What should I use to make old time Christmas?

Tinsel, lace, angels and blue and plenty of love and joy!

Everything should be homemade: wreath to ornaments; wrapping paper to gifts. Simple and meaningful. Candle light, nature indoors (pinecones, boughs of evergreens or holly), the smell of cinnamon and cloves, strings of popcorn and cranberries outside for the birds.

More information please. Old day can mean a lot of things. Are you thinking old as in Renaissance? Early rustic Americana? The age of tinsel?

Use traditional red and green colors in your decorations.

That's the way I decorate - old time christmas. That means using traditional colors not, as an example, silver and blue trees. A mix of balls and ornaments with multi colored lights. Santa Claus, elves and of course, the angel on the treetop. You can add threaded popcorn and cranberry strings too. I may even get out my ancient train set and run it around the tree this year.

popcorn and cranberries

The large colored lights on the tree not the white mini lights and ice cicles.

Not to be a Donald Downer nor am I looking for sympathy but a lot of people my age (Old Geezer) who's family has past on or has moved to far away places wishes that we could travel back in time to that memory of that best Thanksgiving ever as a young boy of whatever age complete with the family political arguments and the great food of yesteryear. For all of you folks who have all these things cherish the memories you make today. Life passes us by all too quickly. Happy Thanksgiving!

NO TELEVISION!!!!!!! Start there! Games! Decorate from the ceiling down! Let the kids decorate the tree and DON’T interfere! SMALL sock at the end of their beds WHATEVER their age! A tangerine and a sugar mouse at the bottom. Pass the parcel wearing oven gloves. Oh the fun you’ll have. I’ve just described our Christmas Day in the UK and now we go to our children’s for the day and they follow exactly what we did! It’s exhausting! Can get stressful! definitely loving! REST on Boxing Day. ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!! x

I used small lace doilies I bought from the dollar tree.

Put a basket by the door for cell phones!

cookie sheet-place diff. size cans on it-place diff. size candles in them .--then a couple of hand cole slaw cutters (hand shredders) place over small candles- throw in some greenery and red berries and "IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS"

Old time Christmas to me means the older songs - Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, anything prior to 1975 (or whatever your grandparents/parents would have heard on the radio). Use decorations that have been handed down through the family. Elf on a shelf. The scent of baking. Maybe you could host a decorating/ baking party. Build a snowman. And definitely NO cell phones! 🎄

Google Victorian Xmas ornaments.

Buy some lace fabric (not ribbon) and cut squares. Fill each square with potpourri (cinnamon/dried orange, etc) tie with string or thin ribbon and hang from tree. Smell wonderful.

Make paper mache ornaments with the family, paint & glitter them.

Don't think they had lights in the trees during old time Christmas (they used candles - dangerous). So no lights in trees, just lots of ornaments and sparkle.

For sure string popcorn and cranberries. Also, those old style garlands made with strips of paper glued into a long chain. And decorate mantle and/or stair railing with real boughs of pine or cedar, red bows, candles, oranges with cloves stuck in them. Decorate cut out sugar cookies. Sing carols.

will many things sound so wonderful at my house we all decorate on the tree we have up dated some things but try to make it look old time with white light roses pinecones old ornimates alot of them the kids made thoughtout the years insted of real candles we use bubble lights the men and children make cookies and have hot chocolate and apple cider we used to go caroling now we do it at home enjoy all the time we have together

If you have a nativity to set up use some straw, small pine cones and some twigs. I have some mini bales I use with mine too.

the picture you posted is giving me goose bumps.. the lady on the far rt with the blue hair... looks like she'd fit right in with the eisermann clan. my aunt Nancy the younger, is a ringer for her. ( i have 2 aunts named Nancy)

You can also make garland out of red, white and green construction paper. Just cut into 1/2” or so by 3” or so and glue together and make a chain. My kids made these years ago, they look old fashioned and festive on the tree.

Thank you all so much for the inspiration. We will be doing a lot of them.

congrats to your daughter for making it to the half way stage! I can’t tell you how many aquatinences/ friends dropped out in the first 2 yrs.

as well you should be...I can count about 20 dorm mates that never made it to even the half way point.

Fun! Get some red & white check cotton, the small check. Give it a tea bath so it has that rustic warn look then tear into strips. Use those strips to wind around inexpensive glass bulbs. Use more strips to make small bows to add to other ornaments. Even tie a longer strip around the top of a pinecone with a bow at the top and hang that. A must have for any rustic tree is long strands of popcorn & cranberries. The addition of dried slices of apple and oranges is beautiful. You can hang that outside after Christmas for the birds! Burlap will have a big place in your these. Cut out stars, hearts and stockings from this crafters must have fabric. Pad using cotton balls & hand sew the edges closed using baker's twine or embroidery thread using any of the cute running style stitches. Remember, you can hang slices of dried apple & orange individually also.

Gingerbread men made from slat dough spiced with cinnamon will find it's home on your tree also. Decorate using puffy paint. This is your time to use up your stash of brown paper grocery bags to make any of dozens of ornaments. It's even fun to make stuffed gingerbread men! Add shiny red balls to your tree, lots of bright lights. A few years ago I made poinsettias using red & green stiff burlap. Just follow the instructions & petal cutting patterns for the paper style. It's easy to get to much brown going when you're crafting a rustic tree like this so remember to add in reds, greens, golds and even blues to keep your tree from becoming to dark. Felt & homestyle fabrics are a great way to lighten any tree. Angels made from cornhusks work well for this! Twigs with short strips of brightly colored green fabric prints tied and trimmed into lengths to make a small Xmas tree ornament will feel right at home on your rustic tree as will stars made from typing short lengths of twigs together. Lay twigs out on your table criss crossing twigs until you have your desired shape and wrap-tie where the twigs meet using twine.

Here's a link that should give you lots more ideas. Also, check out Pinterest for more!

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1MKDC_enUS771US771&tbm=isch&q=rustic+christmas+tree+ornaments&chips=q:rustic+christmas+tree+ornaments,g_4:homemade,g_8:rustic+handmade&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI8rWx99bXAhUh34MKHf7HAaEQ4lYIOSgA&biw=1680&bih=919&dpr=1

Last year my grandkids (ages 19, 16 and 21) came over several times and we made ornaments. Used dried orange slices with cinnamon sticks threaded together with a bow on top. Cut book pages into star shapes, stuffed them with cotton balls and glued together so they were puffy...added some glitter for sparkle. Made tree and star shapes out of twigs. Did wood burning on tree limb slices. Tied ribbons onto big craft bells. Did embroidery on felt shapes (we're Swedish heritage, so googled ideas for traditional Swedish ornament shapes). Got the whole family together to decorate the tree and served hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. Pretty tree and wonderful memories.

Hang stockings that don’t match. If you don’t have a mantle, hang them with thumbtacks on either side of a doorway. Keep a pan of instant cider mix or actual cider ingredients simmering on the stove—or burn a candle that smells like vanilla cake. Hand a strand of cord across a wall to fold Christmas cards over. The cards can be from this year, from previous years or written by your guests after they come into your home. Hang candy canes on your Christmas tree. Have a battery operated or electric candle in each front window. And have Christmas carols playing gently in the background. May I be the first—

Merry Christmas!

Use a little red 🚒 engine for theme ? So many fire engine decorations.

Congrats on your son! Mine is a volunteer fire fighter, too, so I know how proud you are! For MY old fashioned Christmas, I start the season by watching the original (Black & White) movie "Miracle on 34th St." while putting up the Christmas tree. Then I sit every night in front of the tree and listen to music while reading Christmas magazines. Making gifts and food from scratch also brings back many Christmas memories for me!

Mood music in the background, good munchies like homemade Chex Mix or flavored popcorn to snack on, good food, a variety of beverages, keep it a non-smoking house so everyone is comfortable, do not allow fighting that can ruin a get together. Just make it as comfy as possible.

Here in the UK we can buy them. Basically theyre hard PINK sugar icing poured into a mouse mould, before it sets you stick a little string tail in the appropriate place. Just imagine how the sweetest sweet can make your teeth go on edge and that’ll be a sugar mouse. That’s why we only give the kids ONE and only on Christmas Day! Hope that’s clear. Pretty sure you could buy them on Amazon!

Use a real tree and multi colored lights...the big bulbs if you have them. Add peppermint sticks and make some colored paper chains. Fill in with some small red bows (you can buy these by the dozen at the dollar store) and some silk poinsettia. Add a nice tree skirt...you can probably get one at the dollar store!

At the shop the girls decorated the christmas tree with vintage cooking utensils hung with checkered ribbon and hemp

My grandparents had 13 children(2died in infancy) but 11 lived, married and all had children, and grandchildren, etc.. Needless to say, that was a very large family at Christmas time. My grandparents were very old before their time due to the life they experienced. They were not without but had little. My sweet grandmother would buy hankerchiefs throughout the year with what money she could save. Men’s, women’s and children hankerchiefs. During the holiday their tree had very few decorations on it but Christmas morning at grandmother’s house was so much fun. We would walk into a very small house to see the Christmas tree covered in hankerchiefs. We all had a turn to pick the one we wanted. The kids loved to compare theirs.❤️😊

What wonderful memories and excitement over something so small but we knew was given with so much love!

Gingerbread men/house, fruit cake, a puzzle left out on a side table for anyone to sit and talk, sheet music used for any decor.

watch "It's a wonderful life" or "little women" to see old fashioned trees. Don't know just what country or time period you mean by old time but I am pretty old and when I was a child trees were not grown and shaped while growing, they were just like a tree would be in the woods. In my family, anyway, there were not too many presents per child, and they were wrapped more simply. Tree light bulbs were big. Ornaments were simple. I guess it not only depends on time and place but economics of Christmas family.

I just came back to say something else I had forgotten. I have a set of diaries that belonged to a woman who died at the beginning of WW2. She had her Christmas lists in them, they were simple gifts, like handkerchiefs and maybe a box of bath soap etc.

The sad thing is it can’t be captured again. Life is so fast paced. So many divorces so children are scattered and shared for a few hours here and there. You hardl have a eventful day long of visiting, games and laughs. It’s cut short for so many of the wrong reasons.. 😢😢😢

bubble lights!

In addition to color, textures, aromas, and foods from yesteryear, have a lot of "rules" that will become traditions. In our family only one present can be opened on Christmas Eve, children aren't allowed to see the tree in the morning until everyone troops in, everyone stands in line according to size on Christmas morning, go to a Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning church service, have a puzzle always going, invite a lot of people to come and stay as long as possible, have a stocking for EVERYONE, have advent calendars for children, etc. It's important to ban the mind-numbing and distracting electronics that destroy conversation. Old-fashioned is really about making memories.

Try finding an old rusty sled and decorate that put it on the wall or leaning up against the wall close to the Christmas tree find old tracks firefighter trucks anything like that to sit around and make it look very old and rustic you can use a lot of pinecones such as hang them in your tree string popcorn that would be really awesome and the old-fashioned paper rings would really look good like the children used to make it at school and they were small have a wonderful Christmas

I like to decorate with old sleds, old skis and classic ornaments. I made macaroni angels, they are so nostalgic. https://www.exquisitelyunremarkable.com/2017/12/old-fashioned-macaroni-angel-ornaments.html

Take your crockpot and put it on low, heat warm spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg near the door that is most often used. Or you could heat some mulled spice wine in the crockpot-to do that add water to the pot and put in a bottle of mulled spice wine, opened in the water. This will heat the wine without diluting it. Serve it to people as they enter.