vintage christmas | Crazy4Me - The Modern Bombshell Lifestyle by: Yasmina Greco

Merry Christmas Everyone

December 19, 2021 By: Fan

Yasmina Greco Pretty Retro Christmas Girl Pinup

Christmas time is here and that means a visit to one of our favorite places today, Grandma Buddies Christmas Tree Farm. This Christmas tree farm not only has loads of amazing trees, but they have a magical holiday barn decorated with gingerbread, flocked trees and wreaths, and lots and lots of decorations and special holiday touches. You can sip hot cocoa from their cocoa cart and walk around the farm to pick out your holiday tree.

On our visit today the sun came out for a little bit on this chilly December day, and we made the most of it by not only picking out our tree but also doing one last photo shoot of the year.

The theme for my outfit today was a mix of holiday cheer and half wonderland because my accessories are brooches from the Erstwilder Christmas collection and their brand-new Kitschy Witch collab for the Alice in Wonderland collection. I wore my crimson red holiday top and matched it up with my Alice in Wonderland vintage-inspired Pinup circle skirt and my turquoise blue coat added the much-needed warmth that day.

Christmas Holiday Pinup Retor Girl — Yasmina Greco at Grandma Buddies Christmas Tree Farm

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Thrifting Vintage Christmas Decorations: NOEL Sets from the 1950s-1960s

November 26, 2021 By: Fan

Forget about the new and what everyone else is doing. If you’re a true vintage lover then these old time Christmas decorations are just what you need to create that classic feel in your home this holiday season. Stock up now because most of these items will be gone by the end of November!

Hurry, don’t miss out on all the nostalgia!

Today’s post in our 2021 Vintage Christmas Collecting Series features some of my favorite vintage Noel sets that date to the 1950s-1960s and feature candle holders, bells, and figurines. Some of these sets were featured in last year’s Vintage Christmas Collecting Series of 2020 but have been updated with current pricing and colorways. When it comes to vintage Noel collectibles there are so many varieties and themes from Santa Claus, Elves, Poodles, Snowmen, Angels, Candy Canes, and even Pixies that there really is something for everyone and you can easily have a theme each year for your holiday decorating too!!

Note: Blog post has a lot of photos and pricing source is recent Ebay, Etsy, Worthpoint, and my own personal sales data.

One sure way to any collector’s heart is items that come with their original boxes. For me, the box can also be used as part of your vintage holiday decor as they usually have timeless graphics that add so much charm to your displays. Since these vintage items are usually 70 yrs old, if you do find an original box it will probably have some wear and tear or even water damage from being stored in basements and attics and that is completely okay and in my opinion, adds that much more to the story and history of the item.

Here are some of my very favorite Noel sets from my personal collection and I think they are just dynamite. Each set is so unique and has loads and loads of vintage Christmas charm. I actually have them up year-round in my cabinet and they always make me smile when I stop and admire them.

Stacked Santa’s NOEL Totem Pole Candle Holders

Vintage Christmas NOEL Santa Candleholders Napco Brinns

Near-and-dear to my heart are these vintage Santa Claus stacked NOEL totem pole candle holders. These have such fun, witty, retro charm. Pictured are two matching pair made by Tilso in Japan in the 1950s. The Santa’s have gold little curly-q’s in their beards, have expressive eyes, and each hold a letter to spell NOEL. Tilso sets (sometimes referred to as Brinns) tend to fetch $225-$300 each, having the original box really can impact the price.

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A Vintage Christmas with Sourpuss Clothing to Get You In the Kitchmas Holiday Spirit

November 22, 2021 By: Fan

I’ve never been as excited to share a new brand with you all as I am this moment to introduce you to Sourpuss Clothing. Sourpuss is a brand that has something special for everyone. If you are into Pinup, punk rock, tattoos, kustom culture, monsters, rockabilly, vintage or kitsch, then Sourpuss is going to be your one-stop shop.

Being the kitschy Christmas lover that I am, I was over-the-moon happy when I saw these Sourpuss Deer Me Sweets dresses and I could not wait to try them on and show you just how gorgeous they are. For this blog post I am wearing the Deer Me Sweets dress in Cinnamon and the Deer Me Sweets Dress in Pine.

Yasmina Greco Sourpuss Clothing Deer Me Sweets Dress Cinnamon

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Vintage Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

November 3, 2021 By: Fan

Today’s post is about the most famous reindeer of all – Rudolph. The reindeer with the shiny red nose that leads Santa Claus on his sleigh ride around the world in just one night. Rudolph has been sharing his charm with us all since 1939. It wasn’t too long after, that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer would become a part of Christmas for families all over the world.

Welcome to the 2021 vintage Christmas collecting series. This is our second post in our series for 2021. Our first post is all about Holt Howard Starry Eyed Santa and you can find it here. If you’d like to review our 2020 six-part guide you can find that here and learn about vintage Christmas collectibles from the 1950s-1960s.

Rudolph was created by Robert L. May, who worked as a copywriter for the Montgomery Ward department store chain and published the story in a brochure for promotional purposes in 1939. The store began preparing for Christmas almost one year earlier when they hired May to write a Christmas story that could be purchased by customers.

Christmas giftware, decorations, and ceramics were at their peak of cuteness (my opinion) in the 1950s-1960s. And it was George Zolton Lefton who founded the Lefton China Company in 1939 in Chicago, Illinois and produced many items from dinnerware sets to Christmas decorations and everything in between and, that includes the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer set.

Lefton’s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer set includes:

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer bowl
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer mug
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer salt and pepper shakers
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer planter (Rudolph’s nose lights up)

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Collecting Vintage Christmas Year Round

December 31, 2020 By: Fan

Yasmina Greco Crazy4Me Vintage Christmas

Hello again my friends, I hope you all had a marvelous Christmas and that Santa was good to you all!! As I put the finishing touches on post number six, the final post of our Vintage Christmas Collecting series, it’s New Year’s Eve as I sit at my desk surrounded by my vintage treasures (vintage Santa’s, snowmen, shopper girls, bottle brush trees and my vintage candy cane holders) and want to thank you all for your lovely comments and questions along the way of the collecting series. I have truly enjoyed putting the series together and hope you’ve benefited from some of my tips and enjoyed seeing pictures of my collections. I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that 2021 is good to us all!!

I collect vintage Christmas all year round. As you know from my previous posts, I am obsessed with vintage Christmas items and the hunt is really part of the fun. As our digital worlds keep moving forward, it actually makes searching for vintage Christmas items a little easier and simpler as we have access to wonderful resources that are available 24/7 and 365 days a year and spans the entire globe!!

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Collecting Vintage Christmas Angels

December 17, 2020 By: Fan

Christmas is just one week away!! I don’t know where the month has gone but in one week it will be Christmas. I hope you have been following my Vintage Christmas Collecting Series where I have been sharing my collections and providing tips on collecting vintage Christmas items and I would love to hear from you so please send me an email or reach out to me on social media @crazy4me or @spicyatomicprincess and let me know.

Holt-Howard Ermine Angela Salt and Pepper Shakers — Holt-Howard Ermine Angels Salt and Pepper Shakers

Today’s blog post is for week four in our Vintage Christmas Collecting Series and today it is all about collecting vintage Christmas angels as Christmas and angels really go hand-in-hand. The majority of vintage angels in my collection date to the 1950s and were made in Japan by Napco, Norcrest, Ucago, Holt-Howard and Lefton when mid-century modern and kitsch were all the rage. Some angels have no markings and some are marked Japan or have a paper label that says Japan. Vintage Christmas angels have a lot of the similar spaghetti trim detailing with sponged gold accents like the Christmas decorations made during the era. Some angels are in the form of bells, Noel sets, salt and pepper shakers, and others are figurines. So far, in all my years of collecting, I have only ever come across only a couple of brunette angels and all the others have been blondes so, the brunette haired ones are the rarer ones.

Here is a super darling trio of baby angel boys made by Lefton and they each hold a holiday element like a present, candy cane and stocking and a wreath.

This brunette beauty is made by Napco and she has her eyes lowered, holds a lovely Christmas greetings wreath and presents. This angel is quite fancy with so much spaghetti trim on her robe that has the lovely gold sponged details and her wings are one of the most ornate pair I have seen on an angel as they are highly detailed and so very intricate.

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