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Christmas Table Decorations With Vintage Ornaments

By Rachel

published 12/21/2023

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Last Updated on October 18, 2024 by Rachel Granholm

Welcome guests into your home using these Christmas table decorations with vintage ornaments!

As Christmas approaches, it may be a tad difficult to come up with new ways of achieving a festive tablescape for your holiday meal, especially without breaking the bank. Thankfully, vintage ornaments provide a unique way to style a beautiful table setting without spending a fortune. In this post, Christmas table decorations with vintage ornaments, you’ll learn how to create a stunning display!

Table of Contents

Place Setting Touches: Adding Vintage Charm to Each Seat

Plus, I’ll provide some helpful styling tips and thrifty place settings ideas to help you bring your vision to life. With a bit of creativity and a few basic materials, you can create a merry and joyous atmosphere. So, let’s get started and transform your Christmas table into a vintage wonderland!

Items Used for a Festive Christmas Tablescape

fresh or faux Christmas greenery (pine, cedar, juniper)
taper candle holder
taper candle (real or faux)
vintage ornaments in varying sizes
copper colored chargers
cloth napkins
clip on battery candles
green scarf
vintage Christmas dishes

Shop Christmas Table Decor

Where to Find Christmas Table Decorations

You can find Christmas table decor just about anywhere. However, before you start buying every single thing that you ‘might’ use, first think of a theme.

So, for me, I knew I wanted to incorporate vintage ornaments on my Christmas table this year.

Choosing the Perfect Pieces: Style, Color, and Theme

I thought about what I already had on hand that I could use before running to the store to purchase more items.

And you know what? The only things I ended up buying new to use on my table this season were clip-on candles, one bunch of fresh greens from my local grocery store, and green taper candles. Everything else I already had!

Stores I recommend for finding quality Christmas table decor include Amazon, your local garden center, or Target. For vintage specific pieces, thrift stores, vintage shops, e-Bay, and Etsy are all sources that I’ve used.

A Guide For Christmas Table Decorations With Vintage Ornaments: Inexpensive Styling Ideas and Place Settings

The ideas I’m sharing here today are things that work for me and my home. As always, this is meant to be a guide to jumpstart your creative juices. Feel free to tweak things as needed to fit your holiday celebration.

I’m super excited about this tablescape today, so let’s get right into it!

1. Choose Table Linens.

The base of any tablescape is, in my opinion, just as important as the decor you use on it. So, my advice for this step is to be mindful on which linens you choose.

For my Christmas table, I wanted to keep the linens fairly neutral so that my vintage decor would be the stars. I chose a cream colored table linen and then draped a green scarf down the middle to act as a runner.

This also will help ground the centerpiece so that it doesn’t feel like it’s just floating.

2. Create a Christmas Centerpiece.

The next step is to create the centerpiece.

To start, I placed a vintage green and white restaurant ware plate in the middle of the scarf.

I really wanted to incorporate candlelight into my centerpiece. This is the first time I’m using this super neat vintage milk glass candle holder for a display! Isn’t it so cool?!

To tie in with the green runner, I purchased a set of green taper candles. There’s only one hole in the middle that is large enough to fit a standard size candle so I just went with it 🙂

The vintage ornaments come into play here as well. I found this set of Shiny Brite ornaments at a market last year and just love them. To stick with the theme, I simply pulled the ones in traditional Christmas colors.

For a teeny amount of height, all of those items were set on top of the vintage plate.

3. Place the Greenery.

After that, I turned my attention to the greenery.

I found this bunch of holiday greenery at my local grocery store for $7.00 and thought it was a super good deal for the variety that it has!

I started with the pine branches as the base.

You might notice, too, that I placed a charger at each table spot. This is to help gauge how far out the branches can stick without being in the way of people’s plates.

When I started this step, I didn’t really know how I was going to place the greenery.

But, rather than sit there and overthink it, I just started cutting and placing the pine stems in a wreath shape around the candle holder.

And, turns out, that was exactly how I wanted it to look! Love it when that happens 🙂

After the pine base, I then placed cedar stems in a similar pattern over the pine. It’s amazing how the two different types of greenery adds such dimension, texture, and movement to the middle of the table.

Tip: If you don’t have access to real greens or simply don’t want to spend money on those, you can forage the woods in your area for greens or other stems on the ground. You can also opt for faux greenery, as well.

4. Arrange Ornaments for Centerpiece.

Now it’s time for the best part…arranging vintage ornaments!

I recently purchased two different lots of vintage ornaments on e-Bay (it’s the only place I could find where I could buy whole sets for under $20), specifically for use on my Christmas table. Since we are hosting Christmas Day at our home, I wanted the table to feel extra-festive. And what better way to get that vibe than with old ornaments!

This is my very favorite ornament out of the whole lot and I wanted it to be front and center, so I set it down first.

After that, I placed two other large ornaments around the milk glass candle holder.

The large ornaments will help to anchor the smaller ornaments.

Tip: I thought about a clock face and placed them roughly at the 3-6-9 intervals to be sure they were spaced out properly, anchoring the ‘corners’.

Then, I simply filled in the rest of the space around the candle holder with smaller ornaments.

I made sure to evenly distribute the colors around the greenery.

This step does not have a rhyme or reason to it. I tipped some on their sides, placed the ornament tops out, placed the tops facing in, etc…However you want to display the ornaments, do it! Any arrangement goes.

I love the juxtaposition of the bright and shiny ornaments against the natural greenery.

Other elements you could include in a centerpiece like this include:

5. Set Each Table Setting.

After the centerpiece was finished, I moved on to the place settings.

I’m using my collection of vintage Waechtersbach Christmas dishes for the holiday table. However, you could opt to use white dishes or even paper plates! Whatever is functional for your Christmas celebration, do that.

I placed a dinner plate on top of each copper charger.

Then, I followed that by setting a vintage cloth Christmas napkin on top of each plate.

Tip: If you are in need of Christmas table linens, thrift stores are amazing places to look. I found these napkins a few years ago for only .99 cents a piece!

Next, I placed a salad plate on top of each napkin.

I adore the look of the napkin peeking out from underneath. Plus, then the Christmas tree on the top plate isn’t covered up!

Then, I placed clear, vintage-inspired drinking glasses at each place.

You could opt to use colored glasses but for me, since there is so much color going on, the clear glasses helps to balance out the table.

Now. This step is completely optional. But! I love it so much!

I can’t take credit for this idea because I stole it from my friend Lora from Lora Bloomquist-Create and Ponder. She recently used faux candles clipped onto chargers for a table scape she created and knew instantly that I wanted to do the same.

You guys. It’s THE CUTEST!

What’s more charming and European Christmas-like than having a little candle clipped to each person’s plate?! I can’t think of anything better!

I’m so excited to see my family’s reaction when I turn these on for Christmas brunch next week.

Lastly, to finish off each place setting, I clipped a small sprig of fresh cedar that was leftover from the centerpiece.

To tie the whole display together, I thought it would be pretty to place one sprig on top of each salad plate. It’s that extra little touch, you know?!

6. Candlelight for a Cozy Atmosphere.

To create a cozy Christmas ambience, I dimmed the overhead light and lit the green taper candle.

Especially during this season of Advent, I can’t think of anything more comforting than a flickering candle.

Combined with the warm light from the clip-on candles, this Christmas table exudes the coziest vintage ambience!

Embrace the Joy of Vintage Christmas Decor

With that, the Christmas table is complete!

I truly adore the use of traditional holiday colors. And, the shiny, more metallic elements infuse themselves seamlessly with the red and green tones.

This Christmas season, I encourage you to keep things simple. You truly don’t need to go all out, spending hundreds of dollars on table decorations.

By using a few stems of greenery and combining it with decor that you already have, you can curate a beautiful holiday tablescape that is charming and welcoming.

However you choose to decorate your Christmas table this year, let it come from your heart and let that be enough.

After all, what truly matters, at this festive time of the year, is the love, hope, joy, and peace that is found in Jesus, the giver of all Life. May your table extend that warmth to all who gather around it.

Closing Tidbits for a Meaningful Christmas Table with Vintage Ornaments

Christmas is a time to come together with family. Christmas table decorations with vintage ornaments is the perfect way to add festive holiday elements to your home. It’s budget-friendly, enabling you to make the most of what you already have. This simple but impactful table setting will make your Christmas dinner even more special!

Be encouraged to welcome it all at the table, finding joy in unexpected places along the way. Wishing you the happiest of Christmases!

Leave me a comment! How do you love to style a Christmas table? I love hearing from you!

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If you are new here, I’m Rachel, the writer and content creator here at The Antiqued Journey. I’m so happy to have you! I encourage you to stop by the ‘about me’ page to get to know me a little more.

Here on the blog, you will find loads of inspiration for decorating with vintage and antique decor, simple DIY crafts and many thrifting adventures. If that interests you, I invite you to sign up for my e-mail. You will receive a free digital download as a thank you!