Thrifty Acres - vintage Christmas and more

Hello! Was happy earlier in the week when I found a couple of decorative items for the house at a thrift store - but was even happier yesterday when I found some vintage Christmas stuff!

I'll show the decorative items first:

I loved the colors in this sampler, and it was very well-stitched too. The frame isn't anything special, but considering that I paid only $1.00 for this, I'm not complaining. On the back, someone had written "Dec. 1964", so perhaps it was a Christmas present for someone that year. Given that date, the sampler is in very good shape. 

I found this plate at the same thrift store and paid 80 cents for it. I think the thrift store would have charged more if they'd been able to read the faded lettering on the back, which states that this plate was a special item awarded to Avon sales representatives. It was made by Wedgewood and depicts the Bicentennial of Independence Hall. As I spent seven years in the Philadelphia area and thus went on the tour of this historic building several times, I was happy to pick up this collectible. 

Now on to the Christmas goodies! I never tire of finding vintage Christmas items, no matter what time of year it is. Went to an estate sale yesterday, where the first thing I spotted was a large box labeled "Christmas - all for $2.00". That's a price I can handle, so a quick rummage through the contents showed that there were at least a few vintage things in there. 

Most of it wasn't vintage, so once I got home I quickly sorted through the jumble and bagged up a bunch of stuff to take to Goodwill. I did keep a handful of craft supplies, but the main attraction, of course, was these oldies-but-goodies:

Shown are three never-used Walco iron-on felt appliques, a boxful of gift tags, two spools of ribbon, several small honeycomb tissue shapes (these appear to have been made to stick on top of gift packages), three rolls of printed gift tape in metal dispensers, and two packages labeled "Artistic Christmas Trims". None of these items, including the tapes, were ever used; packaging is intact. I'm guessing that they all date from the 1950's or 1960's. Here's a close-up of two of my favorite items from above:

Tape dispenser

Trims, which were made in Japan and originally sold for 10c. They are really charming.

It made my day to find these gems buried in that box of so-so Christmas knick-knacks!