Christmas tree

It's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Albers' house. We had our first snow fall ( of no accumulation predicted) of about 3 inches over the weekend, so I figured that would get Jim into mode....it did. (by the by for those of you who aren't familiar with Cincinnati weather. It was in the 20's- teens over the weekend, by tomorrow it's back up to the 50's) We store our tree, lights still on, upstairs so all he has to do is come down and place in the front room. Realllly keeps the light issues at a minimum if ya know what I mean. He then brings up all the ornament boxes from the basement. I love opening them up...it's like opening a time capsule.
My fav collectible is aluminum. (This is a subject for a future post) These aluminum reflectors were inherited from my grandma. They are placed over the light bulbs and the colors are so vibrant from the plastic centers. Especially on her aluminum tree! You can place the reflectors over the matching primary color light bulb of the plastic or place on a different color to create new colors..i.e., blue over red bulb =purple, red over yellow bulb=orange..you get the idea. I also use some larger ones and to put those on my window candles.

These are a few of the vintage ornaments I place on my tree. In the 60's when I was little these types of ornaments were always on our Christmas tree mixed with the newer ones of course. The plastic yellow one has an aluminum whirligig inside. When placed near a light bulb the whirligig spins from the heat generated. They work on the same principle as those German candle carousels you see..for the life of me I can't think of what they're called, If you can please tell me. The little bell is colored glass with mica flecks for snow on the top and bottom edge.

This last picture is a plastic ornament with plastic flowers inside. These too were on my Mom and Dad's tree at home, but as I said she still uses them.I was sooooo happy to find 6 of these at the Burlington Antique Flea Market in Kentucky last year in a box of ruined ornament. (they thought the openings were supposed to be filled with a colored film...children). I have many other vintage glass balls. Some with glittered landscapes scenes others with stenciled holiday icons, and still others with birds and fauna. I mix them with new solid colored glass balls to fill out the tree. When I purchase a 'new' vintage ball it replaces the solid one.This This is the picture of the completed tree. Jim still has to put the village and train under it though. (Pic to follow). Let me know what your fav vintage ornament is or share pics of your vintagey tree.

Oops! Here are a few more Ornaments I forgot to place. The hand-blown glass and celluloid is a German creation and very old. The other two are 1940's-50's glass balls