Hi everyone! It’s chriiiiiiistmaaaaas!! We’ve spent many days this week putting together our Christmas decor, me and my Mum absolutely love this part! But what we really love, is hunting down Christmas decor at the charity stores, not only does it mean we get gorgeous Christmas pieces for cheap, but we also save items from landfill and give to great causes. This year hasn’t been the same with the covid lockdown, but last year our local hospice chain did Christmas events at their stores across the city, and would completely turn their stores into all things Christmas- Christmas decor, unused gift sets and gifts, party wear, Christmas jumpers, outdoor lights- it was so much fun. I think we must have gone to about 4 of these events in total, and our boot was full of goodies every time. One time, I did take Nathan to one, and I have to say, he wasn’t quite the wingman my Mum was in grabbing all the good bits, but he still felt the frantic thrill! I thought seen as covid has made it pretty impossible this season, and sharing my thrifty finds to the blog is something new for me. I thought it would be a great idea to share some of the thrifted decor we picked up last year, just so that you can see how easy it is to get great pieces.
Now I wanted to start on the heart of all out Christmas decor, the fireplace. Our Christmas decor is a rustic woodland vintage feel, lots of greenery and wood with lost of snowy frosting, a few red berries and a hint of metallics. When we would goto the Christmas events, or to any charity store over the festive season, we would always grab any greenery, berries, frosted branches, pinecones, anything that we would be able to add to our ever-growing garland. This garland is made up of really cheap Asda smart price garland as the base, and then lots of different second hand garlands and greenery added in. We create the base of the garland and then add all these other pieces to it, cutting up some of our garland finds to make it easier to blend together. Big, thick, high quality garlands are expensive to buy, but this one has worked out cheap, with garlands here and there for a few pounds each, and extra berries and Christmas greenery for less than a £1, it is now totally unique. Don’t forget its always easy to add a string of lights too.
This snowman frame sitting on the shelf in the kitchen was the one I picked up a few weeks ago in my previous blog post, I think he looks pretty good on this shelf, especially for £3! If you’re wondering what the little Christmas scene is below, this is the top of the advent calendar I created last year, and can be found here
This beautiful rustic sled is a craft project I worked on this week, and will have a video of how to create the rustic worn look later this week. However that gorgeous wooden church, which is really tall, was a charity shop buy at only £3! It also lights up, but we have swapped out nearly all our battery lights for a strategically placed long string of electric lights, that goes through many of our pieces of decor, so that we don’t go through a million batteries over the festive season. The beautiful jewelled berry tree, is actually from Next and I think had the original price of £20 on the box, but cost me only £2.50. I like the touch of red it adds, and helps to blend in some of the more traditntal decorations we also have . These trees are great for hanging little hessian gift bags off the branches if you have any tiny gifts you are worried about losing, such as jewellery. The huge flameless candle was another thrifty find for only 50p, as well as the stand it is on, which is actually a vintage wooden ashtray, but we use it for this candle, and again another £3 purchase.
You may have noticed the white Christmas village on the bottom of the fire place in the first photo, this was a charity store buy and craft project. The was a vintage ceramic set of houses that cost me £3, I think they were actually from the American Woolworths, so a pretty random find in my local charity store. However, the paint work on them wasn’t the best, and I’d seen these houses painted white on Pinterest, so I spent a few days painted many layers of acrylic paint onto the set and adding glitter to the raised snow parts, and I was really happy with the outcome. These one’s have holes underneath for you to be able to poke fairy lights in, but you do also get them with tea light holes. I actually see a lot of these houses in the charity stores, even out of season, so its a great one to keep your eyes open for to collect up over the year.
The NOEL blocks on here cost me £1 and I like the simplicity of these.
This beautiful Christmas scene is on the shelf below the ones photographed before, and I love it so much, I’m an absolute sucker for Christmas villages. When we visit the garden centres at Christmas, the Christmas village scenes they set up are my absolute favourite part, and I could spend hours looking at them. This isn’t a moving one, but I think it is really pretty. It does have a part for a full sized bulb inside, and even though all electrical items are PAT tested by charity shops, I noticed how the back of this scene is all cracked, and when we turned it on with the big bulb in, it got hot really quick. Obviously its an older one, so we just decided to add it to the string of fairy lights we have on this side of the room. I just love how traditional these Christmas villages are, it makes me think of those lovely Christmas movies set in the Edwardian or victorian times, snow on cobbled streets, Christmas carols, ice skates on frozen lakes- I love it all and think that feel really blends nicely with our rustic woodland theme, and it cost £3.50, such a steal.
This faux wood deer cost me £1 and just finishes off the mantle nicely. I always see these kind of items in the charity stores, in different colours, glitter etc, so an easy find.
Meet our Scandinavian Santa. Oh my how handsome he is, and we nearly left him behind! He was £5 and we just wasn’t sure how he would blend with our decor, we didn’t have big Santa figures in our decor, and was worried he’d look tacky, but we ended up bringing him home, and I am SO glad we did. He fits in perfectly with the rustic woodland theme and brings that traditional element. My Mum is basket crazy, she picks up so many baskets on our picking hunts, and this one is one that she found for a few pounds and stained it darker last year. We did originally put the tree in it, but it didn’t quite fit, and the tree ended up on my head… but Santa fits perfectly in it, and the added berry and pinecone garland is another thrifted garland for £3.
Of course baubles are something that you’ll easily be able to pick up over the festive season in charity shops. If you are looking to change your colour theme I would recommend going to have a look. Many of the shops will have boxes and boxes full of baubles, either bagged up by colour theme, or something like 10 for £1! Our tree is a collective of handmade decorations and a mix of wooden and vintage style glass ones, so over the year I have picked up huge hanging pinecones like this, wooden stars, mini wooden sleds, mercury style glass baubles. all for no more than 20p each.
So you remember how I said I have a love for Christmas villages? Well it’ll be no surprise that they are top of my want list when I’m hunting for Christmas pickings, they are not something that appears often, I think you need to be in the right place at the right time to get your hands on them…well let me tell you, I was definitely in the right place, at the right time, when the manager of the charity shop walked by me with this Huge Mr Christmas carousel in his arms. Of course I was totally casual as he approached, my eyes bulging out of my head at my Mum, communicating to her with only a look, “excuse me is that a carousel?” “It is, would you like to have a look?” “Oh yes please if thats okay” In reality I felt like I was about to explode with excitement, and that was when this precious carousel became mine. It lights up, rotates and plays music (you can have the music muted and it will still move) plus it’s in great condition. Its from 1997 and sells on eBay for around £100 – £120 from America, so if I was to purchase this I would have a hefty shipping fee and tax to pay. This marvellous Christmas carousel cost me…£6, yes that is right, it cost me £6, and I was literally like a child on Christmas Day when I paid for this, I walked out of the Christmas charity event like the cat who’d got the cream, past the long que of people waiting to pay, my head held high, and my arms wrapped around the box, grinning as I went.
We have this situated in a corner in the living room, dressed with bottle brush trees (I am obsessed with these trees) to create a little scene. I think it fits perfectly into our decor, and it has to be by far my best Christmas buy
I hope you liked my Thrifted Christmas decor tour, and even if Covid doesn’t permit it this year, maybe next year it will inspire you to decorate your home with preloved Christmas. Let me know if you have your Christmas decorations up yet, and which buy from my Christmas finds was your favourite.
Much Love
Natasha x
