Vintage Christmas decorations made homes sparkle inside and out
Magazine features from the era offered up all kinds of ideas. One project showed how to build a geometric tree from striped drinking straws, complete with ornaments cut from tin cans or shaped out of papier-mâché. Another turned plastic sheets and ceiling light fixtures into tall outdoor “candles” that glowed like beacons on the front porch. There were window decorations made from cardboard spheres with colored acetate panels, and white candle “castles” stacked high for the center of the dining room table.
Tabletop displays played a big part too. Some used roses, holly and greenery with tall tapers, while others mixed frosted fruit and evergreen boughs for a full, old-fashioned look. And not everything was limited to store shelves — even the desserts got decorative. The unifying theme of all these decorating ideas was about creating a space that looked and felt like the holidays, with whatever materials were close at hand.
Below, we’ve pulled together original images and ideas showing how vintage Christmas decorations in the sixties and seventies brought sparkle, charm and a little homemade magic to the season!
Star-bright cookie tree (1972)
There’ll be stars in the eyes of your youngsters when they see this enchanting tree on Christmas morning. The cookies have translucent, hard-candy centers that catch and reflect the light. ours were hung on a cone-shaped straw basket and festooned with greens.
The cookies are easy to make. All you do is cut out the star-shaped centers with a cookie cutter and place a brightly-colored sour ball in the middle. Bake just until candy has melted, and cookies are lightly browned all over.
Vintage homemade Christmas tree ornaments (1974)
Retro 60s-style Christmas stockings
Tree of wooden gift boxes (1973)
Retro-style tall pointed Christmas trees (1970s)
Oilcloth trees offer a high-style wet look that is completely in tune with rooms that feature contemporary furnishings. They will make an attractive grouping on a coffee table, a buffet, or a low mantel.
Use plastic foam cones in graduated sizes for bases. Pull oilcloth taut over each cone, then staple securely in place. Trim the trees with paper medallions, tree toppers, and tiny packages that you can fasten on with glue and pins. Choose oilcloth in colors, designs, and patterns that are lively and harmonize with your other holiday decorations.
Vintage Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas tree
ALSO SEE: Vintage Pennsylvania Dutch and other Colonial-style barn signs for good luck (1959)
Calico, polka dot and gingham fabric tree (1974)
Crocheted Christmas tree with pom-poms (1972)
Colorful retro wooden wreath with flowers (1970s)
This colorful wooden wreath will appeal to everyone, but especially to the person who is handy with tools. It is made from white pine and trimmed with birds and flowers.
To fabricate this wreath, draw two concentric circles on wrapping paper—the inner circle has a radius of 6⅛ inches; the outer one, 12½ inches. Saw a ½x6-inch piece of pine into following lengths: four 9 inches long and two 21 inches long. Saw edges to form wreath shape, following your paper pattern for placement of strips. (Or cut a circle from plywood—25 inches in diameter on outside and 12¼ inches on inside.) Draw notches on wreath and cut with a saber saw.
Lay the wreath face down; tack or glue strips of lath in areas at top and bottom to join strips together. Stain wreath green. Trace bird and flower motifs onto orange crate slats. Cut with a saw, stain or paint with acrylics, and glue in place. Seal with a coat of varnish.
A bouquet of colorful light bulbs and Christmas lights (1970)
A geometric retro Christmas tree made out of striped straws (1972)
Decorated with ornaments made of papier mache or cut from tin cans, Designer Gere Kavanaugh’s peppermint-stripe tree — made of drinking straws — can hang almost anyplace.
First, make small tetrahedrons or tepees: Run fine wire through six straws; shape three into a cone at the top, and use three to connect the bottom points; join by twisting wire ends together. Use one tetrahedron for the top of the tree, and add another at each point, tying with pipe cleaners.
The second row will contain three tetrahedrons; the third row, six; fourth, 12, and so on. Continue this process until the tree is as tall as you wish — a 48-inch tree (six tetrahedrons high) is shown here.
The papier-maché ornaments were painted with tempera and then finished with a coat of clear varnish.
Tall colored Christmas “candles” for outdoors (1970)
A picturesque portal is a must for the holiday season. What you want is something decidedly different — something that extends a distinctive “welcome” to the family and friends on your doorstep.
But outdoor decorating isn’t easy, as you’ve probably discovered from Christmases past. Too much is gaudy — too little, insignificant. Most often, outdoor trappings are merely afterthoughts — a few skinny strings of lights slung over a nearby spruce or around a doorway. Well, don’t discard the lights. Do something inspired with them!
Towering torches are habit-forming. Once you’ve created a couple of these candle-like beacons, you’ll want to add others in different colors every year.
Form the body of the ornaments with sheets of translucent colored heavy-gauge plastic, wrapped around and fastened into tubes with clear plastic tape.
Bases are made with two-foot-square pieces of 3/4-inch plywood. Reverse a brass or chrome ceiling light fixture (so the bulb extends upwards) and nail the collar to plywood. Then screw a small outdoor spotlight into the socket for a warm glow. Insert plastic tubes in the collar and firmly secured by tightening the screws in the base of the collar.
You can vary the height of your torches by cutting wide sheets of plastic, varying lengths with an art knife. Once they’re made, you’ll have them as a lasting hallmark for your home.
A white table sculpture: A castles of candles (1971)
Candles, gleaming and white, and the magic castle they build — a king’s residence that could only exist in the wonder of Christmas Night.
Assembled from candles of all sizes and shapes and trimmed with shining silver appointments gleaned from the stationery store and the five-and-ten, the Christmas castle crowns a holiday table or lights a frost-crazed window.
Paper spheres with colored plastic windows & lights inside
We’ve taken paper sculpture spheres in 10-, 15-, and 22-inch sizes and turned them into impressive entryway ornaments.
Spray one side of the paper with clear plastic spray to winterize it. (Even if your decoration is placed in a protected area, snow and rain may soften the cardboard.)
On the reverse side, tape colored acetate [or cellophane] over the cutouts. Follow the printed instructions for assembling spheres, omitting one piece from each ornament. [Editor’s note: We have not been able to find these sphere kits in the 2020s, but you could probably assemble your own by cutting large circles out of posterboard, then cutting out a smaller circle from the inside of each piece. Fold the outer edges into five equal flaps, letting a pentagon shape be your guide, and then join the flaps as shown here.]
Glue together the three different sizes with the smallest at the top. Insert a light socket and bulb through the open portion of each. Fasten the sides in place with a small paper fastener.
Acetate windows will reflect pinpoints swirling, glistening light.
Cool retro metal modernist Christmas tree art
Decorating a 60s home for Christmas with lots of garlands (1963)
Christmas centerpieces
At Christmas time, you want to set a bountiful, beautiful table, with your very best china, a cherished old lace or damask cloth or a special new one in brightly-colored fabric.
You want a holiday centerpiece of tall white candles and fresh greens and holly, or pink and red roses, or clusters of frosted fruits, or a bowl of shining tree ornaments.
You want a centerpiece for every dining table, the small one by the living room fireplace for after-dinner coffee, and the kitchen breakfast table, too. But the most festive one of all, of course, belongs on your dining room table, where you gather round for a Merry Christmas dinner.
Below: Circle of candles and holly, filled out with a generous border of blue spruce, against a bright blue cloth.
Below: Pink and red roses, live greens, holly leaves sprayed gold, and tall white candles on a shocking-pink cloth.
Below: Basket, piled high with holly, and hurricane candles, blue spruce boughs and artificial fruits on a red cloth.
Sparkling decorative Christmas tree cake (1968)
This year, stage a Christmas spectacular… with a glittering, glistening eggnog cake!
Shape it like a starry Christmas tree, deck it with silvery garlands made from foil. On high, put a shining angel, and at the base, rock candy crystals to reflect dancing candlelight.
Retro MCM outdoor Christmas decorations (1960s)
Cute DIY Christmas wreaths (1960s-1970s)
Cute retro 60s Christmas front door decor
Homemade retro Christmas ornaments
Retro 60s-70s Christmas tree skirt
Amazing candy houses for kids (1975)
Holiday-decorated mantels & more retro Christmas style
