In this day and age, it feels like the focus

In this day and age, it feels like the focus is on making everything bigger and brighter. This is never more apparent than around the Christmas season. Walking around the neighborhood, I can already see all of the different lights going up in front of all of the different houses. Although the designs change from house to house, it is obvious that everyone wants to be as impressive as possible. Animated Christmas lights, life-sized Santa Claus figures, snowmen that wave at passers by, and elaborate designs of outdoor Christmas lighting are some of the many things you can see around my neighborhood.

I don't mind these Christmas decorations, but it is not really my style. I'm definitely a big fan of vintage Christmas decoration. I love the classicism of old designs, and my home is a testament to this fact. I have iron forged chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, hand blown glass vases, and mission style furniture in all of my rooms. I believe that good design is timeless and should not change with fashion. That is why I am such a huge collector of vintage Christmas decoration.

My vintage Christmas ornaments are the pride of my collection. Some of them date back to before my own childhood. My grandmother is very fond of me, and is always giving me vintage Christmas decorations from her own collection. Almost every year I get a new one. Sometimes it is a bauble, other times a Christmas candle holder or old style lighted Christmas decoration. As you can imagine, over the years I have accumulated quite a number of them.

My very favorite ones, however, are the ones that I owned as a kid. I have a little tin toy train that I used to always love to put up on the tree. I also have a small nutcracker, and a little globe filled with water and a fairy castle. It is enough to make me nostalgic just thinking about it.

I don't simply wait for my grandmother to send me more vintage Christmas decoration ornaments. Sometimes, I like to go out and expand my collection. There are quite a few ways to do that. You can buy vintage Christmas ornaments at antique stores, of course, but sometimes you can find the same ornaments for far cheaper at thrift stores. There are also commercial outlets that sell some quite convincing facsimiles, if you value the look of a vintage Christmas decoration more than the collectibility. To me it doesn't matter, just so long as it has that old time look that I have come to know and love.