A Very Vintage Christmas

As a child growing up in the 1970’s, I can safely say that holiday decor from that decade lacked a little something. Luckily, at Christmas I was surrounded by Christmas decorations from the 1920s through the 1950s thanks to my parents and grandparents.This book is a celebration of those holidays past, Christmas lights that were big and fat and showy, ornaments that were glass and both beautiful and kitschy. While readers can use this book as a style guide and a resource to find new old things, it’s mostly a beautiful trip down memory lane to a place where the world was safe and everything was good

This profusely illustrated book is the perfect overview to all aspects of Christmas decorating with vintage items. It combines history, information about collectibles, and personal memories into a delightful holiday brew.

While the chapters themselves have plenty of illustrations, most chapters conclude with even more pictures.

Overall the book is fantastic, but I thought the chapter about vintage gifts was a bit out of place Happily, there's plenty of other great chapters, packed with information.

This is a lovely addition to the world of vintage Christmas..

A Very Vintage Christmas: Holiday, Collecting, Decorating and Celebrating by Bob Richter is an excellent springboard for holiday celebration ideas. The author offers numerous ideas on how to celebrate Christmas, and photos of vintage Christmas ornaments and memorabilia might inspire the reader to come up with their own ideas on how to celebrate.

Throughout his book you will see plenty of photos illustrating vintage Christmas items including ornaments, cards and Christmas packages.

You will also find ideas on how to decorate for the holiday season.

The following chapters are listed in his book:

Christmas Decorating History

Finding Vintage Christmas

Ornaments

Lights

Outdoor Decor

Putting It All Together

No Tree? No Problem

Giving a Vintage Gift

Cards, Wrapping, Tags, and Other Ephemera

Entertaining the Vintage Way

Storing and Preserving Your Vintage Holiday Finds

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a free galley from NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rowman & Littlefield for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
___ Filled with charming memories, product history, and a beautifully photographed collection of the authors' own Christmas décor!
As someone that both sells and collects vintage Christmas, I found this book to be very informative and inspiring. The author, Bob Richter, recounts his memories of Christmas and how he started his collection. There are photos throughout, showing individual collectibles and photos of creative displays for your home. Bob also shares the best ways he has found to acquire the pieces in his collection, and includes a detailed contact list in the index.

Highly recommended.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy for free from the publisher in connection with NetGalley in return for my review. Copyright © 2016 Laura Hartman

Bob Richter has always been enchanted with all things Christmas. As a very young boy his father gave him a box of vintage Christmas ornaments with the comment, “It’s time you started collecting something…and I know you like Christmas.” Little did his father know this would be the beginning of a lifelong love and devotion to all things Christmas.

Richter begins with the history of Christmas decorations. From candles to lights was an expensive leap for most Americans. The earliest lights needed their own generator. Only the wealthy could afford them. He includes fun facts like the first year the White House had an electrically lit tree and the cost of the colored lights that the president and his visitors enjoyed.

He continues with decorations both inside and outside of homes. Ornaments, trees and decorating inside and outside the home are highlighted.

Most of the early Christmas ornaments were from Germany until the mid-1920s. Ornaments back then were of two categories; either imported mercury glass ornaments, glittery die cut paper ornaments or homemade. Strings of popcorn and cranberries and hand-cut paper ornaments were popular.

Advertising for Christmas became popular in the early 1930s. Books, movies and magazines were and still are popular ways to celebrate the holiday season. Richter gives many examples, along with delightful pictures that will bring back many happy memories for readers of his book.

Christmas doesn’t have to be expensive, but can be. Richter gives decorating and gift options for all price ranges. He suggests flea markets and even lists the top US Flea Markets for Christmas items. I love the fact that he encourages purchasing vintage gifts for friends and family. If it is the perfect gift for someone, it doesn’t have to cost a lot or be brand new.

Full disclosure, I am and always have been crazy about everything Christmas. I love the lights, the decorations, the shopping (especially finding someone the perfect gift), the food, the fun and the love. This book fed my addiction with luscious photography and words that took me back to my childhood.

Many of the decorations, wrappings and pictures are of items I have in my basement. The storage tips Richter gave will be used this year when we put everything to bed after the holidays. The nostalgia and vintage feel of A Very Vintage Christmas was like a warm Christmas hug the whole time I read it. While I don’t do posh decorations, I do have one tree with only glass ornaments, many of which are my grandmother’s and mother’s. One of the ideas to showcase the ornaments that don’t fit on the tree was to put a few of them under a glass dome. This would solve my worry over a few of the more fragile ornaments I worry about falling off of the tree onto the hardwood floors.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Christmas. It would make a perfect holiday gift and if your copy is left on a side table during holiday gatherings, I am sure your guests would love the pictures and bits of Christmas trivia and traditions that are waiting to be discovered within the pages.

This is a great book to kick off the holiday festivities with. Stories and pictures of vintage ornaments, books and other holiday decorations adorn the pages. The reader will leave with inspiring ideas on how to make their holiday special with collections, decorations and celebrations.

What a fabulous vintage Christmas book. The pictures were fabulous & brought back so many childhood memories.Would highly recommend to anyone who is searching for a vintage touch around Christmas.

A very vintage Christmas review.

4 out of 5 stars.

I would like to thank Rowman & Littlefield for providing me with a free ARC of this book, via Netgalley, in exchange for an open and honest review.

Okay, I will admit here and now I am going to be biased about this book as I LOVE vintage Christmas decorations! Much, much harder to get here in Australia – and they look so out of place in the height of summer – and so knew I was going to absolutely love this book! From the history of the pieces, where to look for them to buy, how to display them, how to restore – if needed – and how to store in the off season… it had it all. Love, love, LOVED this book.

I also found the array of simply gorgeous pictures throughout, along with notes of specific items – perfect. Sets you up into the right frame of mind to really get into the Christmas spirit of bygone years.

Being half German myself I have very fond memories of the Christmas ornaments that made it over to Australia from there and are still somewhere amongst my family. They are from around the 1920’s/ 1930’s glass baubles and figurines and so seeing very similar images within the book brought back a lot of fond childhood memories. I mean, we used to decorate my Opa’s Christmas tree with tarnished silver streamers that were actually ‘chaff’ dropped by planes during air raids in World War 2 to scramble RADAR. A girl in Australia, during summer, decorating an ancient synthetic tree with very old glass baubles and air raid chaff in the 1990’s… seriously, how could you get a better Christmas memory? ;-)

So, yes, you could honestly say I was indeed the right target audience for this book and loved reading it from “cover to cover” electronically.

Would I recommend this book to others?

Yes I would. Anyone curious about the history of commercial Christmas ornaments – within the United States – or who is addicted to making their house look simply amazing by filling each room with vintage Christmas ornaments and decorations – this book is for you.

Would I buy this book for myself?

It's already on my wish list! I would indeed own it. My house is never going to look that amazing. I am never going to amass that amount of decent, gorgeous Christmas ornaments… but a girl can dream and this book will help me do just that.

In summary: If you are a lover of bygone Christmas memories shared through decorations and ornaments. This book is or you. Loved it, loved the memories it brought back, wish I could make my house look that fabulous at Christmas time!

I do love the whole Christmas period so when I saw that this book was available I jumped at the chance of getting my hands on a copy. Its a lovely book to read and has given me some excellent ideas as well as an opportunity to look back on traditions of the past. The images are sharp and clear and the layout is great - highly recommended.

4 Stars - I recommend this book if you are a sucker for vintage, a lover of Christmas, or interested in the history of Christmas and it's commercialization. This book is both beautiful and a treasure trove of information.

This is a lovely book filled with gorgeous photos of vintage holiday ornaments, details, as well as vintage advertisements, etc. but it is also jam packed with very detailed histories of how people decorated for the holidays and celebrated in the past. I was amazed by how much detail this book went into from the 1660's to the present. It was so interesting to learn how the social and economical issues and changes in the US influenced how Christmas was celebrated and decorated for. For example, during war times many families went without a traditional Christmas tree and celebrated more modest holidays, but after the WWII holiday commercialism was at it's finest. From bubble lights to space age decor, there was a big boom in holiday decorations in post war America. This book really covers every topic related to holiday decor, a historical topic I never would have thought to research. I also appreciate that the author adds in sections on vintage reproductions, finding vintage decor, and words of caution on using it. My favorite section was the one on ideas for giving vintage gifts. I love the practical advice of how to find vintage items, and personalize them! Also the section on vintage holiday vinyl - one of my favorite things to thrift for!