1950's Christmas

In our family it's dangerous to joke about suggestions for possible holiday/party themes. Someone jokes we should do a goose for the next Christmas, we end up doing a Victorian/Dickensian themed Christmas. During said Christmas last year, my dad jokes we should do a 1950's theme the next year... and here we are. This Christmas I tried to get more photos, although I still missed a lot. But I think that's a good sign that I really enjoyed myself and was too busy to think about photos! So I'll share what I do have:

For our table I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out some 1950's shapes from cardstock. I referred to them as "large confetti." What a quick and easy way to give a table a little color. For the center of the table we decorated a little 2 ft. white tree from Hobby Lobby with real vintage mini glass ornaments we had in my parents' basement that were given to us by our neighbor years and years ago. They were apparently down there waiting for just this occasion. It was a painstaking process stringing them onto thread to put on the tree, but so worth it! (And isn't that vintage-looking deer beside the tree just adorable!)

We also put some bottle brush trees down the center of the table. My original plan was to bleach them and dye them so there were varying colors of light green, red and pink, but time was an issue. I think it worked out just fine leaving them, as they better matched the Christmas ornaments my sister and I made to hold the place cards onto the napkins.

We took clothespins, painted one side of them white, glued on some clear glitter to look like snow, and then hot glued on some mini plastic deer and mini bottle brush trees. I think they turned out so cute! I hoped they had the vintage feel we were going for! I was inspired to make them after seeing THIS pin on Pinterest.

My sister and I were very strict when it came to decorating our parents' tree. We used only vintage and vintage replica ornaments. It was the first curated tree we've done, and it was fun! We even used some gold garlands and a little tinsel. I'm not sure I'd do tinsel ever again, but it did look pretty!

Perhaps my favorite thing we did for our 50's Christmas was our bar cart!! I got a little obsessed hunting for the perfect vintage glasses for it, but soon realized that I couldn't afford what I really wanted. So, we bought some pretty cheap glasses at Walmart, and then I cut out some starburst shapes with removable vinyl (with my Silhouette of course), and stuck them on the glasses like stickers. It was an unbelievably quick and easy transformation. For the next party we could always stick on a different design!

Here's what the bar cart looked like before. My sister and I picked it up at a thrift store for $40 - much cheaper than the other bar carts we had been lusting over online that averaged around $200! With our dad's help, we sanded it down, straightened the wheels back up, and spray painted it.

I LOVE how it turned out! We used a gold metallic spray paint for the handles, and a satin white spray paint for the shelves. Turned out like brand new, or at least I think so! And it was perfect for housing our cocktail supplies. (We did Old Fashioned's and Gin Rickey's of course!)

Isn't this cake just awesome? My sister and mom did this using a vintage recipe. Another family member made an incredible Crown Jewel cake, but unfortunately I don't have a photo. But it looked beautiful! And I'm not sure if I should mention our "weenie tree" fail... Let's say it didn't quite look like this... it looked more like a "weenie cactus." Haha! We also made a "Hospitality Tea Punch" from a vintage recipe, and put it into a vintage punch bowl that I got my sister for Christmas. It was pretty tasty!

1950's clothes were also encouraged. My sister made her husband and our dad some bow ties, and we wore petticoats underneath our dress and skirts! Pretty fun! I think everyone had a good time!

The only question is, what are we going to do for next year?!