These 55 Vintage Christmas Ideas can help you rediscover some of the magic from your childhood and bring some of that charm to your holiday celebration.
Creative Inexpensive Christmas Decorations and 21 Hygge Christmas to Warm Your Soul are great resources if you’re seeking for additional ideas to add significance to your holiday celebrations.
While completing your to-do list can make the holidays seem like a frenzy of activity, occasionally the true meaning of the season can be overlooked.
I imagine you share my desire for a traditional Christmas. The strain of daily living makes us long for a simpler existence. Examining our holiday customs is a positive first step.
An Old Fashioned Christmas: What Is It?
It’s locating traditional values in a contemporary setting. You want to make a Christmas that touches the hearts of your family and friends, not designer labels and the newest trends.
What is the appearance of an Old Fashioned Christmas?
A traditional Christmas looks like any kind of celebration you choose. It’s all there is for you to see, feel, and experience.
It involves locating vintage Christmas activities that foster family unity, preparing meals using vintage Christmas recipes, discovering beloved vintage Christmas customs, and selecting the ideal presents that speak directly to the recipient’s heart.
Creating a Cozy Life
I assume you are fond of all things warm as you came to our article about vintage Christmas ideas. I started the Creating a Cozy Life Facebook community, which now has over 122,000 like-minded members.
Within this community, we exchange recipes, photos of amazing items, and tips for making your life a little cozier. To participate in the virtual cozy cottage, sign up here.
These are some traditional Christmas ideas.
Traditional Outdoor Christmas Decorating Ideas
1. Window Dressing
Window boxes are the ideal location for holiday decorating. To adorn your windows, start with a background of greenery and add ornaments, mistletoe, sleigh bells, pinecones, Christmas lights, and bows.
2. Welcome Home
A sled or red wagon looks great on the front porch to welcome visitors and remind you of careening down those snowy hills. Hang a small wreath from the sled or put a small tree in the wagon for a festive touch.
3. Mr. Postman
Celebrate being the recipient of your loved ones’ greetings by decorating your mailbox. To make your mailbox festive, add Christmas lights, pinecones, bows, and garland.
4. Line the Path
Make ice lanterns to place along your driveway or walkway. Add some festive holly sprigs.
Inside: Vintage Christmas Decorating Ideas
5. Walk Down Memory Lane
Change out all the family photos you have hanging around the house with ones from past Christmases. It’s a wonderful way to use Christmas décor to fill your house with wonderful memories.
6. Santa’s Visit
Dust the hearth with flour and leave footprints with your boots. A great technique to pretend Santa visited your house is to place some broken ice within the hearth, especially if you get up before the kids do. You have the chance to infuse your days with a little enchantment during the Christmas season.
7. Letters From Home
Have a small Christmas tree set up in your entranceway way and add the Christmas cards you get by punching a hole in the corner and hanging them on the tree with ribbon.
8. Let it Snow
Decorate the entire house with handmade paper snowflakes. Put some snowflakes on the window, add some on the Christmas tree, and tie some together to create a garland. You can use snowflakes as an easy decoration that you can leave up all winter long.
9. Canopy of Joy
Hang white Christmas lights from the ceilings in each of your bedrooms. Sweet dreams will be guaranteed if you remember the white glittering lights as the last thing you see before turning in.
10. Nativity Set
Put the nativity set in a location of pride so that it dominates your living room. Take care not to place the infant Jesus in the manger. Every day in December, place one piece of straw on the cradle. Before the children wake up on Christmas morning, place the baby Jesus in the manger and spend some time commemorating his birth.
11. Chestnuts Roasting
When was the last time you have roasted chestnuts with your family? If you cover them with sugar and butter, they taste amazing. It’s time to resume that custom in your life.
12. Mantle Love
Along the mantel, add foliage and fresh pears and apples that are poking out from between the branches. Using fresh fruit in your décor will give your rooms the nostalgic vibe you’re looking for.
13. Toasty Warm
When lounging on the couch, have a big basket full of cozy blankets that you can reach for. Nothing says “cozy” more than curling up with a blanket and watching Christmas movies during the winter.
14. Festive Words
Spell out “Merry Christmas” with alphabet wood blocks. They still make those blocks today. You can find a set here.
15. My Very Own
Every member of your family has a miniature Christmas tree decorated with ornaments that represent their interests or hobbies in their bedroom. On the tree, you can also hang Christmas crackers.
16. Stocking History
Get a patchwork Christmas stocking fashioned from the ties of a departed loved one. To embellish the trim, you can use cuff links or tie tacks.
17. Bloom Where Planted
Seeing a plant bloom in the dead of winter adds a certain element of magic to the scene. Consider hanging some Christmas cacti in your window. Gorgeous paperwhites can be coerced into blooming at the ideal moment. Holiday flowers give your house a glamorous touch.
18. Artistic Side
Why should all the joy be lost on your windows? Permit your family members to embellish a window. If someone wants to enjoy the season with some painting, tempera paints make it easier to remove the paint.
19. It’s time for dinner.
Put up your Christmas menu on a big chalkboard so that everyone will know ahead of time what enticing meals to expect.
20. A Properly Garbed Chair
To add a festive touch, tie a little green wreath and bow on the backs of all your kitchen chairs.
Mother Nature At every place setting, place a little, live cedar tree.
21. Can I find my seat?
Rather than using signs, how about using pictures of the individual sitting where they were when they were younger to indicate where they were? A duplicate of the picture can be made, placed on cardboard, and then folded into a tent. Another option is to place every picture inside a little frame.
“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others.
”Bob Hope
How to decorate an Old Fashioned Christmas Tree
23. Choo-Choo
Place an electric train beneath the tree for the holidays. Nothing is more enjoyable than seeing a train go around a Christmas tree’s base.
24. Innate Feelings
It never gets old to string popcorn and cranberries for the tree’s garland. Slices of dried orange and apple could also be hung as decorations. Traditional Christmas cookies will add a rustic charm to your tree.
25. Days Passed
Bring your past into the present, why not? Place your kids’ mittens, rattles, and baby spoons on the tree to serve as a constant reminder of this priceless stage of your life. You can also incorporate family heirlooms into your tree, such as your mother’s handkerchief, grandmother’s brooch, or grandfather’s pocket watch.
26. Pickled Christmas Figs
A lesser-known American custom is the Christmas pickle ornament. It is a fallacy that it originated in Germany, as most people believe. The Christmas tree conceals the Christmas pickle. An additional gift to open will be given to the first youngster to find the ornament.
Old Fashioned Christmas Recipes
27. Dreams of Chocolate
Create your own homemade hot chocolate. While you’re at it, how about making some homemade marshmallows? Your kitchen can have a hot chocolate bar added to it.
28. Nourishing with Tradition
Give those scrumptious old recipes a prominent place on your table to bring them back to life.
Adding Kringla cookies to your baked goods would be a wonderful way to honor your Norwegian heritage. A festive and tasty way to honor your Hispanic heritage is to serve tamales for Christmas.
A simple approach to savor the flavors of an old-fashioned Christmas is to use ancestral recipes.
29. Bedtime Breakfast
A few suggestions for the perfect breakfast-in-bed are freshly squeezed orange juice and gingerbread pancakes with maple syrup. Everyone will have a great time celebrating Christmas with us.
Traditional Christmas Gifts
30. Star Magic
On Christmas Eve, mark the one present that each individual can open with a star. One of everyone’s favorite vintage Christmas customs is opening one gift early.
31. Naturally Festive
Adorable little trees make ideal neighbor gifts. Encourage the children to draw drawings of birds, squirrels, acorns, pinecones, and bird nests to make homemade decorations to place on the trees.
32. Perfectly Personalized
Who wouldn’t love monogrammed pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve?
33. Angelic Thoughts
Get an angel to express your gratitude to that special someone who has always been your angel.
34. Gift of Time
It might be difficult to find time to spend one-on-one with your kids. Make vouchers for your children that will allow them to experience those unique moments. The coupons might be for something like taking them somewhere, teaching them something, or giving them an experience as a present.
35. Culinary Magic
As a gift, compile all of your family’s favorite recipes into a book and give it to each and every member of your immediate and extended families.
36. Sweet Thoughts
On the front doors of your neighbors, hang a single mitten loaded with treats like candy canes, hot cider mixes, and truffles. Simple Christmas presents can occasionally make a great impression on friends and neighbors.
37. Jewels for the Tree
Give an ornament representing a year’s worth of achievements to every member of your family and your friends.
38. Four-Legged Friends
Make your own dog cookies for your loved ones who have furry companions.
Old Fashioned Christmas Traditions
39. Holiday Lights
Discover which locations have the best Christmas light displays, and visit the spots with hot apple cider and cocoa available.
As a family, choose which house looked the best, and then thank them for making you enjoy yourself so much with their thoughtful decorating.
40. Bubble Queen
Indulge in a gingerbread sugar scrub and a Christmas-scented candlelit bubble bath for yourself.
41. Wishful Thinking
Write down your hopes for each family member’s future and ask them to summarize their ideas. On Christmas Day, open these unusual gifts in front of a raging fire.
42. Picture Perfect
Take a family Christmas photo each year. Experiment with your imagination by adding a new theme to the family photo each year.
For example, you may snap a photo of the entire family building a gingerbread home one year, a snowman the next, and snow angels the fourth year.
43. Home Not Alone
Every year, watch your family’s favorite Christmas film. Wear Santa hats, eat peppermint bark, and drink hot chocolate to make the evening into a major show.
44. Being Campy
Every year on one night, spend the night beneath the Christmas tree. Set up the sleeping bags and enjoy a night of togetherness under the sparkling lights of your Christmas tree. Describe your most treasured Christmas moments.
45. Fresh Air
Create a tradition of snowshoeing on the morning of Christmas Eve. There is something so serene about being out in nature and taking in all her wonder.
46. Family Memories
Encourage elderly family members to write one special Christmas memory in each year’s Christmas card to their relatives. Documenting your family history and historical rituals through memory sharing is a great approach to preserve your family legacy.
47. Ice Crazy
Make going ice skating as a family a yearly ritual. It is required of everyone to choose an outrageous headgear for this excursion.
48. Vacation Visitors
Use a unique tablecloth meant for a traditional Christmas meal. Make sure every guest signs their name on the tablecloth during the supper. Each signature should be embroidered as a unique memento of previous Christmases.
49. Christmas Tradition of Good Thoughts
Put all of the Christmas cards you got in one basket. Pull out one card each night, and have the family offer up a prayer for the family that sent it.
50. Feast of Seven Fishes
On Christmas Eve, a feast consisting of seven distinct seafood dishes is served according to this Italian-American custom. It represents the watch before Jesus was born.
51. Spread Love
There are a ton of people who struggle throughout the holidays. Make it a family ritual to be kind to one another throughout this wonderful season to lighten the load of others.
A few ideas to improve the world as a family are to shovel an elderly neighbor’s pathways and driveways, offer to do errands for someone who are finding it difficult to leave their house or volunteer at a soup kitchen.
52. Time Capsule
What better year to design your own Christmas Time Capsule than this one?
A written menu of your supper, wish lists, letters to Santa, and a list of everyone’s favorite things they did this year are a few things you could want to add.
53. Child in Need
One method to help your kids learn not to hoard too much stuff is to assign them the task of finding the equivalent number of gently used toys to donate to kids who would otherwise be in need of them after they open all of their presents.
54. 12 Days of Reading
How about counting down the 12 days of Christmas by reading a different Christmas novel every day? You could all curl up in the same bed and read the text aloud as a family.
55. Phone Caroling
Who says singing Christmas carols requires you to knock on doors? Establishing a phone caroling habit will make your family who live out of state smile.
As a family, choose one or two of your favorite Christmas songs to sing, and practice them before the call comes in.
Where to buy old-fashioned Christmas lights?
Because vintage lighting poses a fire risk, you should use something else. Thankfully, Christmas illumination that replicates the lighting of the past is being produced by producers.
Where can I find vintage hard candies for Christmas?
Why not try your hand at making old-fashioned Christmas hard candy yourself? It would be a fun Christmas tradition to add to your schedule.
The good news is if you don’t have the time to make it – there are lots of candy makers that can help you give sweetness during this magical holiday.
FAQ concerning Traditional Christmas Crafts
Which historical ornaments and decorations for Christmas are still in use today?
Handblown ornaments, handmade paper chains, popcorn strings, and candles in clip-on holders were examples of traditional decorations. Additionally, mistletoe, holly, and ivy were utilised as natural decoration accents.
How was the gift-giving custom around Christmas in the past?
Giving gifts used to be a simple process, usually involving homemade goods like toys, baked goods, and knitted objects. Rather than exchanging an abundance of gifts as is the case in modern times, families would typically exchange one or two meaningful gifts.
Which traditional Christmas dishes and recipes are you missing from the past?
Recipes from bygone eras included traditional meals like roast goose, mince pies, figgy pudding and chestnut stuffing. Seasonal ingredients were frequently used in the creation of these homemade recipes.
What were the customary Christmas rituals and celebrations in the past?
Carolling from door to door, hanging stockings by the fireplace to be filled with modest gifts and fruits, and getting together for joyful dinners and stories were all traditional Christmas customs. Additionally, families would frequently attend church services and neighborhood events.
In the past, how were Christmas trees decorated?
Early Christmas tree decorations featured gingerbread biscuits, handcrafted ornaments like paper ornaments, and candles, which were lit for a brief time each holiday season. Before the invention of contemporary metallic tinsel, tinsel composed of actual silver or lead was in use.
