Author Archives: Jennifer

Decorating for Christmas in the New Retro Style

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The new retro style is an updated version of the traditional retro styles from the fifties through the seventies only the result is less corny and kitschy. AS a color scheme for linens, wreathes and glass globes for your tree you should use colors such as bright pink, china blue, chartreuse, cream and gold with glitter. Style wise you should thing of using simple Scandinavian designs. Decorate your tree with animal cookies and garlands made of cranberries and popcorn.

Instead of a nativity scene, holiday village scenes should also be a part of your decor. Instead of heavy Christmas cakes Christmas puddings are the way to go. Dried blueberries and cherries, gingerbread cookies and homemade cranberry chutney are also contemporary but have a vintage style feel.

Christmas trees are not artificial any more. I try to get a real spruce or balsam that looks a bit like a bottle brush tree and then decorate it with clumps of think silver mirrored tinsels. Vintage glass ornament and tiny clear white lights that do not blink are also part of this new retro look. White wooden Christmas decoration and white porcelain decorations also add a unique touch to both the tree and mantelpiece. Any type of stylized white porcelain Christmas tree piece is considered to be very hip for Christmas 2011.

Instead of eggnog contemporary retro enthusiasts are serving Gingertinis and Crantinis at their Christmas cocktail parties. Flower centerpieces are created from Rannunculus and berries rather than poinsettias. White fake apples look nice on a tree or as a centerpiece. Hang large gold acorns and gold deer antlers on the mantelpiece or near your front door.

Presents are wrapped in recycled wrapping papers and card tags are made from recycled cards. Pom poms and shiny trims and ribbons look eco-savvy under the trees. Eco bags are also the latest trend when it comes to packaging Christmas gifts as is wrapping gifts in bows made from strands of cheap fake pearls. You can also dress up your gifts with white and gold ornaments. Some vintage loving hosts go as far to decorate their serving plates and cocktail glasses with small white Christmas decorations.

Another retro fad is for Kleenex boxes with vintage reindeer or snowman patterns on them. It is also nice to make bouquets of white roses and pine cones and set them around the room. These are not only pleasing décor accents they are nice too look at.

How to Decorate for the Holidays in an Original Retro Style

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When decorating for the holidays in an original retro style you need to first think about what colors are going to give you that feel as if your living room is from the forties, fifties or sixties. Stick to a palette of bright red, sky blue, avocado, muted gold and mocha. If you choose Christmas balls in these colors you have won half the battle in making your tree look authentic.

Traditional Christmas décor was also known for it’s themes. A Hawaiian or Tropical theme complete with shell garlands and hanging star fish was a big design hit in the seventies. In the fifties and sixties it was not uncommon to see cute elves decorating the tree, stockings and Christmas cards.

Plastic wreathes are very retro and if you hang one above your mantel you are immediately telling visitors that you are into the vintage Christmas look. Another lovely retro motif are nativity scenes made completely out of plastic or train sets running around the base of the tree made out of plastic as well.

The artificial bottlebrush tree is also very much from the sixties and seventies. These were metal spikes with evenly spaced arms with spines on them. The entire point of them is to not look too natural. The trendiest original retro colors are artificial white or pink. To decorate them drape them in thick hanks of metallic gold tinsel and opaque multicolor lights. It is also very sixties and seventies to have an angel at the top of your tree.

Gifts are wrapped in polka-dot and atomic pattern papers and plaid ribbons and bows. Tissue paper wrapped gifts with pink or powder blue ribbons that have been hand “curled” with scissors are also very sixties. Placing gifts in a basket with no wrapping and just a ribbon s also a very seventies thing to do.

When it comes to food the classic things to have on hand are canned cranberry jelly, a rock hard Christmas cake that reeks of booze, ham with pineapple slices and gingerbread cookies. Be sure to also have a bowl of walnuts and an old fashioned Nutcracker that looks like a soldier from the Nutcracker Suite on hand. It is also classic to serve eggnog and have a centerpiece made of poinsettia and holly in the center of your Christmas table.