31 Vintage Christmas Ideas Worth Bringing Back This Year

Festive feather trees, classic cocktails, and decorative popcorn garlands: Yesteryear’s Christmas revelers really knew how to embrace the holiday season. This year, add a festive touch of seasonal cheer to your home with these old-school traditions. These vintage Christmas decorations and comforting treats will impress any guest, and create lasting memories for years to come.

1. Have a Spot of Christmas Tea

Christmas teas aren’t just for the British. This traditional activity, which came to America in the 1830s as part of the temperance movement, brought families together to converse while drinking a variety of teas at long communal tables. So, fire up the tea kettle, make some fancy finger sandwiches, and enjoy a warm mug of tea with your loved ones.

2. Display a Feather Tree

The first artificial Christmas tree, which was a feather tree, dates back to mid-19th-century Germany. The thin-branched trees became popular in America in the 1920s, when European immigrants carried their holiday traditions to their new homes. Add a feather tree to your holiday decor for a touch of whimsy and historical charm.

3. Bake Old-Fashioned Christmas Cookies

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s nice to unwind by baking Christmas cookies with family and friends. Whip up a batch of homemade sugar cookies, gingerbread men, or Jim Dandies, an old-fashioned classic that features maraschino cherries, chocolate, and marshmallows. While you’re at it, bake a few batches. Cookies can be scrumptious gifts for relatives and neighbors!

4. Mix a Classic Christmas Cocktail

Classic cocktails have made a comeback in bars around the country. Learn how to make a few favorites so you’ll have something to keep yourself warm, and impress your guests, over the holidays. Good choices for winter include the hot toddy (made with a bracing spirit like brandy, rum, or whiskey mixed with honey, spices, and boiling water) and the Tom and Jerry (a concoction of eggnog, brandy, and rum). Pouring your potables into fancy cocktail glasses makes them even more festive.

5. Make a Christmas Jell-O Mold

Jell-O long ago lost its spot as the star of the dessert table, but we think it’s about time the jiggly treat made a comeback. Pull out one of your grandma’s old recipe books and have fun constructing your very own holiday Jell-O mold, sure to be a crowd-pleaser at the kids’ table this year.

6. Deck the Halls With an Aluminum Tree

When families in the 1950s and ’60s didn’t want to maintain real Christmas trees, they opted for aluminum versions instead. Nowadays, these shimmering trees can add a little sparkly elegance to your seasonal decor while giving a nod to a long-lost trend. National Tree Company’s red tinsel tree is fire resistant, 6 feet high and has a 20-inch base diameter.

7. String a Popcorn Garland

Before people adorned their trees with lights and ornaments, they decorated them with homemade popcorn garlands. Strings of popped kernels were budget-friendly and simple to construct. This year, spend quality time with your kids, parents, or grandparents making your own vintage popcorn garland. Be sure to pop extra corn to munch on as you work!

8. Give Your Letter Carrier a Thank-You Gift

In the past, people traditionally thanked their regular letter carriers by giving them a small Christmas gift. Though we don’t always have the chance to develop relationships with our letter carriers today, it’s still a nice idea to give them a token of appreciation around the holidays. Just remember that federal guidelines stipulate that postal employees can’t accept gifts worth more than $20.

9. Stuff Your Stockings With Oranges

Stockings overflow with chocolates and toys on Christmas morning, but in simpler times children were excited and grateful to find oranges in their stockings. Put an orange in your child’s stocking this year as a reminder of your family’s good fortune, and for a healthy dose of vitamin C.

10. Hang the Tinsel

Tinsel became popular in the United States in the 1950s as people sought a way to add shimmer to their Christmas trees without using Christmas lights, which were considered a fire hazard. Re-create this vintage trend and give your tree a shiny, icy look by draping strands of tinsel on the branches. (Skip this tradition if you have pets, because tinsel is a choking hazard for them.)

11. Go Christmas Caroling

With roots in solstice celebrations of ancient times, caroling is one of the oldest holiday traditions in the world. Channel your jolly ancestors and spread holiday cheer by taking your family Christmas caroling this year. Don’t worry if your singing voice doesn’t rival Beyoncé’s—this tradition is more about having fun than showing off your vocal chops.

12. Put a Toy Train Around the Tree

In the early 20th century, people relied on trains as a primary mode of transportation. It’s no wonder that toy versions of these all-important vehicles started appearing underneath Christmas trees during that time. Set up a track around your Christmas tree to take your holiday visitors back in time, or gift a toy train to young relatives.

13. Watch a Christmas Special on Live TV

With the convenience of Netflix and DVDs, it’s easy to forget that children used to have to wait all year for their favorite classic Christmas specials to air on TV, and how excited they’d get when that day finally rolled around. Re-create the joys of a less plugged-in era by looking up the air times of old favorites, such as “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” or “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” then whipping up a fresh batch of hot chocolate for a cozy night with the family.

14. Display Vintage Figurines

Find a spot on the mantel for the classic figurines your family collected growing up, like Pixie Elves, Byers’ Choice Christmas Carolers, or Snowbabies. While the Elf on the Shelf might be the more common character right now, these guys were the original ones keeping watch over the house before Santa arrived.

15. Set Up a Christmas Village

If you don’t already have a Christmas village collection, consider starting one this year. The tradition of collecting miniature structures can be traced all the way back to the 17th century, but the charming ceramic houses and stores you know and love kicked off in the 1970s. Today, it’s easy to search up online sites and forums where Christmas village enthusiasts share their tips and tricks for creating elaborate setups.

16. Roast Chestnuts

We sing about it every year, but have you ever actually had a roasted chestnut? On a weekend afternoon or cozy evening, try your hand at roasting chestnuts—a stovetop will work just as well as an open fire for this.

17. Display a Ceramic Tree

Everything old is new again, and that includes ceramic Christmas trees. This ’70s Christmas decoration has roared back into style. If you don’t have one collecting dust in the basement, you can find the 15-inch Best Choice Products pre-lit ceramic Christmas tree, 18-inch Mr. Christmas ceramic tree, and others like them online.

18. Go All Out With Blow Mold Lawn Ornaments

If you have ever been to or seen photos of Dyker Heights Christmas lights, then you’re familiar with blow mold Christmas decorations. The playful plastic figurines first popped up on the market in the 1930s. Although many folks today like Christmas inflatables, we believe there’s enough room on the lawn for both.

19. Create a Vintage Soundtrack

While there are plenty of modern holiday hits to enjoy, set a retro mood by putting together a playlist with tracks from the likes of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. While music-streaming services like Spotify already have plenty of holiday playlists to choose from, you can also curate a selection that reminds you of Christmases past.

20. Send Christmas Cards in the Mail

Snail mail is so retro! Virtual Christmas greetings get the job done, but they aren’t nearly as sentimental as old-fashioned handwritten cards. Crisp stationery and seasonal stamps never fail to spread holiday cheer. Buy a boxed card set, or take a picture with your kids (or pet!) and incorporate it into a personalized greeting for everyone on your mailing list.

21. Cut Down Your Own Tree

While it’s convenient to pick up a freshly cut Christmas tree from a big-box store’s parking lot, the tradition doesn’t have quite the same sense of holiday magic as venturing into a snow-covered wood to choose the perfect type of Christmas tree for your home. Depending on where you live, there are likely Christmas tree farms in your area that allow you to choose and cut down your own Christmas tree. 

22. Choose a “Lord of Misrule”

In the Middle Ages, the Lord of Misrule was a figure who was appointed to take charge of planning the Christmas activities in royal courts and noble houses. But this tradition came with a twist: The “Lord” often planned holiday pranks and jests. Try out this historic practice in your home this holiday season by giving children turns being the Lord of Misrule for the day. Allow the “Lord” to decide which treats to eat after dinner, which holiday special to watch, or letting them arrange the Elf on the Shelf for the following day.

23. Cook a Christmas Goose

While today’s Christmas supper typically features turkey or ham as a main dish, goose was once the centerpiece of many holiday dinner tables. In fact, eating goose for Christmas is a tradition that dates back to ancient Greece. A goose may be tricky to track down, but it’s generally possible to order one in advance from a high-quality butcher.

24. Make Homemade Gifts

For much of history, Christmas gifts were homemade rather than commercially produced. Bring that tradition back by getting creative with your gifting this holiday season. Try your hand at making candles, personalized artwork, or even a birdhouse. You don’t even need to be crafty to give something homemade this season: You can make something as simple as a signature spice rub or chocolate chip cookie mix and package it in a decorative jar.

25. Hang Big and Bold Lights

Tiny warm white lights are most common nowadays—on the tree and outside—but why not decorate with some retro flair? The big, colorful light bulbs you remember from previous decades are now available in
eco-friendly LED bulbs. The burst of color outlining your house will make your home stand out from everyone else’s on the block.

26. Get Dressed Up

Today, getting dressed up for Christmas dinner typically means showing up in pair of elastic-waist pants to accommodate second helpings of turkey. In photos of midcentury Christmases, however, you’ll likely see men in ties and women in chic dresses with nary a pair of sweatpants in sight. Update your holiday dress code this year to bring back some vintage holiday glamour.

27. Watch Holiday Classics

Evoke a vintage Christmas vibe by watching some holiday classics this December. Introduce your family to some timeless black-and-white picks like Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, and It’s a Wonderful Life. If you’re already familiar with these classics, screen an underrated holiday flick like Christmas in Connecticut or I’ll Be Seeing You.

28. Share Christmas Crackers

Christmas crackers first made an appearance in Victorian England and are still popular in the U.K., but aren’t common on American holiday tables. A cracker is a wrapped cardboard tube that makes a loud cracking sound when pulled at both ends. They typically contain paper crowns as well as a small trinket and a card containing a joke or a piece of trivia, all of which are great dinnertime icebreakers.

29. Celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas

You’re probably familiar with the “12 Days of Christmas” tradition because of the popular yuletide carol, but it’s a tradition that has largely died out in North America. Christians traditionally celebrated from December 25 to January 5 or 6, and gave one another small gifts each day. Extend the holiday season in your home by keeping festivities alive until Twelfth Night and continue to enjoy Christmas treats and festive holiday movies.

30. Give Back

Though in many ways Christmas has become commercialized, you can bring back the spirit of giving that the holiday season once held by lending a hand to your neighbors or community. Help an elderly neighbor hang Christmas lights, volunteer at a toy drive for underprivileged children, or spend a day working at a soup kitchen to spread holiday cheer to those who need it most. 

31. Bottle Brush Christmas Tree

The origin of bottle brush Christmas trees dates back to the 1940s when, as the story goes, Addis Housewares Company manufactured the trees on the same machines the company used to make toilet brushes. Addis never did confirm the truth of the tree’s manufacture, but we’ll never look at a toilet brush the same way again. Though vintage version of these faux-snow-covered trees are hard to come by, you can find reproductions at retailers like Target and Crate and Barrel.