For years I've wanted to decorate in all blue and silver for the holidays, but never had the time and money to round up and buy all new things.  This year I was to host dinner for my bothers, sister, and families, so I decided to see how much of the little Victorian I could decorate from what I already had and from thrift store finds.  I was surprised at the amount of blue and silver I already owned, so there was a good base from which I started.

It simply amazes me to see the amount of Christmas stuff in thrift stores.  Back in the 1980s I haunted thrifts in search of vintage Christmas ornaments, and eagerly awaited the small Christmas tables that would be set up after Thanksgiving.  Now cheap Christmas stuff from China is over-running the stores.  It just punctuates how much we have become a throw-away society in just the past 20 years.

So I had no trouble finding enough ornaments to fill my grandmother's glass bowl, and several silver ones to boot.  There were yards of discarded blue ribbon and candles of every sort.  The only thing I had to purchase new was the little silver tree, as I just ran out of time before finding a used one.  The cloth beneath it is a vintage wool scarf, a souvenir of someone's trip to Switzerland.  I found it in an antique store and would have purchased it regardless of the Christmas decor!