A Very Raggy Christmas & Spread The Kindness Link Up On the Edge #784

I hope all of my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving filled with delicious food, wonderful company, and joyful blessings. But now that it is over, we are immediately in the Christmas season. I have been working on my holiday mantle displays for a few weeks with a focus on upcycling, thrifting, and using things I already had on hand.

First I replaced the scarf valances with red plaid blanket scarves for a cozy festive feel. I have a tremendous amount of scarves of all sorts, styles, shapes, lengths, and fabrics. There are so many that I can’t possibly wear them all but they are too pretty for me to discard. So I have started making an effort to incorporate them into my home decor. Not only are scarves unique substitutes for window treatments, they also make wonderful runners for dresser tops, fireplaces, vanities, or tables.

Can you spot my vintage ceramic Raggedy Andy? My mother made him for me about 45 years ago. She also made Raggedy Ann but she broke a few years back when the shelf she was on collapsed. I was very sad. Poor widowed Raggedy Andy seemed like the perfect addition to my raggedy Christmas decor.

You can see one of the pumpkins on my porch through the window. While I have been getting the inside of the house Christmas ready, I have left the outside in Thanksgiving mode with some pumpkins on top of our wood racks, orange twinkle lights, and a “turkey feather” shaggy raggy garland on the front door.

Since my scarf valances are all different, I decided to create two unique mantle displays on each side. On one side, I displayed a bunch of holiday stuffies that my mother-in-law passed down to us. For the centerpiece, I filled a red bundt pan with pinecones and a crocheted pickle which I will hide at some point and whoever finds it will win a prize. I do have a glass pickle ornament as well but we are not putting a tree in the house this year. These adorable new kittens of ours are rambunctious and get into everything. So we are getting a live tree this weekend and placing it on the front porch right outside the window so we can see it from inside but the kittens can’t get to it.

Ralph was a bit upset that we weren’t having a tree inside so we compromised by getting him a small tree for his bedroom. He loves sleeping by the peaceful lights of his own personal Christmas tree. I also wrapped Patchwork Shelbee in rainbow Christmas lights as a substitute tree.

For the other side of the mantle, I gathered up all of the green and red glass vases and bottles that I had in the house and then I went thrifting to find more. For just a few dollars, I curated a very festive collection of green, red, and gold glass containers. Then I found the mother load of artificial flowers, all with tags still on, for a tiny fraction of the price that you pay for artificial flowers at retail on sale. I bought them all and I put them all to good use.

The large floor vases/urns were both thrift store finds as well. I had purchased some of the artificial flowers including the green velvet poinsettia at retail (on sale) with the intention of changing these floral arrangements for the seasons. I ended up never changing them because the price of artificial flowers is so outrageous. Instead, anytime I receive fresh flowers, I dry them and decorate my home with dried bouquets instead of fake ones. I think dried bouquets are prettier and much more meaningful anyway. But if I find the artificial ones at the thrift store, I scoop them all up! Since most of the artificial ones I scored on this thrifting adventure were holiday themed, I was able to plump up my large “sister vases” after completing the arrangements on the mantle.

I kept the center part of the mantle fairly simple with a gold tinsel reindeer that I have had for years and a newly thrifted gold Christmas tree display. The tree was $1.50 and had a few ornaments on it. I found a pack of small ornaments for $2.99 so I bought those to fill in the rest of the tree. The stools that elevate both decorations were flea market finds and the doilies were passed on to me from a friend.

Once I had the fireplace all decorated, I got inspired to replace the rainbow shaggy raggy garland over the doorway with Christmas shaggy raggy garland. I strung some vintage inspired ornaments along the top to add to the holiday energy.

Upon completing the three sets of Christmas shaggy raggy garland, I ran out of green scraps but still had some left in the red, white, and tan colors. So I used the remaining pieces to create a short shaggy raggy garland for my dining room.

The next holiday craft I embarked on was a raggy tree. This was a really fun project and I definitely want to make some more. I cut up old unwanted clothing in green, black, and white colors to use for my tree. Then I used an old plastic deli container as my tree base. I attached together two empty aluminum foil rolls, they are much sturdier than empty paper towel rolls. Next I cut a hole in the plastic container lid the size of the cardboard tube. I ended up having to stuff a bunch of fabric scraps into the container to hold the tube steady. You could use styrofoam or sand for same purpose. Before I started tying on the fabric strips, I spray painted the entire base brown. In the end, I realized that was a completely unnecessary step.

Once the paint dried, I started tying fabric scraps around the tube, using longer pieces at the bottom and shorter ones as I worked way to the top. Once all the scraps were tied around the cardboard tube, I just needed a tree topper. On my recent thrifting adventure, I found a gigantic bag filled with a large variety of ribbon for just a few dollars. I really can’t resist thrift store crafting items and they always come in handy at some point. If you are a crafter, you know how expensive crafting items can be. You can find lots and lots of crafting items in thrift stores for really cheap. There was a roll of wide red ribbon in the bag that I turned into a giant bow to top my raggy tree. I really don’t know how to make a proper ribbon bow so I totally winged it but it worked. I think it is the cutest little raggy Christmas decoration ever!

After completing my raggy tree, I still had large amount of the green, black, and white scraps so I decided to make a holiday garland to replace the Raggedy Anne shaggy raggy garland over the dining room doorway. I added some woodland inspired Christmas ornaments to this garland for a more festive look.

Edit: I just purchased new knit stockings for the family. We have needed a Christmas stocking update for quite a while now. I am going to personalize them but I haven’t quite figured how I want to personalize them.

I am really happy with my holiday home decor. It is thrifty, creative, unique, and totally me!

Do you decorate your home for the holidays?

Featured Favorites

Keeping it festive on the edge,

Shelbee