Cozy flannel plaid ribbon, traditional pearl beaded garland and loads of beautiful mercury glass and mixed metal ornaments come together to create a vintage inspired Christmas tree with a cozy + nostalgic feel for the holidays.
It’s officially the most wonderful time of the year my friends! Okay, truth be told, we’ve been in full on holiday mode for a couple of weeks now around the Mercer house (you might have noticed a few festive photos on Instagram already), but I suppose it’s time to make it blog official…
I couldn’t be more excited to officially kick off the holiday season today with this year’s cozy + nostalgic Christmas tree!
Inspired by some cozy plaid flannel ribbon (similar), and a pretty little pearl bead garland, I found myself looking to create a more cozy + nostalgic feel with our tree this year.
Over the last few years, we’ve built up a lovely collection of mercury glass and mixed metal ornaments that I seem to fall more in love with each year when I pull them out! They have that vintage look I love and always bring the perfect amount of sparkle to our tree. In keeping with that nostalgic, vintage feel, I picked up this gorgeous jewelled snowflake tree topper and some matching snowflake ornaments to add to our collection this year too.
We also purchased a new tree this year and I am so, so thrilled with how beautiful it looks and how easy it was to set up! It was a lucky find at Costco and I seriously can’t recommend it enough! Our poor old tree was twelve years old and showed every bit of its age, . Though the old tree is definitely looking a bit tired, Carson is very excited to have a second tree to decorate with all of his most special ornaments in our back family room (which has also worked out well for Mom who’s perfectionist tendencies sometimes got in the way of that family tradition).
And so, armed with a beautiful tree, my collection of mercury glass ornaments and a few new cozy touches, here’s how I put together this year’s cozy + nostalgic Christmas tree.
How to decorate a christmas tree
1. start with the topper and skirt
Because it’s so much easier to reach over and under BEFORE the tree is filled with ribbons and garlands, not to mention all those fragile ornaments, the tree topper and skirt are always the first place I start. Getting the tree topper to stand tall and sit straight can be a bit of a struggle, but a bit of ribbon always seems to do the trick and keep everything secure.
2. wrap the tree in ribbon & garland
I know most people tend to use a wired ribbon on their tree, but I always like the more relaxed and organic look of a less structured ribbon on our tree. I just think it looks a little less rigid and in turn, a little more cozy. There’s really no secret to how I wrap the ribbon around the tree – I love to just let it rest where it wants to, winding and looping haphazardly around the branches. I was a little more specific with where I hung the beaded garland however, making sure to place it on branches that stuck out a little further so that it would have more room to drape.
3. add a little fullness
I always tuck a few extra branches of greenery deep into our tree to add a bit more fullness and texture.
4. hang the ornaments
I always start with the largest ornaments first, using them to fill in any sparse spots and then work my way down in size from there. I try to spread my ornament types out, hanging ornaments from the same collection at opposite sides of my tree.
Taking a step back every once in a while to take in the tree as a whole helps to make sure things are spread out evenly and helps you catch any sparse spots that might need to be filled.
I think the real secret to a beautiful tree is varying the depth that the ornaments are hung. Tucking some deep into the tree while hanging others on the outer tips of the branches gives the lights on the tree more to bounce off of, which helps to add even more interest & dimension.
And that’s it friends! I really think the vintage inspired ornaments pair so beautifully with that lovely beaded garland and that traditional plaid ribbon. It all comes together to create such a cozy + nostalgic feeling tree!
And as you can see, I’ve carried that cozy, nostalgic feel through the rest of our home this holiday season. Hoping to share the full tour soon too!
See how I created this cozy and nostalgic look, from start to finish in the video below:
Wishing you the most lovely day my friends!
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Kristi, your tree is so beautiful — as is your home! I love a vintage inspired tree, too, and have a lot of “old” ornaments passed down from Great Grandma in England, my precious Grannie and my Mom & Dad! Glad that Carson has a tree to decorate. It will be fun for him! Have a great week.
Thanks so much Mary-Ann! How amazing that you’ve got that collection of old ornaments! I’m sure they’re just beautiful and even better, I bet they’re filled with so many wonderful memories! Wishing you a great week as well my friend!
I love your tree but would really like to know where you got your tree skirt? It looks like it is chenille and I love chenille bedspreads. Thanks for sharing your tips
Thanks so much Karen! The tree skirt is actually a knit one and I just love how cozy it looks under a twinkling tree! Here’s a link for you: https://rstyle.me/+TByUyraJqix0EZhXhGpLGQ.
Looks beautiful Kristi! I too love soft neutral colors and tones for our home. My husband on the other hand likes more color so this years tree was done up in the reds, greens, blues and white….next year I can go back to my gold and white that I prefer. I do have to say our large round colorful lights do make the tree stand out. I have those gold Christmas tree ornaments..love the antique warm vibe they add. Your home is lovely.
Thank you so much Lori! I know just what you mean – my husband and kiddo prefer all that colour too. There is something quite cozy about those more traditional Christmas colours too and the colourful lights always make me feel nostalgic as that’s what we always had growing up. We did set up a more nostalgic feeling family tree in the back family room that I’m hoping to share next week, filled with all the more traditional red and green ornaments as well as the homemade ones we’ve collected over the years too. Thanks again Lori, happy holidays!!!