Decorating With Christmas Collections

Do you have a Christmas collection? Here are tips and helpful ideas for incorporating them beautifully in your Christmas home decor!

Do you have any Christmas collections? Do you like Santas or snowmen or stars or snowflakes or Christmas villages or nutcrackers or trees? Many of us love to collect something at Christmas! Today, let’s chat about using our Christmas Collections in beautiful and meaningful ways to decorate our Christmas home!

I’m not much of a collector, but I LOVE little trees! Over the year, my collection of Christmas trees has sneaked up on me! I really had not meant to collect copious amounts of little trees, but I have a basement full of them!

So I, Yvonne @ StoneGable, as much as I deny collecting anything, am a Christmas tree collector! And I have added to my Christmas tree collection this year!

The holiday season is short, so we want to make the most of our collections by displaying them in beautiful ways!

As we chat about Christmas collections and how to use them, I thought you might like to see some of my tree collections and how I used them.

Why Do We Collect

The reasons for collecting Christmas items are probably as varied as the things we collect.

Maybe you inherited a nativity scene from a relative and kept adding to it. Or maybe, you’re like me and have always LOVED small trees! Do you collect sleighs, gnomes, or Christmas ornaments?

Your collection might have started with people gifting you Christmas mugs from time to time, and you thought having a collection of them would be fun, cool, and kitschy?

Or did your sister-in-law (me) start giving you Spode Christmas serving pieces as gifts decades ago, and you (Sue) now have almost every piece there is!

Did your grandmother have a big collection of Christmas sheet music that you always loved, so you started your own collection?

No matter the reason, our Christmas collections probably tug at our heartstrings… and often our purse strings. Many of us are collectors by nature or maybe even nurture!

So if you have a bunch of Christmas stuff that is all in one category, then let’s try to make it part of your home at Christmastime.

What Do You Collect

If you have a basement or garage or attic or space under your bed where Christmas collections multiply, then this post will help you get out what you collect and display them at Christmas!

Or if storage is a problem for the snowflakes you have hoarded, you are most definitely a collector! So, let’s get that winter wonderland of snowflakes out and create a flurry of beauty in your home!

My friend, if you have even three of the same kind of Christmassy items, you are on your way to a collection! And collecting one category of special Christmas decor can be a fun hobby!

Christmas collections are fabulous accents for our Christmas home if we know how best to display them!

So what do you collect?

And if you are not a collector of Christmas things, this post might encourage you to start a collection of your own this year!

The big question is…

Using Our Collections

Our collections can add Christmas spirit and holiday Cheer to our homes, but they can also add clutter and disharmony!

The secret is to know how to use Christmas collections in a way that adds beauty and a sense of wonder or whimsy to your home!

Here are some useful tried and true designer tips for creating Christmas collection magic in your home!

Use The Best

I really have a huge collection of little Christmas trees! And I can honestly say I’m not sure how my collection got so large. I guess I have not seen a little tree I do not love!

When I was a little girl, I fell in love with our Christmas trees! We had live ones, fake ones, big ones, tabletop ones, and even a silver metallic one with a spinning light that shone on it to make it different colors.

One of my favorite things to do when I was a girl was to lay on the floor with my head under the tree and look at the lights. Back then, they were colored lights. My parents had a stereo that played lots and lots of Christmas records, so looking at the lights and listening to Christmas music was the epitome of Christmas beauty to me.

No wonder I love Christmas trees in all their marvelous forms.

I just can’t resist adding to my collection each year!

I know when I see a Christmas tree like the paper one above, and it is on sale at 80% off, I’ll get six!

Helpful Tips

One of the most helpful tips I can offer about displaying a Christmas collection is… if you want to display your reindeer or Christmas pillows use only the best of your collection. Especially if you have an exhaustive collection!

I have lots of beautiful Christmas ornaments I’ve collected over the decades. I’ve never really thought of them as a Christmas collection until just now! But I guess they are. I like to use the heaviest and best ornaments displayed in shallow pedestal bowls mixed with Christmas greens.

I just don’t have room to display every ornament every year! Some ornaments stay in the basement. And some ornaments are culled and given away.

There is usually an exception to almost every man-made rule. And here is the one exception to the use-your-best rule. If the most tired and ugly thing in your collection is the most memorable and has the greatest sentimental value attached to it, then display it!

But only one, or maybe two at most! We should have things around us in our homes that we love.

If a lot of your collection is not high on the decorative value scale but off the charts on the sentimental scale, keep the collection in more private locations like a study or a bedroom.

When my son was in nursery school, he made a wooden triangle Santa Claus and gave it to me for Christmas. Only through the eyes of love can Santa be recognized. But every time I bring out this precious Christmas decoration, it floods me with memories of Christmas past! Sweet little hands with dimpled fingers made it. And it is still full of my darling little towhead, 3-year-old boy’s creative talent! The triangle Santa is probably my most prized Christmas possession.

Of course, I’m displaying this funny-looking Santa, where I can see it daily, on my desk.

En Masse Collections

Grouping entire collections of nutcrackers, bells, or Santa mugs can look impressive if you have the right spot to display them!

This is not the way I would display my collections, but I have seen en masse displays done just beautifully!

If you have a large collection and want to show it off in a big group, here are a few things that will help your Christmas collection look its best!

The Right Place

Okay, let’s start with where NOT to put a collection. The mantel!

Even though a fireplace mantel is usually the focal point of a room, it is not the best place to display a whole collection.

A few taller items from your collection are fine to put on the mantel but not the whole collection! A mantel is usually too high to get a good look at the details of a Christmas collection. Lining up nutcrackers or mice or reindeer across the length of a mantel is not the most attractive way to display precious items you have collected either!

It would be far better to find a lower-than-eye-level surface so you and others can enjoy all the details of a big group of Christmas angels or snowflakes.

Our eyes love to contrast and compare, and our minds read this as interesting! We want our family and guests to linger over our collections and enjoy them! It’s hard to do from mantel height.

Here are a few other tips for displaying a Christmas collection en masse…

• Keep displaying Christmas-themed items to one collection unless they work well together. Too many collections displayed together can look very cluttered!
• Use risers like books to give height to some of your collection.
• Don’t display your collection in a closed cabinet. They will be hard to see and enjoy.
• Put a mirror behind a display of a Christmas collection
• Wind tiny Christmas lights around and between your collection. Christmas lights make everything look more special.

Collections Throughout Your Home

My favorite way to display my little Christmas tree collection is to add small groupings of my collection alongside my other Christmas decor.

If you collect little wreaths, then use them with your other Christmas decorations. Group several together on a wall, add them to a mirror or two, prop them up in front of books on a bookshelf, or hang one on your kitchen hood.

I like to group my trees in small clusters and use them that way throughout my home! We may not be aware of it, but our eyes look for like objects, colors, shapes, and more. And finding repeated patterns is perceived as very attractive!

However, just remember that too much of a good thing is not a good thing. Just don’t go too crazy adding Christmas collections to every bookshelf and flat surface in your home.

Note to self, remember those last two sentences!

Create Small Groupings

One of the nicest ways you can group your collection is by corralling them.

This can be done by placing your jingle bell collection in a large shallow bowl! And think about using a dough bowl to contain your vintage Christmas cards.

My favorite way to keep a few trees together is to use decorative trays! Even a large platter works for collections like Santa mugs or white houses.

When I am grouping my Christmas trees, I think about the color palette, varying the heights of the trees, and using trees with different textures! In other words, use good design precepts.

Use Collections To Enhance Other Decor

This is probably the easiest way to use an item or two from any Christmas things you collect.

Use a piece or two from your Christmas collection to enhance a vignette or arrangement in your Christmas home.

In my kitchen, I have a big white pottery lantern I’m using as a vase this year. It’s full of white hydrangeas and Christmas greens. Beside the hydrangeas, I have another little glass vase filled with seeded eucalyptus and one green budding hydrangea. I also added a small gold votive candle to the grouping. I like to pair one big floral arrangement with one smaller one and the addition of a candle!

The arrangement looked nice, but when I added a little white Christmas tree, it made a display and looked more cohesive with the rest of my Christmas home!

BEST PLACES TO DISPLAY COLLECTIONS

Here are some of the best places to display your snow globes or any other Christmas collection you might have…

• on any flat surface
• tucked into a bookshelf
• perched on top of a book
• on a shelf under a coffee table or end table
• on floating shelves
• along a deep windowsill
• on a nightstand
• in a vignette or arrangement
• on several stairs
• hanging on hooks or pegs

Other Places To Use Your Collections

• wired in your Christmas tree (this is such a fabulous place to display collections)
• displayed on a wall (like dishes)
• down the stairs
• wired into garland
• attached to a wreath

The goal of any Christmas collection should be to stir up lovely memories. As well as add enjoyment, beauty, and Christmas spirit to your home!

I hope your collection does all this and more this holiday season!

Merry Christmas collecting!

Happy Christmas Collection, Friends!