Vintage Christmas Bonanza

I haven't blogged in over a week but I have been out hunting - for Christmas vintage that is.  One week a year our local thrift stores save all their Christmas goods and put it out this week, just after November 11th which is Remembrance day in Canada.  In order to actually get the really old good stuff you actually line up before the store opens, in our case about 1/2 an hour.  On both Monday and Wednesday morning Mom and I scouted for the best stuff.  Here are the results:

Box of Indents $3

Large bag of ornaments $5

Miniatures $1

Mixed $2.50

Most of the balls I will sell - likely will only keep a couple of the best indents.  I will likely keep the miniatures as well as have a mini tree I put up in the bedroom decorated entirely with vintage minis.

Vintage Angels $1 each

The angels are made in Japan and worth around $15 but I will likely keep them.

1950-60s candy container .50 cents

I have never seen one of these old candy containers, for .50 cents he will become part of the collection.

Two bottle brush trees .25 cents each

Cute vintage bottlebrush trees, too cheap to pass up.

Two pipecleaner Santas included in $5 bag

I kind of love the kitschy pipecleaner Santas that were mixed in the bag of old glass ornaments.  They are keepers - for now at least.

The best of them all - pre 1920s included in $5 bag

The very best thing I found in all of the thrift stores was this pre 1920s Czech mercury glass beaded ornament.   I have only ever seen these in antique stores and it was mixed in the $5 bag of balls.  This is now the oldest ornament in my collection.

I am also sharing two 24 Hr Facebook Bidding site finds.  I paid $10 for the mercury glass tree topper, almost impossible to find in the wild and I am not paying EBAY prices for anything in my collection - ever.  They go for around $20-$30 plus shipping on EBAY. I bought it in August or would have likely paid more.

Mercury glass tree topper $10

I ended up in a bidding war for these 1950s Noma Canada Bubble lights - they actually work!  I am not putting them on the tree though as they overheat sometimes and I don't trust old wiring.  I will likely just turn them on for a while to look at them.  Now I am on a hunt for 3 replacement lights for the ones that just have old bulbs in them.  I have always always wanted these and likely they are what made me love Christmas vintage.  Back 30 years ago when I was 18 I had a boyfriend whose parents owned some of the 1950s ones and put them on the tree every year. They go for around $40 on EBAY but then you have to pay shipping and the likelihood of getting to your home in one piece would be low.  Anyway, there were 9 bidders in the last minute, 3 of which were me and I ended up buying them for myself for $22.  I only had to drive five blocks to get them, so zero shipping!

Original Noma Canada box

Working vintage Noma bubble lights in original box $22

Vintage round GE Christmas lights, value unknown

Along with the Noma lights came two full boxes of replacement bulbs, likely 1950s which are round, never seen any like them.  I need to do some research but these are likely worth around $30 and will be sold if I can find the right buyer.  

So this weekend one of my projects is going through my existing Christmas Vintage goodies and selling off some of the stuff that I initially collected - I don't want my collection to get much bigger, just better and what I sell pays for all the stuff that I bought.  I can now pick and choose as have lots of great stuff!  The best part is I only buy things I love so if it doesn't sell - I am ok with keeping it.

And no, I am not decorating yet - still too early for me!  I have some friends coming over for an appetizer party on December 2 and likely will have the house decorated for that.  If any decorating happens this weekend it will be exterior light hanging as we need a non-rainy day for that and we have had buckets of rain this week.

Have a great weekend everyone!