Thrifted & Timeless Ways to Decorate Year after Year
I love to decorate my home with thrifted and timeless pieces year after year for Christmas. We’ll show you how to get that classic, vintage Christmas without spending a lot of money and time. And we’ll give you tips and tricks to change your decorating year after year without having bins full of decor.
1) Greenery
Years ago when Christmas was much more simple instead of shopping in stores, people decorated using items from nature. This classic look is timeless and beautiful and easily decorates your home. If you are lucky to live somewhere with pine trees and cypress, you can easily make garland, wreaths and sprigs for your home.
If you do not have greenery readily available in your own backyard, there are many stores like Costco and Lowe’s that sell real garland. This year I bought two and I was able to use some for the garland on our stairs, some for our mantle and our dining room light fixture. And with the leftovers I made little archways over pictures and mirrors.
As you can see, just two garlands was able to add a little Christmas touch to many rooms in my home.
2) Thrifted and Timeless Ribbon to Decorate your Home
If you want to change up your Christmas decor year after year, ribbon is a cheap and easy way to mix things up. It instantly changes the look of your home depending on the color of ribbon you choose. This year we chose black on our stairs and our swags. Black makes everything look so elegant and formal, and I just love the way it looks against the green.
For our Christmas tree, I chose navy blue velvet ribbon and that blue/green combo for Christmas makes my heart happy. I especially love velvet ribbons because they make everything cozy and at the same time elegant. I bought our navy ribbon from Marshalls and our black ribbon from Amazon.
You could use chocolate browns, rich burgundies or a creamy beige or golden khaki. This is such a quick and effortless way to change your theme each year.
With brown ribbon you could pair it with forest creatures (that you could make from diy cinnamon ornaments) for a rustic woodland theme. I love the idea of using rich burgundy paired with dried oranges for a classic victorian Christmas. The ideas are endless when you change the color of your ribbon year after year.
3) Books to Decorate your Home in a Thrifted and Timeless way
Again, this is another easy way to change the look by displaying different colored books depending on your theme. You could stack them and add a candle on top or display some extra greenery with them. Books are also great to add height and depth to your Christmas displays.
This year I added blue books to add height to my manger and trumpet so that they could be seen over my big garland.
4) Edible Decorations
This can include items such as dried oranges, popcorn garland, pomanders, or cinnamon ornaments. Some years I have even used produce such as pomegranates, pears, apples and pineapples for a colonial look. If you have never seen Williamsburg at Christmas time, go ahead and search some pictures you will instantly be inspired!
Some of these items can be used for a few years like the cinnamon ornaments and dried oranges. The popcorn garland and the pomanders can only last a season. But the produce can be displayed until they need to be eaten. I like to change out the produce every few weeks so that it stays fresh. These are already items I can buy at the grocery store, so it’s nothing extra for me to spend.
These edible decorations are a fun craft to make with your family and each year you can change it up depending on the look you are after. You can display them on your tree, as a centerpiece, on your garland or even as your garland. They are a great inexpensive way to change up your holiday decorating each year.
5) Decorate with Timeless Bells for a Christmas Thrifted Home
Chances are you can find bells at your local thrift store. I have found some great vintage ones that I love to display. We also have several from our wedding that I can use as ornaments or add to garland. The mix of brass and green are so beautiful to me.
Whether you find them vintage or buy them new from the store, bells are a timeless way to add Christmas cheer to your home.
6) Candles and Candlestick Holders
Beautiful brass candlestick holders are a treasure to find at thrift stores. I seriously don’t think you can have enough! Paired with a timered flameless taper candle and some sprigs of greenery… it is just so classic and christmasy. Can’t you just picture the Christmas Carol with Ebenezer Scrooge holding a Candlestick holder in his pajamas? I just imagine all my favorite christmas stories and movies and I see the classic and timeless candlestick holder. From Little Women to Christmas Oranges, I just can’t get enough of this vintage Christmas look. I even bought some Christmas tree candles for our tree this year!
7) Lights
Whether you are using timered fairy lights or normal christmas lights. You cannot have Christmas without that magic glow. I love to keep this as my last step for decorating because once I turn the lights off in the house, I can see where in my home I need a little glimmer. It’s just not Christmas without lights all around your house!
Thrifted and Timeless Christmas
I hope you enjoyed this Christmas House Tour and I hope it inspired you and gave you new ideas to decorate with. You can have fun with your Christmas decorating and mixing it up without buying all new decor each year. That is very exciting to hear, because as a creative person I love to change things up! I encourage you to keep your eyes out while thrifting. There are many inexpensive things to use for christmas decor that you can actually use for other seasons too.
More Christmas Posts…. Prep for an Unhurried Holiday
I am already thinking of my ideas for next year….
Sincerely, Katy