Hello! I have a small collection of Nativity sets, all of which were much-appreciated gifts.
Here is an overview of my collection:
And here is a close-up of my largest Nativity:
This set is from the Fontanini company of Italy, and was given to my husband and I years ago. It came with the Holy Family and a few other figures, but there were dozens more that could purchased. I set out to do just that, adding a few new pieces to my Nativity set each year. Unfortunately, a few years later the company discontinued this particular scale (4 1/2").
Fortunately, I had purchased enough figures by then so that I can put one out every day of December up through the 24th. I always add baby Jesus on Christmas Day and then the three Wise Men come after, on Epiphany.
I got the idea of putting one figure out every day of December leading up to Christmas Day from a church in my hometown. I would pass this church every day on my way to school and so in December it was fun to watch a new Nativity figure being put outside one at a time (I don't think they had enough to put a new one out every day though).
Some years ago the Nativity scene was no longer outside and I missed seeing when I went to visit my folks for Christmas. I was sorry and wondered if the church still had it.
Well, I was just in my hometown for a short visit and decided to stop in at the church to ask about the Nativity set. For one thing, I wanted to see if my memory was correct!
It was - the woman said the Nativity set is now placed inside near the church altar. I was glad to hear that it's still being used (and that my memory hadn't failed me!)
Here's a close-up of the Nativity sets gathered on either side of the Fontanini set. These smaller sets were all given to me by my husband from fair trade sources.
On the right side:
The largest Nativity is from Kenya. I don't recall where the two on either side of it are from, but the brightly-colored one is likely South American.
On the left side:
The largest Nativity is from the West Bank and the small one in front with earthen tones is from Peru.
As I said, it's a small collection but one that I gladly display every December!
Hello! Today I want to show off another favorite decorative Christmas touch today, and of course everything was purchased at either a thrift store or garage sale.
A small window between our kitchen and powder room is home to this scene every Christmas:
Almost everything seen above is vintage, but of course none of it was expensive to buy!
Now I'll give you some close-ups:
The small bottle-brush trees aren't vintage, but fit the scale of my scene.
As you know from a recent post, I love Santas and so I couldn't pass this little guy up, especially since he was only 50c at a thrift store. What I didn't realize until a few weeks ago is that he was originally part of a place card set - there's a slot on his back for a place card. (I learned of his "heritage" upon reading the listing of an identical item on eBay).
A small tinsel tree marked "Japan" on the bottom and with spun-head figures as ornaments. Paid 50c for it at our church's thrift store when we lived out east in the 1990's. It's seen better days but I still got a kick out of finding it!
Angel spun-head ornament. I added the tiny reindeer because he didn't want to stand up on his own.
Santa, elf and snowman on the tree. The tree itself is about 7 1/2" high but the Santa with his pointy hat adds another 2" to the height.
On one side of the tinsel tree is a Made-in-Japan Santa holding court over some reindeer and some trees.
And on the other side of the tinsel tree is the mate of the other white reindeer, along with some tiny reindeer and the little Santa place card holder. I got the small plastic Christmas tree for a quarter last year at a thrift store.
And that's my windowsill scene - small in scale and in price, but I think it's big on charm! Hope you agree.
Hello! It's become common to see German-style stollen sold in grocery stores and in gourmet food catalogs this time of year. Quite frankly, the ones in grocery stores look dry and boring to me, and as much as I love the famed Zingerman's of Ann Arbor, MI, I would never want to pay the $40.00 they charge for their stollen in their holiday catalog.
Fortunately there is an alternative - my bread machine. I probably never would have thought to make stollen in it, but then several years ago I received Rustic European Breads From Your Bread Machine as a gift. Not only was there a stollen recipe in it, but there was also a suggested substitution of dried fruits for the traditional candied fruits. That sounded good to me, as I don't care for candied fruits.
The recipe turned out fine, but then I happened to sample the aforementioned Zingerman's stollen while visiting their store one December. I realized that their stollen had much more fruit in it than mine did, so the next year I doubled the amount of dried fruit.
This made for a very good stollen, but I still thought that overall the bread seemed a little dry. So after buying The All-New Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook at a thrift store a couple of years ago, I was intrigued by the author's recipe of stollen using a brioche base (brioche is another recipe I've fiddled with over the years). This recipe makes a richer bread than the first stollen recipe, so I decided to try it. It turned out very well!
Ever since I began making stollen, I always make one loaf for my dad - the rest either stays with me or is given away to someone else. I made this year's stollen this morning (after the required overnight chilling of the dough) and here's how it turned out:
Above, you see a slice from my loaf -after all, I had to taste-test it to make sure it turned out okay! The loaf that'll go to my dad is behind it. This bread is great toasted and spread with a little butter - and also makes wonderful French toast!
I have a little thriftiness shown here with the plates and table linens. The plate that my stollen slice sits on is part of a set of Christmas tableware that I got half-off at a secondhand store after Christmas (the holly leaf design isn't visible); I paid $10.00 for a complete set of dishes for eight, which included two sizes of drinking glasses. The plate that the loaf rests on was 80c at a thrift store. I paid 25c last year for the napkin - it's labeled Kolf and comes from Austria. Cute folk art design. The table runner underneath isn't vintage but looks it - it was a gift from a friend 12 years ago.
Even the bread machine was a thrift store find. The model is the Breadman Ultimate and I got it last year at the Salvation Army for $13.00. It looked like it had never been used and came with an equally-pristine bread machine cookbook that would have cost $8.95 on its own. I already had a similar model that had begun to act up, so when that machine finally died, I had my thrift store machine waiting to take its place.
Happy baking to anyone out there who's gearing up their ovens for the holiday season!
Hello! I'm going to be showing off some of my favorites today, so several photos will follow. I'll start off with an overview of my Santa tree:
I think I need a bigger artificial tree, as I couldn't put everything on it.
This is one of my favorite Santa ornaments:
I just love this little guy and his hand-crocheted Santa suit! Purchased for 50c at a garage sale in Stevens Point, WI.
I've made some of the ornaments:
A Santa head residing in a vintage Solo coffee cup holder and decked out with a combination of new and vintage trims.
In a more Victorian vein, I also crafted the following:
And behind him to the left you can see one of the many Santa ornaments my husband has given me over the years.
Some of my Santas have been made by talented friends:
While other handmade ornaments have been purchased at thrift stores:
I liked the cheerful print of this homey Santa. On either side of him are other thrift store ornaments that are on the slightly-vintage side.
This small Santa bell had been my mother-in-law's and it's possible it had belonged to her mother:
Moving on, here's the base of the Santa tree and there's a story behind the Christmas tree holder:
The holder looks like a large wooden dollhouse but has an opening on top for a tree (a rather skinny trunk though). My husband's Auntie Mary told me that the "house" dates from the 1930's; a neighbor had made it. It needs some minor repair but does its intended job okay. I'd made the Santas on either side of the so-ugly-it's-funny Made in Japan figure in the middle.
New to me last year were the following:
Purchased both in thrift stores for a dollar or less. I don't know how old these are - from the 50's or 60's, I suppose. The hanging Santa with the bells says Made in Korea on the back but I couldn't find any country of origin on the reindeer-riding Santa. Love them both!
I don't have a lot of bigger Santas to show off, as I don't have the room for them in our current house. When we moved here we ended up with a house less than half the size of our previous residence. As a result, a lot of stuff had to go, but the following two Santas made the cut:
The Santa on the left with the rather dirty beard (not sure how to clean it) came from a drugstore that was closing in Stevens Point, WI. I think I paid ten dollars for him, which seemed like a lot in 1988, but his value has probably gone up some since then. The other Santa was a gift from my husband from a craft show in Wausau, WI. He saw me admiring it at the show but I was too cheap to buy it for myself, so he bought it for me as a Christmas gift. I love the use of vintage ornaments on this Santa.
From another going-out-of-business sale, I got this nine years ago:
I saw the sale sign at an antiques store near Saugatuck, MI so of course I stopped to check it out. The genial owner told me he was selling off his antiques because he was moving to Florida. I spotted this rather plump, 2' tall Santa and as he was priced at $20.00, I snapped him up. The owner said he'd originally marked that Santa at $150.00, and when it didn't sell he kept marking it down. "But I wasn't worried - I knew he'd find a good home eventually," he added. And that someone was me! I smile every time I unpack this Santa for the holiday, remembering that very nice antiques store man.
Last but not least I'll leave you with two more Santas that make me smile when I see them:
Not only do I like their faces, but I also like the fact that both were thrift store purchases - 50c for the mug and $1.00 for the pitcher. Both are in fine shape and it was hard to believe that no one in the store at the same time as me hadn't already snatched them up!
Hope you liked seeing my Santas as much as I enjoyed showing them off!
Hello! Earlier this week the cashier at Meijer rang up four boxes of candy canes as part of my grocery order. "Going to hang them up on your Christmas tree?" she cheerily asked. Well, actually, no - I told her they were going to be used in this RECIPE. Where's the fun of using things in the usual way? :)
This is what the syrup looks like:
As you can see, it's a festive dark pink color. My husband loves putting it in his coffee, and as he drinks a lot of that beverage this time of year, I've already made two batches of the stuff. I haven't tried it in anything else, but imagine it'd be nice on chocolate or vanilla ice creams, shakes made with those ice creams, maybe mixed in a frosting for chocolate brownies, in hot chocolate,etc.
I should add that I thought the peppermint flavor didn't seem strong enough when the recipe was made as written - perhaps the taste of coffee made the flavor more muted. So to increase the pepperminty-ness (probably not really a word, but so what), I added an additional candy cane - and a couple of drops of the peppermint oil (not extract) that I already had on hand from a candymaking project. Now we're talking peppermint flavor!
Anyway, it's easy to make and makes a nice gift this time of year, I think. If you like peppermint, I think you'll like this recipe.
PS after Christmas was over and the candy canes were gone, I tried making the recipe with a similar amount of those red-and-white mint candies - I think they're called "starlight mints"? But my husband said it wasn't the same so I never repeated it. Guess I'll just have to stock up on candy canes to last us at leas a little while into winter!
Hello! Like many others, I collect those kneeling/sitting Made-in-Japan elves. My reason for collecting them is sentimental: my mom had a few that she put out every Christmas. When I was a kid I thought they looked just like Snap, Crackle and Pop, the elfin mascots in the Rice Krispies ads.
Thus, when I got my own home I began to buy these elves at garage sales and now at thrift stores as well. I've never paid more than 99c for one. Some are hung on the Christmas tree or on the kitschy wreath seen HERE, but most of them have their own display spot - placed on window ledges just as my mom had done with hers.
Window one:
And window two:
These elves seem to come in a variety of sizes and clothing.
As for the "bit more" I offer up another popular small collectible:
My most recently-purchased elf, which has a rattle inside, is sitting in a bottle brush tree "forest". I don't know how old these trees are, but suspect that most of them, if not all, are vintage. I paid 50c for the whole forest of eight at a recent church rummage sale - a bargain for sure!
And now for a different kind of elf:
I got these more for fun than for any sense of vintage interest. I don't know if they were some sort of Family Fun magazine craft or what, but the combination of felt, pipe cleaners, yarn and wooden bead heads is cute! The set cost 75c at a thrift store.
Here's a close-up of some of the elves:
The matching boy/girl pair were made a little differently, with yarn-wrapped bodies.
All my elves (and those bottle brush trees) make me smile, especially since I got them so inexpensively.
Hello! The calendar says December 1st today, so it was time to bring out a different calendar:
I made this above for my daughter 13 years ago; the project was in a woman's magazine. It was easy to make, although a bit time-consuming with the cutting-out of all those numbers (a stencil was used to make them) and then fusing them with Wonder-Under onto the felt base. Still, once completed it's held up pretty well.
Each pocket on the calendar is about 3" x 3 1/2", just right for holding something small like today's offering of a bit of candy. I used to put small toys in some of the pockets, but of course that wouldn't go over too well now with my teen daughter!
