad once did under his Tree, I can hear him say....

"That a Girl" with that tear in his eye......

I will continue to do this as long as I physically can, honoring my Dad's Love of Christmas and Decorating......

 

 I hope you enjoyed seeing how I decorated 2 of the Trees in our Living Room......

In my next post, I will be finishing up my Christmas Room by Room Home Tour by sharing the remainder of the Living Room.....

And sharing you the last Tree in the Living Room.....

So I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

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