It’s the fourth day of Christmas! Well, technically it’s the fourth day after Christmas, and we are snowed in with icy roads here in Eastern KY. I am using this time to get my blog caught up with some Christmas posts that I didn’t have time to post in the holiday whirlwind of the past few weeks. This season I had a chance to share a full Holiday Music Room Tour and recently my Cottage Christmas Kitchen Tour, but I am just now finishing up all the photos of the rest of our home for Christmas 2017.  Tomorrow I hope to share one last Christmas tour of the season with a few New Year’s themed vignettes too, so I do hope you will come back for a final farewell to the holiday season!

Around this time last year I was still in the planning stages of switching over from my old blog and making plans to launch Follow The Yellow Brick Home, so I mainly used Instagram to share my Christmas decor and all of the photos were just taken on the iPhone I had at the time. Today we will be taking a look back at some Christmas Home Highlights 2016 from those Instagram posts.

As my friends and followers know, I love vintage decor from all eras. I particularly love Victorian style Christmas decorations. It is never too early to start planning for Christmas, which is why I quickly snatched up these chip board Victorian children as soon as I saw them in mid-August last year at Hobby Lobby. Just a few days before Thanksgiving I found a set of gorgeous Florentine nesting tables and I used them along side the staircase to display some of my oldest and most precious Christmas treasures next to a skinny tree packed full of vintage and vintage-style themed ornaments.

As I mentioned, ornaments and ephemera depicting images from the Victorian era-1930’s are probably my favorite types of collectibles. But I will never pass up retro-kitschy knee hugger elves and tinsel trees if the price is right! I have no problem combining decor and collectibles from many eras side by side. It’s vintage, it’s Christmas, it’s magic! Like the rest of my home, my Christmas decor is an eclectic mix of vintage bulbs, ornaments, figurines, collectibles and memorabilia from many eras, mixed in with some homespun, primitive, and handmade accents too.

A little reproduction gold lead tinsel tree is perfect for a strand of multi-colored mercury glass beads from the 1920’s and some very old gnome ornaments too.

This 1950’s set of Santa and ice skater/sledding figures was an amazing estate find at only $5.oo, and the ironstone platter with a holly motif for a dollar was a steal!

I love this view of the living room which is from a cozy corner by the fireplace looking into the music room (“The Christmas room”) where our main Christmas tree is always located. There’s a lot of Christmas going on in this view, but everything is curated so there really isn’t too much clutter…just eye candy!  I picked up a few little vintage ornaments this last year on my junkin’ adventures, but overall the decor here was similar this year too. I did find some awesome vintage style Christmas pillows recently and a beautiful tartan blanket as well as a few fun vintage furniture pieces which you will see in Christmas my home tour for 2017.

Our 1921 home is perfect for showcasing many of our vintage Christmas collectibles and decor. I say “our” because the whole family enjoys and collects vintage Christmas. My husband loves 1960’s-70’s Snoopy and Peanuts ornaments. My oldest son enjoys rare European Santa ornaments, and my youngest son loves Nutcrackers. He also enjoys helping me search for vintage knee hugger elves when we are out junkin’. Even though he is now 12, he still loves when I set up vignettes with the elves making mischief! This little guy is as innocent as can be just holding a bouquet of very vintage icicle ornaments…

But this one is always getting into the typewriter ribbon!

My favorite reproduction Christmas decor are Belsnickle (German) Santas. I started collecting them three years ago when we moved here.  I always buy one (or two) at after Christmas sales when they are half off. Most of mine are made by Ragon House (love their vintage and primitive style products)!  You can only find Ragon House at specialty primitive shops or online, but I have noticed this year that Lowes and Home Goods have some nice Belsnickle style Santas too. They are all so beautiful though, so it is hard to decide which one to get! I have included a few affiliate links at the end of this post if you are interested in adding these amazing Santas to your Christmas decor too.

Some primitive handmade hang tags with vintage Santa images are favorite ebay finds that I love to decorate with each Christmas.

All of the Belsnickles are so beautiful, but my favorite wears a deep green Velvet cloak. When I spotted these gorgeous dark green bulbs last year at Lowes around Thanksgiving I immediately remembered this Santa and decided to do a whole decorating scheme with the dark green velvet and bulbs. I created this wintry vignette on top of my Gr. Gr. Grandfather’s bookcase and it was one of my favorites.

I added a few of the green bulbs in the garland I used for my centerpiece on the farm table in the dining room. A bit of mossy green velvet ribbon woven in with the greenery was a favorite touch too.

Last year we still had a patterned wallpaper in the dining room so I stuck with green and aqua tones, along neutral vignettes and winter themes instead of using  bright reds that would clash with the colors of the wallpaper. A few touches of dark wine red and plaid in the dishes on the table was all that was needed to complete the Christmas look.

The dining room was easy to make festive by adding some Belsnickle Santas, vintage postcards and a few bulbs, baubles, and bottle brush trees here and there on my shelves and in the corner curio.

No minimalist here! I find it hard to part with my everyday treasures such as my favorite dishes, so just sticking in some bottle brush trees and my vintage Lefton Christmas figures was a perfect solution for adding a bit of Christmas in the corner curio cabinet.

The same always goes for my vintage silverplate collection. It simply must stay out for the holidays where it easily takes on an icy and wintry feel. This silver glittered Santa becomes “Old Man Winter” after Christmas and remains on display through February.

Here you can see how the woodland and winter theme transitions easily from the dining room to the living room.

My dear DOE is on display year round, but she is simply perfect for Christmas, especially in our home where we watch the deer play daily in the woods across the street.

The coffee table was fun to decorate with lots of my favorite vintage and wintry decorations too.  A tobacco basket full of antlers, wooden beads and snow balls remained on display throughout the winter months.

Yesterday I shared my Cottage Christmas Kitchen tour which is packed full of vintage Christmas kitsch! I only have a couple of pictures from my kitchen last year because we had not yet added the corner breakfast nook or the retro cabinet where I display my Rae Dunn pottery and other vintage kitchen collectibles, and the kitchen didn’t have many fun areas to decorate then! Still I had to add some of my favorite Christmas kitchen touches using stacks of ironstone, red grain stripe fabric, grungy candy canes, and a milk and cookies theme. I also added a bit of Christmas to the shelves above the coffee station.

This year I kicked off the holiday season by sharing a full music room tour which has been a popular post here on the blog. I only have a few pictures of the room from  last year, but you can still see the “Christmas room” was all decked for the holiday. Although I absolutely loved the dark hunter green wall paint at Christmas time, the rest of the year it was dark and made the room feel closed in, so the week of Thanksgiving I decided to paint it (crazy timing I know!) the same creamy white as the rest of the down stairs and I have no regrets. Still, these photos from last year capture the traditional and cozy Christmas feeling in the room at the time.

This photo will always be one of my favorites because you can see the “present tunnel” my son made for his train. Christmas fun!

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” Of course all music rooms must be filled with the sounds of the season! Each year there are caroling books on display to sing and play at Christmas time!

The holly and the ivy, when they are both full grown, of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown! Oh the rising of the sun, and the running of the deer, the playing of the merry organ, sweet singing in the choir!

Oh the holly bears a bark, as white as the lily flower, and Mary bore Sweet Jesus Christ for to redeem us all! Oh the rising of the sun, and the running of the deer, the playing of the merry organ sweet singing in the choir!

2016 was a wonderful Christmas full of memories, family and fun, singing carols and celebrating the birth of our Lord and savior. This year we continued traditions of old and started new ones too. Each year I look back with fond memories, and then look forward to the next Christmas with excitement, even as I am packing away my decor.  Tomorrow I will be sharing highlights from this year’s decor too, so it will be fun to see how things have changed from last year to this year and what remained the same.  As you can see just in the picture below from my Christmas music room tour 2017, paint can change a whole room even when decorated with similar decor from the previous year. There will surely be even more changes to compare when looking back next year too!

How are you celebrating New Year’s Eve weekend? Are you holding on to Christmas just a bit longer? I certainly am! I am off now to visit some of the amazing Christmas home tours that I missed during the hustle and bustle of the holidays. I hope you have a great weekend and a Happy New Year!

Amber

Shop For Belsnickle Santas

Belsnickle Santa Ivory Velvet

Belsnickle Santa Green

Linking up!

Home Sweet Home

Share Your Cup Thursday