VINTAGE CHRISTMAS LIVING ROOM | Nostalgic Cottage Decor | Holiday Home Decorating Ideas 2025

Hey everyone, what's up? It's Allie here and welcome back to Fabulous Dish and welcome to the second of the Christmas Decorate With Me series. I'm so looking forward to this one because it is the living room and we all know that that is the heart of any Christmas home and this is the last time I'm going to be decorating my living room for the Christmas season. So you know I'm gonna go big and I'm gonna bring out all the stops. I am so excited to take you on this festive decorating journey with me today. We're gonna be doing a whole bunch of things and I can't wait to bring you along with me every step of the way. Make sure to give this video a quick thumbs up and make sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss out on the next decorating adventure and it's the kitchen and I know you're gonna love it. So go ahead and get that hot cup of cocoa, come on over and let's decorate my vintage Christmas living room together. As always I like to start off by setting up the tree. This is always the star of the room so we need to start with her first to really set the tone. This is a balsam hill vermont white spruce tree. It's got multi-colored pre-lit lights on it and I've had it for about three years now. She's still going strong but it is becoming harder to fluff out these branches. Make sure to put on some gloves before you start fluffing the pulling out all of the branches and straightening them out. This is going to save your hands from getting scratched and feeling dry. These are gardening gloves that I picked up but I would actually recommend getting some that extend to your elbows because you would be surprised how scratched up your arm can get especially if you are decorating a large tree like this one. Now for the magic step, fluffing. I work section by section starting at the bottom and moving up. Take each branch and pull them in opposite directions left right sideways up down so it feels full from the inside out. Don't just fluff the outer tips, reach into the trunk and pull open those inner branches to erase any gaps and make the tree look that much more full. Pause, take a step back and rotate the tree as you go. Adjust anything that still looks sparse and if you still see some stubborn holes we will be taking care of those when we put some large ornaments in pretty soon here. Another trick is to bend a few tips slightly upward for a more natural silhouette if you want to still try to cover those holes. Take your time here, good fluffing is what makes an artificial Christmas tree look realistic and full. Although this tree is still going strong after three years most of the lights have decided to stop working on me. If you've watched my recent holiday decorating videos you'll hear me say often that I generally don't recommend getting pre-lit trees. Lights always will go out and it's so hard to find the one bad bulb. It's much more efficient to put on new strings each and every season that way you can test them before stringing them on and you can ensure that there won't be any gaps in the lighting. I had to completely restring the lights on this tree and I did so with the green wire multi-colored iridescent lights. Let me repeat, not LED, these are iridescent lights. These lights absolutely help set the tone for the entire vintage vibe that we're creating in here and this is such a cute little tree skirt that I picked up at an estate sale last year. It looks like a mini handmade quilt adding that perfect touch of cottage style to the tree itself. For the fun part, trimming the tree. It's really important to have ornaments in all sections of the tree towards the back of the branches, the middle, and the front. I've seen a lot of trees where everyone just hangs ornaments right on the front branches and that's how you're going to get a cluttered looking Christmas tree. Make sure to spread them throughout each branch that way you have more real estate to work with and it'll make your tree look that much more full. This is my huge ornament storage box. It has become very heavy over the years but I love the way it protects all the things I put in here. It's from Michaels and it has three different layered sections that have individual little cubbies for each ornament and you can move around depending on the size of the ornaments. I love this. I put my garlands on the side. It really houses everything that ends up making this tree look so beautiful and it keeps everything safe all year round. A lot of these are some of my favorite ornaments that I've been collecting my entire life. A lot of them come from childhood too. I have always been a fan of Christmas decorating even when I was little. Lots are also hand-me-downs from my grandmother who also has a huge love for Christmas and has decorated her trees in many different themes over the years requiring a number of ornaments. Let me know in the comments some of your favorite Christmas tree themes you've done in the past or some that you've seen recently that you really love. I'm always looking for inspiration for next year. It's never too early to start getting ideas. Oh and I almost completely forgot to mention I went through all of my ornaments and listed a ton on the shop. I'm actually in the process of listing more so keep checking. There's going to be new ones added there as I get more time to keep putting them up. So make sure to check out the website so that you can bring home any that speak to you. For my garland on this tree I'm going to be using this retro style Mr. Christmas beaded garland. I really love the way it hits the iridescent lights and it really helps lend a hand to the tree's theme. And you can never rush a tree. I had to complete the finishing touches the next day here. Sometimes you just need to re-look at everything in the light. I decided to use these adorable felt brown poinsettia picks from Walmart. They're really good quality and they give that cozy cottagecore look to the tree. I also found these pretty frosted berry picks from Hobby Lobby. These are so versatile and can be used for any theme but I just like the dimension that it gives the tree without taking away from any of the ornaments. It's time for one of our favorite parts of decorating. Styling this anthropology display cabinet with my Joanna Parker and Bethany Lowe pieces. As I mentioned in my last Halloween decorating video when I was styling this cabinet I like to cluster all of the artist's pieces together because I feel like it makes more of an impact. It just really accentuates the overall look of the pieces and that is exactly what's happening here as I'm putting my Joanna Parker Christmas pieces up. I like to start off by using ribbon and tulle as the base. This gives dimension to our shelves and also adds some color right away. I'm going to be creating little themes on each shelf all of which will be vintage style and retro inspired. This is such a cute Mr. Christmas light up village folding screen that I found online at Michael's. It's such a great shelf background base and just wait until you see it lit up at night. I have tons of these vintage style book boxes and I like to use them to style and arrange different pieces giving height on each shelf. When you keep everything displayed on the same level without any dimension it can make the whole shelf look flat and cluttered so this really helps give each piece a time to shine. This is going to be the snowman shelf so I'm gathering all of the friends together here. Lots of these have been added to the shop so make sure again to check it out. These are all such fun little pieces and it's a mixture of Joanna Parker and Bethany Low. Just look at this little guy which is a new Bethany Low piece for this year. I just love his little snowman bucket head pail that he's holding. He's adorable. I really really love these snow people. They look even cuter all displayed with each other. And now it's time to build the Santa shelf which the Joanna Parker cookie jar absolutely sets the tone for. This little Santa jar is one of my favorites for this year and I was lucky enough to snag a case of these before they sold out for the entire year so make sure to pick them up quick because I only have one left of the Santa head jar so I know these others are going to go really fast too. And just look at this little gingerbread boy from Bethany Low. Another new release for 2025. I just love him so much and he adds just a different whimsical element to the top shelf. Now it's time to take my vintage department 56 snow village out of the boxes and out on the shelves. I like to collect any Victorian houses that I spot for obvious reasons and I found all of these at estate sales. My grandparents have their own entire department 56 collection that they like to display and hopefully I can convince them to let me style it for them this year. I know these are a lot of work to set up but it's always so worth it when you see everything on at night. I'm also adding some nostalgic pieces here and some actual vintage Christmas pieces that I have been collecting and I've spotted throughout the years. These are really just going to give a nice overall retro feel throughout the entire cabinet. And drooping some garland on top of large artwork is another easy way to give some existing decor in your space some holiday flair. And now for another fun part, hanging these vintage style paper rosette fans on the walls. This was such a fan favorite for the vintage Halloween theme so I had to replicate that same dose of whimsy for Christmas. These really lend a whimsical hand to the retro holiday vibe that we're bringing out in here. I purchased some of these on Amazon but I also grabbed some from a local shop in town which made me think about actually sourcing some of these on my own too for the shop. Let me know your thoughts on that in the comments. Again I'm always open to feedback and ideas. These ones from Amazon did not stick well together so I had to use my own adhesive after I initially put them together which is ultimately why I went out looking for some other ones. But these paired really nicely with the others that I selected. So I just created little clusters of these throughout the walls in here and I used thick foam tape to adhere to the walls and to each other. It's a scotch brand, it's really just a good tape that doesn't damage the walls. It's really important to layer these on top of one another when you're creating little clusters because that's what's really going to give us that vintage style almost Christmas party like effect. This was such a fun cottage style inspired wall decor idea. I love hanging up vintage dishes on the walls. I mean this is fab little dish of course but I like to try and find unique ways to do it. I thought of creating this faux bow look for above my large main gold mirror and I used the same thick sticky tape for the velvet ribbons as I did for the paper rosettes and then I just tied a bow on top and I just stuck a cute little vintage style plate right in the middle. And I'm going to style some other little rosette paper fans around it just to give the whole wall a nice cohesive look. I used to have this fireplace around in my bedroom but I definitely think it has found its home here now. It's just too perfect in the living room. For the mantle I'm going to be adding a garland all around it. It's going to wrap all the way to the ground and I'm also wrapping it in multi-colored iridescent lights to match the Christmas tree on the adjacent side of the room. I also wanted to use these vintage inspired Christmas houses that are made out of paper. They're definitely inspired by the vintage putz houses. I'm also going to fluff some snow in front of them so it really looks like a Christmas village and then I'll hang up the stockings with care. I always like to do a fun DIY in each of my decorating videos and I always like to make some of my own garlands specifically when I'm styling anything in a vintage look because that is how people decorated back in the day. I'm sure we all remember making these paper garlands in school but I'm using a hot glue gun and thick hard stock paper to create this one. It's going to be 20 feet long so I need this thing to be strong. This is 100 pound paper which is why the glue gun is essential. This is easy to create but time consuming so make sure to have a fun holiday movie on in the background or a friend to help you with it but remember just be safe with a hot glue gun. Now I'm adding some vintage red and white spode plates to hang around my huge anthropology gold mirror. I'm also adding this garland all around the mirror itself which I've wrapped in red lights. I think that these lights complement the multi-colored ones on the tree and the garlands really nicely. The garland itself ended up almost drooping on the corners when I filmed the final reveal and I actually liked it better that way so you'll see what I mean when we do the tour at the end. Based on a lot of requests I am bringing back the Disney tree this year. A couple of years ago I visited family in Chicago and my cousin's wife's aunt was getting rid of everything she owned because she was downsizing after her husband passed away. She sold so many things at a sale but she kept all of her Disney ornaments aside because it was just too hard for her to let them go to strangers. When I came to visit I was in awe of her collection and was even more shocked when she gave me the entire lot. I was completely floored when she gave this to me and so appreciative. I actually made a dedicated video decorating this entire tree with all of the ornaments she gave me. It was one of my first Christmas decorating videos from a couple of years ago and I did parse it down a little bit this year. I didn't want it to look too cluttered. I'm currently on the hunt for a larger tree that I can put all of them on for next year. I did want to feature this tree though because it's so meaningful and I'm sure Aunt Judy wanted to see some of these Disney ornaments on display again. It's just so gorgeous and I almost forgot how nostalgic this tree is. It's the perfect dose of vintage Disney that I needed in here. And I'm just adding the finishing touches here before we get ready for the grand reveal. Make sure to stay until the end too so you can see everything lit up at night when it truly turns into a vintage whimsical wonderland. So go get that hot cocoa and come on over for the final reveal. out the door christmas songs in every store can't stand to hear one more please won't you make it stop snow is mile five feet high dog ate the pecan pie hurry up snow bought his spine christmas time they say it's so pretty that time in new york city i say cold and gritty backed in like sardines got fat on the interstate mama warned me don't be late pretty please take me away christmas time coletti's new friend jane sister's back with what's his name all together once again after bouncing off the wall hear the cackle down the hall too loud to think at all christmas time again racing for the icy weather i hope you all loved today's decorating adventure and the vintage christmas style living room i am so obsessed with how it turned out i want to know what your favorite part of today's decorating adventure was so let me know in the comments below was it when we styled this beautiful cabinet filled with all of the amazing pieces by joanna parker and bethany low or was it when we styled the christmas tree the fireplace mantle i mean i don't even know where to begin so many things happened in this video and i loved every single bit of it and don't forget to head over to fab little dish shop because a lot of the things i decorated with today are listed on the shop and it's a process and i wouldn't be able to do it without you all thank you so much for coming over and enjoying this decorating adventure i can't wait till the next one it is going to be in my kitchen so don't forget to hit subscribe if you already haven't and thank you for all of you who have subscribed to the channel i can't believe we're over 10 000 and counting i feel so grateful what a way to bring in the holiday season and also make sure to check out the first decorate with me video that came out just a few days ago i think because i put out two videos in the same week youtube for some reason didn't show my recent video to my subscribers a lot of people have been telling me that so i want to make sure that one gets its equal share of love because it was a lot of work and it's gorgeous let me know in the comments and until the next one my friends you all stay lovely happy decorating and enjoy every minute of this holiday season au revoir