Happy Friday! Can you believe Christmas is only a few weeks away? I can’t… time is flying by. This past week I shared my Christmas home tour here and here, and you were able to catch a couple glimpes of our two trees. Today I am joining in Stephanie’s My Home Style blog hop which is all about Christmas trees this time. Although our trees are very different trees, they are somewhat cohesive in that my christmas tree style tends to be what I would call “vintage bohemian.” (I have also created a boutique at the bottom of this post. These are affiliate links)
In our living room, we always get a live tree as our family tree. Our favorite local farm has a great selection of all sorts of trees, and this year Emmy wanted a blue spruce… I think it sounded dreamy to her because like me, she loves blue. We usually get a Canaan fir, but because no one else really cared what kind, we trudged over to the blue spruces.
Emmy selected a tree she liked, but alas, we found one that looked a little but healthier. We love to have the kids pick, but we want to make sure it’s in premium health as far as dryness goes. As you can see, everyone was thrilled with the tree we chose.
When it came time to cut it, haul it, get it to the car, and set it up at home… we all vowed that this was the first and last blue spruce we ever would get. Pretty, yes, but lemme tell you, those needles are like miniature weapons. After I strung all of the lights and tended to my bleeding hands, it was time to decorate! Emmy had selected an adorable snowy owl while shopping with my mom, so we decided to replace our star with it this year. It has bendable feet so I was able to secure it to the tree.
For the garland, I love to use vintage notions and trimmings; Emmy and I hauled out my box of vintage lace and fringe and selected one of each. I let her choose the orientation; rather than going around the tree (like our fringed tree last year) she wanted them to be streaming down the tree. We finished adding and cutting the trims, and then called in the boys. We played Christmas music, and all decorated the tree together. We have a huge collection of vintage family ornaments, vintage style ornaments the kids have been given over the years, as well as crafted and gifted ornaments. (Check out my super easy DIY chicken ornaments from the graphic above here). As we pulled out each ornament, we shared the memories attached with them. Our old dog Charlie has a few ornaments on the tree, and we always get a little teary eyed as we pull those out.; these days Jake’s have the same effect on me as I don’t know if he’ll make it to another Christmas after this. Once we had filled up the tree, I added in a few vintage blue glass ball ornaments to fill in spaces where needed.
Now this may not sound much different from any one else’s tree decorating, but to me this year was the best. In the past, I’ve been a little more domineering with the direction and style of our tree, but this year I just wanted to spend the time with my family, decorating together. We now have a tree we are all proud of and can enjoy together in the living room while we watch Christmas movies. This tree is full of our memories and gives us warm fuzzies, but still has a vintage boho vibe to it. To finish it off, I added a thrifted Mexican blanket as a skirt.. I love the pattern and texture it brings as well as the casual feel.
Whereas this tree is our family tree and it’s less “designed” the tree in my master bedroom is where I get to have my fun. This tree is an artificial vintage flocked tree I scored at a flea market a few years ago for $20. This year I created a new DIY peace sign topper and “peace, love, joy” banner which really make a statement. (You can find the tutorial here).
I used vintage fringe to trim this tree and give it some texture and keep the palette mainly white.
Last year I brought in color with vintage blue and aqua ornaments, but this year, I was really wanting to keep it neutral, so I chose to use only gold and a few silver vintage ornaments. (And in case you are wondering, yes, I am a hoarder of vintage ornaments, but I just donated some pink ones to a shelter tree.) And yes, I was wearing plaid when I shot the photo below. 😉
Just like the other tree, I used a thrifted Mexican blanket in neutral colors to finish it off. I happened to have scored a vintage basket through an auction that was the perfect size, so I placed the tree in that and then wrapped the blanket around the base, draping over the basket a little for a more casual vibe.
The nice thing about my tree style is that it’s really easy to recreate, and no two are alike… You just need to hunt your local thrift shops, flea markets and yard sales to find some of the key elements, like Mexican blankets, vintage ornaments, and vintage trim. All of those pieces on my trees were found in that manner, and far from new. Etsy is also a great place to search for some of these items, so I’ve put together a little boutique at the bottom of this post where I’ve found similar vintage items for you.
Now that you’ve seen my vintage bohemian Christmas tree style, I invite you to check out all of the unique trees and and styles shared this week. You can click on any of the links in the lineup below.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
