Our Spode Christmas Tradition

There are just over two weeks until Christmas, so today I am sharing one of our Christmas traditions with you for Tabletop Tuesday. One of our Christmas traditions is that every Christmas I give our daughter, Samantha, a Spode Christmas ornament and a Spode Christmas plate. I try to make the ornament relevant to something we did that year together or something big that happened to her. For example, one year our family went to the Atlanta Ballet’s The Nutcracker, so the Spode ornament I gave her was their nutcracker one. Another year Samantha and I did a tea advent calendar together. Each day we sampled a new kind of tea. So the ornament I gave her that year was the Spode teacup ornament. This year’s ornament is just perfect. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for her, so I’ll come back later to edit what it is. (Edit: the Spode ornament I gave Samantha for 2020 is the car ornament. She got her drivers license this year, so this ornament seemed perfect!)

As I said, I also give her a Spode Christmas Tree plate. By the time she gets married she’ll have a set of Christmas plates to use and a set of heirloom ornaments for her very own tree. I went with the Spode Christmas Tree pattern because it has consistently been in production for quite some time. When I started I felt that I would still be able to buy her pieces years from now without worrying that they would stop making it.

Each year I write a little message on the ornament box with Sharpie. Just something like, “2015, the year we went to the Nutcracker. Love, Mom.” Just a little note so she knows why I picked that ornament.

I have my own set of Spode Christmas tree plates that are vintage and made in England. I like to mix and match them at Christmastime with Blue Willow and also with either Johnson Brothers “Old Britain Castles” or Johnson Brothers “T’was the Night.”

Click the photo above to find these exact pieces.

I’ve linked everything pictured here in my LIKEtoKNOW.it. Click HERE to find these everything you need to recreate this look.

Click the photo above to find these exact pieces.

I’m always interested in other people’s traditions. Feel free to share yours with me in the comments below.

Merry Christmas,

Abby

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Santa Mug and Jadeite Love

Every year at Christmastime I love displaying my Santa mug collection with my jadeite collection. And I get very, very excited talking about my jadeite Santa cookie jar. The first one I ever bought was in 2013. I sold that Santa cookie jar and went on to sell SIXTEEN more of them in my Etsy shop when I had it. (Plus a handful more that I sold to family members and in my antique booth.)

The very first one I found! Excuse the poor photo quality this was on a 2013 cell phone. 🙂

And don’t ya know, Santa cookie jar has a brother. Also Santa, and he’s a cookie plate. HA! And I sold 12 of them in my shop.

Want to know more about them? They are technically vintage, but they aren’t super old. They were made to replica a 1970s blow mold cookie jar. These jadeite Santas were sold by Cracker Barrel, from what I can tell in the late 90s/2000.

I paid $10 for that very first Santa cookie jar I bought, and today they sell upwards of $350 on eBay. (I asked $120 for the cookie jar and $80 for the plate when I sold them on Etsy.)

Current going prices, as of December 2020.

But the moral of the story is that jadeite and vintage Santa mugs are a match made in HEAVEN. My collection is mostly of old, vintage ones. But I am not opposed to adding new ones. I have new mugs from Pottery Barn and Hobby Lobby mixed in. If it’s your collection…do what you want, right?!

I don’t know how many Santa mugs is too many. I just know that I don’t have too many yet.

Merry Christmas! Enjoy more of my old photos below. (Excuse the photo quality, because they date back over a decade. Phone pictures quality has improved a lot over the years!)

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Thrifty Thursday Christmas

It’s Thrifty Thursday! Ken and I went thrift shopping earlier this week. On one hand, I was thrilled to be thrift shopping with my OG picking partner. But on the other hand, we found absolutely nothing good to show you. So today, instead of showing you what I found this week, I am showing how I used something I found last week. The reality of thrift shopping is that you can’t always find good, quality junk. Haha! I do want to say that we dropped off a load to be donated. I always purge items from our house whenever I bring stuff in.

So are you ready to see how I am using something from a previous thrifting adventure? Remember these vintage Holly ornaments that I found for $2.02? I also showed you on my Instagram stories how they currently go for $30-$40 on Etsy.

Well, they are the perfect addition to our bedroom Christmas tree! I posted about our bedroom decorated for a Christmas just a few days ago HERE. This tree is super affordable, like less than $80. Ken even says that he likes it better than our “big” tree downstairs that cost several hundred dollars. I decorated it with some Martha Stewart premade ribbons for a tree topper and some snippets of other types of plaid ribbon. The other ornaments are new, including the Shiny Brites. They are reproduction ornaments. You can find the ornaments and tree on my LIKEtoKNOW.it.

This is the first time we’ve had a tree in our master bedroom, and I am LOVING it. We have a 16′ x 23′ room, and the tree makes it just feel so cozy. I wish I had put one in there sooner.

Don’t you love the little Santa face? He is one of my Shiny Brite reproduction ornaments.

When Ken and I went thrifting we also went on a little “day date” to our favorite locally owned cafe. It was so cold and windy that day, but the Christmas decorations around town were beautiful!

Screenshot this picture and shop my outfit using the LIKEtoKNOW.it app. Or you can follow this link.

I think this just goes to show that you can create a beautiful tree using thrift stores ornaments and a very inexpensive artificial tree. Don’t feel like you have to spend a lot in order for your decor to be beautiful!

You can shop our bedding and Christmas decor HERE.

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Papier Mache Vintage Christmas Angels

Good morning, friends! Today I want to share with you my vintage papier mache Christmas angel collection. I shared this type of angel years and years ago on my blog, but my collection has grown a little bit, so I’m sharing it again.

I’ve never seen or heard of anyone else who collects these. They are, of course, made of papier mache. Mine are all either marked “Made in Japan” or “Made in Korea”. (Many types of collectable Christmas decorations came from this area of the world.)

I own angels in gold dresses and some in ivory colored dresses. However, these come in many colors. I just happen to like the gold and ivory.

These aren’t particularly valuable. I think you can find a set of three for around $30-$40. But they have a great sentimental value to me. Growing up my mother had a set of 3 that were always set atop our family piano at Christmas time. Over the years all but one broke. None of the ones in my collection are from my mother’s set…they are all ones that I found on my own.

These are displayed in our foyer. They were kept up higher when our kids were small, but now that everyone is grown they are set on a table for all to see and enjoy. I hope your Christmas season is off to a wonderful start. You don’t need any vintage or fancy decorations to make it special – paper chains and coffee filter snowflakes will do just fine!

Love, Abby

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Plaid Christmas, I gave you my heart

I am excited to share my first Christmas 2020 post with you today! For the first time, this year I decorated our master bedroom for Christmas. I have pulled back on Christmas decorating for the past few years, and normally I save Christmas decorating until the day after Thanksgiving. However, 2020 really felt like it could use a little MORE Christmas.

You can shop for many of the items in our bedroom by using the affiliate links by going to my Liketoknow.It page. (BelleAntiquarian) or clicking HERE.

I switched out a pillow on our bed for a down-filled, red plaid one. Other new additions to the bed are the red crabapple garland and some green velvet bows.

Above each nightstand I added the sweetest little wreaths. On the nightstand shelves I folded up some of the many plaid, wool blankets that I’ve been collecting over the years.

My favorite addition to our bedroom for Christmas is the flocked Christmas tree. I’ve never had a flocked tree, and I’ve never had a tree in our bedroom. This one was fairly inexpensive as far as artificial trees go, but I am very impressed with the quality of the branches. I added two types of plaid ribbon to the tree. The bows at the top and the plaid tree skirt were both items that I picked up on Christmas clearance last year.

The ornaments on the tree are a mixture of new, already owned, and vintage. If you follow me on Instagram, you have seen these vintage Holly brand ornaments that I picked up on one of my recent Thrifty Thursday stories. (We really have a lot of fun on Thrifty Thursdays. If you haven’t found me on Instagram, please join in the fun. I’m @ BelleAntiquarian.) I wanted to continue the red of the berry garland and plaid bed pillow over onto the tree, so you’ll notice the red ornament theme carries that over.

Below are a few more pictures of our bedroom decorated for Christmas. Have you had a Christmas tree in your bedroom? It’s quite magical and makes watching Hallmark Christmas movies even more fun. I’ve linked many of the items here on my Liketoknow.It account. Our bedding, pillows, and many of the Christmas decor items can be found there if you want to recreate this look.

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Celebrate Epiphany

We all sang The Twelve Days of Christmas carol as children, but many people don’t know that the 12 days of Christmas mark the time beginning on Christmas Day and ending on January 6th, Epiphany. I want to share with you how our family celebrates Epiphany and why.

Epiphany is the day to celebrate the wise men arriving to visit Jesus. It is celebrated by Christians all around the world. Epiphany is sometimes called Twelfth Night or Three Kings Day. In Louisiana it marks the beginning of Carnival season.

Why does our family celebrate Epiphany?

I’ve noticed that people are decorating for Christmas earlier and earlier. It seems like most of my friends decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving this year, some of them as early as the day after Halloween. By the time Christmas Day rolls around their trees and wreaths are brittle, and they’re tired of all of the Christmas decor. One of my friends posted that she was taking all of her decorations down Christmas night! I always wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put my Christmas decor up because I know we’ll be leaving a lot of our decor up until Epiphany. But why?

One reason to celebrate Epiphany is that you’ll notice how you are able slow down and actually enjoy Christmas as a season, and not just one day. All of the shopping, baking, parties, and wrapping leads up to one climactic morning on Christmas. What a downer when December 26th comes around! If you continue to celebrate during the 12 days after Christmas you’ll notice that it is no longer about the presents, but more about presence. The time spent together as a family or with friends during these 12 days is the true spirit of Christmas.

Another reason to celebrate Epiphany is to keep Christ the focus of your holiday season. It’s another opportunity to read a scripture lesson and to celebrate finding a Savior, not receiving items from a Christmas list.

I also love participating in traditions. Traditions bring people together. They give us something to look forward to and memories to look back upon. Traditions connect generations and give us something in common.

How does our family celebrate Epiphany?

We celebrate Epiphany very, very simply at our house. First, we share a King Cake. We buy our King Cake from Publix, but it would be a snap to make one. A King Cake is used all around the world. Inside the King Cake a tiny baby figurine (the baby Jesus) is hidden. In some countries whoever finds the baby Jesus in the cake hosts the party the next year. In the U.S. tradition says you will be the person to bring the King Cake the next year.

We also celebrate Epiphany with Christmas crackers. (Since Epiphany is technically after Christmas, you can usually find them on clearance.) Most Christmas crackers have a crown inside them to symbolize a king or wise man. They usually have jokes inside them, too. Christmas crackers are just something fun to sit around the dinner table and do together.

Lastly we read the passage from the Bible that tells the story of the wise men finding Jesus. You can find this in Matthew 2:1-12.

I hope this post will inspire you to celebrate Epiphany with your friends and family! Let me know in the comments below if you have special Epiphany traditions. I’d love to hear them!

Abby Smolarsky2 Comments

Christmas Place Setting and Christmas Fun!

I really can’t believe we’re about a week away from the last Christmas of the decade! I’m thankful to be done with work for the year, although I am especially thankful for the work days, too. I set our Christmas table several weeks ago, but haven’t had a chance to blog pictures of it yet, so here are a few:

Click the photo above to find everything you need to recreate this look.

This year I have once again used a mixture of Blue Willow and Spode Christmas tree. If you follow me on Instagram, you may remember that last year I used these same two patterns, but in reverse. I’ll post a picture below to remind you. I am a lover (hoarder?) of all things Blue Willow, so inevitably it shows up in my holiday decor.

Click the photo above to find everything you need to recreate this look.

This year I have come up with some fun things to do with our kids now that they’re older. We obviously aren’t doing things like visiting Santa or writing him letters. But teens can be especially reluctant to spend quality time together, which we joking call, “Forced Family Fun.”

Click the photo above to find everything you need to recreate this look.

I don’t want our holiday time to actually feel forced, though. I want them to be excited. They have worked really hard this semester in school (one in their first official year of college, and one in their first year of high school), so I want them to blow off some steam and enjoy their break. I’m also cognizant of keeping up with Christmas fun for our younger teen who is still living at home. She deserves the same years and experiences as her older brother. I don’t want things to just “drop off” because our family dynamic has changed.

Click the photo above to find everything you need to recreate this look.

Here are a few things we’ve got planned for the coming week:

  • Gingerbread House Contest (with prizes! i.e. motivation to participate and have fun!)
  • Cookie Baking
  • Outdoor Fire-pit Time
  • Shopping and Wrapping Presents for each other
  • Christmas Lights displays
  • A Christmas Puzzle (We do one each year, and this year I found the cutest one. Follow me on Instagram to see it.)
  • Christmas Eve church service, followed by late night Waffle House
  • Christmas Movie time together with snacks.

I’d love to hear how you make the season fun with teens and young adults! Please feel free to share in the comments below. Goodness, I can use all the help in that department that I can get!

Merry, merry Christmastime to you and yours!

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Costco Wreath Hack

Last year I posted a picture of how I took my Costco wreath and fancied it up a bit. I did the same thing this year, and a friend suggested that I share my idea with you.

The wreath I made last year!

First of all, let me preface this by saying that Costco wreaths are ahhh.maayy.zing! The greenery is fresh and beautiful. They’ve gone up a few dollars since I started buying them years ago, but I think this year it was still only around $17/wreath. Y’all. There is NO WAY you could make this beautiful wreath yourself for only $17. Let Costco do it for you! There are other companies out there making wreaths that charge triple that amount.

“Before” Here is the Costco wreath before I added anything to it.

One day recently I went to Costco to buy a wreath, and they hadn’t started selling them yet. The next day I saw someone post on Instagram that they were in, so I zoomed on up there. (They sell out fairly quickly at my Costco.) Funny enough, I ran into a group of ladies I know also buying their Costco wreaths, which leads me to my whole point of this post…

Be original and make it your own!

You can find all of the Pumpkin Spice Latte girls with the same. exact. wreath on their door! I want to show you how I make my Costco wreath “my own”, but this is just what I do with mine. Find a way to make yours YOUR own.

I am decorating my wreath the same way I did last year. First of all, I LOVED it, so why change it? Second of all, it was free. I snipped several small branches of magnolia leaves from a nearby tree. And last year I went online and purchased a bag of pheasant feathers. The feathers were not free last year, but before I threw my wreath away I took all of the feathers back off and saved them.

So for this project I used: one Costco wreath, 4-5 snippings of small clusters of magnolia leaves, pheasant feathers, floral wire, and some hot glue. Total cost this year is $17, the cost of the Costco wreath. But last year I bought the feathers, so it was more.

Add the branches and feathers using the floral wire. I used hot glue to make clusters of feathers before adding them to the wreath. Make sure you glue them near the ends/tips and NOT on the feather portion. The hot glue goes right through and will burn. This year I didn’t need to glue them since they were already glued. When you are adding your items, make sure everything keeps going in the same direction. For example, the feathers need to keep pointing in the same direction around the circle. Otherwise it won’t look right.

So now it’s YOUR turn!! Think of what you can add to your Costco wreath to make it even better than it already is! You can use floral wire to add ornaments, bows, faux berries or woodland creatures. You could spray some pinecones with glitter and add more pinecones. You could even add some essential oil drops so that there’s a wonderful scent on the way inside.

Like I mentioned, since my wreath is covered and doesn’t get wet outdoors I am able to easily snip the floral wire with scissors and save the feathers for another use.

I would love for you to leave me a comment to let me know if this helped you or how you decorated your own Costco wreath!

And “after”! with magnolia leaves and pheasant feathers added.

Abby Smolarsky2 Comments

Advent Wreath and Devotional

I am excited to share a few of our family Christmas traditions with you over the next few weeks. Growing up I had never heard of an Advent wreath. However, when my children were very small I took them to a free workshop our church was having where we could make an advent wreath for our family and learn more about it. Fast forward, and the wreath we made long ago with faux greenery, Styrofoam, and wired ribbon is gone. But we still use the worksheet we were given with the suggested prayers and Bible readings. I’d like to share with you the Advent wreath we now use. And I’d like to give you a printable version of something you can use as a family each week as you light each Advent candle. Just a note that the type on the Advent devotional is small because I felt it was important to fit it on one page. It makes it easier for you to copy and share with friends and to keep track of over the years.

Right after Christmas of 2017 our old Advent wreath fell apart. It was about 10 years old and the Styrofoam couldn’t hold up any more. I made up my mind that by the time Advent came around in 2018 I wanted to find something affordable but of heirloom quality. I searched Etsy and Amazon and many other stores for months but couldn’t find anything I liked. Two days before Advent began in 2018 I stumbled across a candle holder at Target that was perfect. It wasn’t labeled “Advent Wreath”, but that’s what it is. It’s heavy and solid, and it’s something that I hope to use with my grandchildren one day. This (2019) is our second year using it, and I thought I would share it with you.

Advent wreaths are made of a wreath of evergreen branches. In this case I am using Magnolia clippings. If you aren’t familiar with Magnolia trees, they are evergreen trees abundant in the South. Whether growing or cut, the topsides of the leaves are green, and the undersides are a velvety brown.

Also in an Advent wreath you will need 3 purple (sometimes blue is used), 1 pink, and 1 white candle. Each week of Advent, which begins 4 Sundays before Christmas, an additional candle is lit. Finally, on Christmas, the white Christ candle is lit. I go into detail which candle to light and the meanings on the weekly devotional that I will provide below.

I want to pause and say something loudly and with love: The wreath? Just a symbol. The candles? Symbols, too. In the end, when you are worshiping with your family, the quality doesn’t matter. Goodness, you could be using paper candles that a child colors a flame on each week. What matters is the worship, the gratitude, the acknowledgement of the Son, the acceptance of love and peace.

Here’s another thing: sometimes we Mamas forget things. If Sunday goes by and it’s Monday, and you suddenly realize you forgot to light the candle the day before…show yourself some Grace, and just do it Monday. Your kids aren’t going to remember if you did it on a Monday or Tuesday. They’ll remember the words spoken and the candle’s glow.

Here is a printable version of the devotional we use each week during Advent. I have added some additional details such as candle color and an introduction at the top. But for the most part this writing originally came from “An Advent Service for the Home” by Pat Floyd.

Advent Weekly Devotional christmas-advent-devotional-and-instructions-1Download

I hope you have been inspired to celebrate the Advent season with your family and friends. Let me know how you find ways to celebrate our Savior throughout Christmastime.

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A Modern Christmas Playlist

Do you feel like you’ve heard every Christmas song there ever was? I love classic Christmas songs. In fact, I enjoy finding Christmas vinyl records to play. But I have found that sometimes I get tired of hearing the same old Christmas songs. I’ve put together a Christmas playlist with some fresh voices singing familiar tunes.

Confession: I started working on this playlist over the summer, and I MAY have been listening to it ever since then. As I’ve mentioned on my other playlist posts, I like to add songs as I discover them, so this playlist could change. But for now, here is what’s playing on it:

  • Merry Christmas Darling, Christina Perri
  • Carole of the Bells, Tyrone Wells
  • God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Allie Moss
  • The Christmas Song, “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” (Feat. Acacia), David Ian
  • Angels We Have Heard on High, Jillian Edwards
  • Christmas Time Is Here, Daniella Andrade
  • O Come All Ye Faithful, Tyrone Wells
  • Auld Lang Syne, Allie Moss
  • Winter Wonderland, Everly
  • Christmas Time with You (feat. Acacia and Andre Miguel Mayo), David Ian
  • Sleigh Ride, Everly
  • Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Jason Manns
  • Silent Night, Katie Herzig
  • White Christmas (feat. Jared Padalecki), Jason Manns
  • Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, She & Him
  • O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Matthew Perryman Jones
  • Have Yourself a Merry Light Christmas, Ingrid Michaelson
  • O Holy Night, Cary Brothers

You can add this playlist to your library either on Spotify or Apple Music. Just a note that 2 of the songs on my original Apple Music playlist are not available on Spotify, so they are slightly different.

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