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Let's talk Christmas Decorating!

Oakley
13 years ago

I've been thinking about Christmas decorating since July because it's been so hot here!

FYI..Amazon still has a lot of their Christmas ornaments on sale from last year. I'm buying now to save some money.

I need ideas for ornaments.

First, some of the round ornament, from small to large, are called "Christmas Balls." Why? I know they're shatterproof but why call them balls instead of ornaments?

This year I want to decorate more with ornaments. I put some in my glass jar on the kitchen counter. But I want more ideas.

Can you all post pictures of how you decorated with ornaments that aren't on the tree?

Join in for any other Christmas talk!

Comments (33)

  • Purplemoon
    13 years ago

    Oak, head for our Christmas Inspiration albums. All sorts of ornament ideas there for you. The link opens to the Christmas Trees but there are six sub albums on the left.
    What you want will be in one of them I think.

    Nice to see you here again by the way.
    hugs, Karen

    Here is a link that might be useful: Christmas Inspiration Albums

  • Oakley
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Karen, I looked through those last year but I'm trying to find specific pictures of how people decorate with bulbs without looking at each picture in the album. It would save me time.

    I think I'll just do a websearch on how to decorate with Christmas Ornaments.

  • Purplemoon
    13 years ago

    A lot of the photos I find for our albums come from me web browsing on sleepless nights. I go to google and type in something like Christmas ornament display pictures, then the gallery comes up with all the thumbnail photos of that subject.
    Meanwhile, I checked our Misc. Christmas album to see what I had in there. Ornaments hung from chandeliers, in bowls,
    hung in windows or from ceilings (small tacks and fishing line). Small ones glued to a picture frame, the ornament ball wreath that is supposed to be so easy to make. I plan to try one of them this year.
    Here is one photo in the album that I like a lot.

    hugs, Karen

  • oldalgebra
    13 years ago

    Oak,
    I don't have any pictures, but I'm glad you started this post and am anxious to see what others might have to share.

    OA

  • Oakley
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Oldalgebra, I did buy an Ornament Tree for my "Victorian" room, but now I can't decide what ornaments to put on it that won't cost a bundle!

    We built on a year and a half ago, so this is really the first year I've had time to plan on decorating in a much larger space. That's why I'm so gung ho on getting started. lol

  • luvstocraft
    13 years ago

    Karen, I really like those ornament ball topiaries in that pic you shared. Those colors would work for Fall too, wouldn't they?

    Oakleyoak, don't forget about the stacked plates. Ornaments look really good on those as well as in cloches and bowls. And I love how they look added to garlands of greenery. One of my favorite things is to use red ones in clusters of three to look like berries on the garland.

    Luvs

  • Purplemoon
    13 years ago

    Oak, you can often find nice ornaments at thrift stores.
    Also shopgoodwill.com has a section for holiday stuff and I've gotten great buys there. Hobby Lobby has big sales this time of year on Christmas stuff. Even the dollar stores often have pretty ornaments. Etsy.com is another place to check, I just bought some special ornaments for my grown son's football team tree in fact. This time of year you can still find good buys, in another month things will cost more.

    I can't wait to see your Victorian decor. I know I will love it.
    hugs, Karen

  • Oakley
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Luvs, can you be more specific on the three red ornaments thing? Do you place them on a garland? Because I'm thinking about hanging ornaments from the garland on the mantel. What is the best color of ornaments for that?

    I have a 3 tiered plate stand in the kitchen, so that would be a nice place to put ornaments.

    My favorite decor piece I have is an ornament wreath I bought from QVC when it was on sale. It's gorgeous!

    Believe it or not, Macy's online is a great place to buy ornaments, especially after Christmas when they really slash the prices.

  • luvstocraft
    13 years ago

    Yes, I just put three ornaments on the same hook if using the little ones (just wire three together for big ones) then space them along the garland. I use red to look like berries. Great for along a mantle or around a door or window.

    Also remember that big bows always look wonderful along with other decorations too, not too pricey if you use those 40% off coupons. Lots of how to's on the net for making your own.

    I know you're going to have lots of fun decorating your new space.

    Luvs

  • jeannespines
    13 years ago

    Can't find a pic of it right now...but I used to put a "chicken wire basket with a wire handle on my buffet...spray painted it a "bronze" color & then loaded it with the colors that PMoon posted above ... bronze & cream ...held about 12 of the big balls...& looked simple, but beautiful! Jeanne S.

  • luckygal
    13 years ago

    Karen I love that vignette and it wouldn't be too difficult either.

    I've always liked the wreaths made with ball ornies and Eddie Ross made a nice one - link below. I've never made one altho have thot I might several years. I've been downsizing Christmas decor for the last few years altho have already started a list of some things I might do. I usually decide on colors I'll use and a 'sort-of-theme'. Last year was rustic/crafty using browns, greens, and blues, and always metallics and cream/white. One year I did lime greens and blues. I'd like to do pink and purple some time but don't feel like buying all new ornaments when I have so many. Will likely do a variation of the colors I have altho have been tempted to do all silver and white so may try that.

    My decorating is more embellishing decorative accessories I have instead of using a lot of specific Christmas themed items which I've mostly given away. I often use various sized balls in apothecary jars, glass bowls, on trays, and always attach many to a coniferous or metallic garland on my mantle shelf. Often mingle white mini-lights with the balls.

    Here's part of my mantel which shows balls in an apothecary and decoupaged balls on the mantel as well as hanging from the picture rail above. Picture looks to be a terrible quality, good thing I have a new camera!

    {{gwi:1435698}}

    This is a tray full of decorations and some balls on my kitchen sideboard.

    {{gwi:1435699}}

    Here's a bowl full of balls and ornaments that I used early in the Christmas season, then 'retired'.

    {{gwi:1435700}}

    I sometimes just throw (not literally!) some of my art glass ball collection in a bowl or on a tray and put some mini-lights with them so they glow thru the glass balls. Don't have a pic.

    Here is a link that might be useful: eddie ross' wreath

  • Purplemoon
    13 years ago

    LG, that tray full of decorations is GORGEOUS! It has to be in our Inspiration album! The Misc one is where I put stuff like this. In case you missed a post I did last night, on the Autumn decor thread, I got a bunch of pix uploaded to our albums. Added half dozen or so to the Cloche album, and the Thanksgiving-Fall album. Plus a few to the Christmas Misc one.

    Oak, here's one of the gals tiered-plates from last year with ornaments. (there's also an album just with stacked plates by the way).

    hugs, Karen

  • Purplemoon
    13 years ago

    I was browsing shopgoodwill.com looking at decorations and then I jumped over to figurines and saw this neat porcelain Eng Pointer! They mistook it for a Dalmatian in the subject line. But it looks like a nice piece and in good condition. Price starting low too!

    hugs, Karen

    Here is a link that might be useful: english pointer

  • jaybird
    13 years ago

    GORGEOUS tray....I love the bronzes and hope to find some on sale pretty soon.
    Your plates are lovely Karen. I just sent a set of those to Canada with my DS SO. She was tickled to get them and I sent her a link to your album of "stacked plates".

  • Oakley
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks for the pictures! I also love the bronze. I ordered some very large pinecones (I may have mentioned it above, lol) that I'm going to spraypaint a goldish bronzed color.

    I love the stacked plates above, that would go perfectly in my kitchen!

  • calicocat1967
    13 years ago

    I love bronze/gold/brown for Christmas. Here is a picture of my tree last year in my sitting room. The tree is a antique gold tinsel.

    Kim

  • Purplemoon
    13 years ago

    Gosh Kim, what a pretty tree. With those colors, it could go up in the Fall and be perfect! Its wonderful.

    hugs, Karen

  • milosmom_gw
    13 years ago

    I'm trying hard not to think about Christmas until after Oct but you all made it difficult and I just "HAD" to peek in on this thread and it got the wheels to turning.lol
    I've chosen my color scheme for this year (it changes from year to year) but that was as far as I seemed to get once we decided to have a wedding instead.

    Lucky: Your sideboard was fabulous!

    Karen: I constantly oogle the creativity that everyone has with the stacked plates but I'll be darn if I've been able to find a set of them anywhere. *sigh*.

    Kim : Your tree was absolutly stunning!
    I loooove the color combination and your room suited it perfectly.

  • dreamgoddess
    13 years ago

    Milosmom, the stacking plates Karen posted are ones that I did last year. I found them at Old Time Pottery in Mobile. I've also found them in Walmart in Mobile, but the plates were sold separately.

    Luckygal, I agree with the others...that tray full of ornaments is gorgeous! Do you happen to have another photo of it without the candlelight? I'd love to see exactly how you decorated it. Is it just ornaments or is there greenery on it also?

  • oldalgebra
    13 years ago

    Yes, LG, I'm with Dreamgoddess. I'd love to know just what sort of goodies you've nestled all around the candles. That is a gorgeous display.

  • jaybird
    13 years ago

    MM I just bought a set of really pretty glass stacking plates for a friend, at Macy's. They were in the housewares department and I think they were under the Martha Stewart label. HTH
    Karen really has some pretty decos in those albums. She works hard to keep those up to date and I thank her!!

  • luckygal
    13 years ago

    Thanks for the nice comments on my tray arrangement which was really the 'leftovers' from decorating and things I had. Anything that was gold, silver, clear, or white. My theme was rustic and refined so the candles are a dull color and the raffia added. I just contained everything in my huge black painted wooden tray. That's the only pic I have but I've perused it and think I've ID'd most things I used:

    ~tan tapers and white tealight candles in various glass holders and hurricane tied with natural raffia
    ~gold and silver painted pinecones of various sizes
    ~white flocked snowflakes
    ~glass snowflake ornaments from my art glass collection
    ~gold feathers
    ~gold painted angel
    ~clear glass balls filled with faux snow
    ~small cheap plastic balls in various white (pearlized & irridescent) and silver colors
    ~silver and gold bead garland

    One tip I can give is that I always buy white tealights at Ikea as they are good quality and sold in bags of 100 for only a few dollars. I had my DH paint the metal part of the tealight (he turned them upside down and sprayed them gold). They look better when I need a bit of glitz at the holidays. When they burn down I just remove a new tealight from it's holder and pop it into the gold one.

  • christmascandy
    13 years ago

    Milosmom,
    I have seen the stacked plates in clear and a blush color at Ross.
    You can also create them using 3 graduated size plates and separate them with bowls, flat candleholders, even small boxes, as the decor usually covers the stacking portion.

    Beautiful decor as always ladies!!

    TFS,
    Candy

  • lynninnewmexico
    13 years ago

    I swear, Oakley, you are a TERRIBLE influence on me!!! First you get me buying more Halloween decs (which I really didn't need) in the middle of Summer and now you've got me thinking about Christmas decs when it technically is STILL officially Summer ;^D Bad, bad, bad (LOL)!

    I've just gone back and searched through all my own Christmas pics looking for ideas for you . . . (sigh) and had so much fun looking at all that pretty
    stuff . . . but don't get me started on that!

    This is a pic of something I did in the bar cab area of my kitchen:
    In this cab, I added red & green glass ornaments to a rose bowl and gold faux pine branches and berries to 3 tall glasses.
    {{gwi:1435703}}

    Last year, my main colors for the dining room were silver & white, so I put silver & white ornaments in my crystal wine bucket:
    {{gwi:1435704}}

    Although I can't seem to find a pic of it now, for one tablescape, I added white with frosty silver balls to this in place of the pinecones. It looked really pretty.
    {{gwi:1435705}}

    I'm not crazy about this tablescape of mine but, as you can see, I added faux snow to my champagne glasses and topped them with ornaments. I also used gold ornaments (and mirrors) there.
    {{gwi:1435706}}

    And here's one more. For this tablescape, I used small glass ornaments in the iron and glass bowl centerpiece around the pillar candler. Sorry I don't have a better pic of it.
    {{gwi:1435707}}

  • Purplemoon
    13 years ago

    The infamous stacking plates are usually found at Target Online. Only online, there. Tho I once saw some in Ross.
    The topper is a Sundae cup from Walmart.

    hugs, Karen

  • Purplemoon
    13 years ago

    I played with the coloring in Photobucket to see if y'all could get a view of what's on the tray...

  • Oakley
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    This topic made me realize that I need to buy some clear glass bowls!

    Lots of inspiration here, thanks!

  • oldalgebra
    13 years ago

    Thanks to everyone for the Christmas Ornament display tips.

    Karen, the lightened picture does help to see individual pieces on LG's tray. I'm going to have to try something similar for the holidays. I feel a Thanksgiving vignette coming on.

    Lynn, I sure like that iron bowl you have in the last picture.

  • lynninnewmexico
    13 years ago

    OA, thanks. It's footed and I got it at HL a number of years ago. It didn't come with the glass bowl in it; I got that someplace else, but it's just a simple one used by florists for centerpieces.

  • Oakley
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Keep the pictures coming, I've created my own Christmas Inspiration album.

    My Ornament Tree arrived yesterday and I can't wait to use it! It's a bronze color with some ornate work on it. Very pretty and not expensive!

  • luvstocraft
    13 years ago

    Lynn, I think you shared some pics of decor you hadn't shown us before. I really like your silver trees, very pretty.

    Karen, thanks for giving us a better view of the tray. It looks so pretty with the candles lit and all those goodies on it.

    Oakleyoak, your new tree sounds great, will look forward to seeing pics of it.

    Luvs

  • paintingfool
    13 years ago

    We decorate with pinecones (which are all over the grounds here) and magnolia leaves which can be sprayed gold or white, and branches. Small pinecones that are sprayed with a metallic bronze or copper paint are beautiful in a big bowl. The inexpensive shatterproof balls are wonderful hanging from garland when you put them on longer hooks and then place the garland over the window or attached to the mantel. I think CHIJIM had photos of some he did (PM probably has it in the album).

    I have bought a lot of decorations over the years (enough to fill the storage shed of 12'x12') but my favorites are those incorporated in with my everyday decor. And I love branches when sprayed white, you can put them over the mirror in the bathroom with ornaments and beads hanging from it or on the mantle.

    Gosh I can hardly wait to start decorating - for me it will start the end of October since I need a good four weeks to get everything out (I host a party the first week in December).

  • kathleen_li
    13 years ago

    Lordy, you gals are way ahead of me! And such beautiful displays! Still summer here!

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