vintage ornaments
Christmas Collecting

Collecting: Vintage Holiday Ornaments

From family heirlooms to tag sale finds, decorating your tree can be special when you use a collection of vintage holiday ornaments.


As long as I can remember my family had collections of vintage glass ornaments. I would say it goes back to my great aunt Margaret who famously had boxes and boxes of vintage holiday ornaments in various colors in her apt unopened when she died in the 80’s. When my mother brought the boxes back to our house and opened them up for our Christmas tree, my eyes lit up.

There were lots of beautiful ornaments that looked like santas, vegetables, stars, pinecones and delicate birds that clipped on the branches. Of course many of these broke along the way. It was during that time I started looking at holiday shops, tag sales and flea markets for the items that broke or we missing but also to build my own collection.

Today, I could easily do 2-3 trees throughout my home. However, I live in a Brooklyn apartment so that’s not really feasible. So instead, I try to do color themes. Last year was the first year that I started this idea and I loved it. My 2019 tree was focused on light & dark pink balls, Tiffany blue balls and matching glass garlands. All of these came from my great aunt Margaret. I also added some new Christopher Radko ornaments I found online that were new but were exactly the same colors

Christmas 2019

What to look for when building a collection of vintage holiday ornaments

  • Boxed sets of colored balls from Shiny Brite or other similar manufacturers. Etsy is a great resource.
  • Vintage glass garland in assorted colors and thicknesses from ebay
  • Christopher Radko ornaments from the 1980’s and later. They are oversized and take your tree up a notch.
  • Old school, bubble lights, and multi-colored bulb lights (note these are sometimes a fire hazard so buyer beware)

Another holiday collecting idea although not vintage inspired, is an ornament from every place, country, state you have vacationed or stayed. My parents always did this and I do it now too. I have them from nearly every vacation or trip since I started traveling on my own. My Christmas tree from 2018 shows what that looks like when it comes together.

Christmas 2018

Lastly, you will notice this tree has white lights. I prefer white but growing up my mother very often had colored lights. My latest preference is for the fairy lights because they are delicate and do not get tangled the same way the old school strands do. You can find them at Pottery Barn and Amazon.com among others.