Vintage Look- 5 Outfits with Christmas Cheer!

I love adding a splash of red to my outfits in December and hearing people say how "Christmas-y" I look. That's all it takes. This post has some of the things I have worn to church, grocery shopping, and work, attempting to give a little seasonal flair to my day. I found this little dress on eBay several years ago. It was new and very cheap, but I broke down and got it because the fabric is the pattern of my family's Stewart plaid! (you can see the real wool tartan over the windows in this post). The dress was cheap because it was not very well made. They didn't even match the plaid pattern of the bodice to the skirt, so it can give one a bit of vertigo with all the lines going everywhere! But I still love and wear it every year.

For a little extra something, I embellished one of my hair combs with sprigs of holly. And I even give a close-up for all those of you who say I don't have any grey hair yet. Do you see all of it?! Mine is pure silver, thank heavens, just like Moma's and Grandma Betty's. But it is also quite wild. Do you see the one at the back of my head that looks like a corkscrew? It will not be tamed!

I also pinned on a deer brooch that I found for a dollar on a wonderful trip to Aurora, Missouri with Moma and Pop. He is missing some stones, but I don't care.

I've realized in putting up those pictures that I almost always pair red with grey. Grey has been one of my favorite neutrals since I was a teen. I guess it is my equivalent of classic black. Here I just added a red felt cloche and red velour flats (courtesy of Wal-mart over the years). The grey wool skirt that I found at Goodwill. It is so soft and yummy! This sweater, and the one further down, are ones I found at Wal-mart probably ten years ago when they had some winter clothing with a Nordic kind of style. I love the yarn embroidery and sleeve ties on this one. The stocking is very special to me, it is the one my Great-Granny made for me as a baby. There has never been a year that I haven't hung it up.

This wool suit is a favorite of mine. And I look like a goofball in the picture, like I am trying to be all business-like in my suit, when in reality I am about to go grocery shopping. I found this suit in a very funky (not in a good way) fleamarket. The kind that has stalls of medicine, makeup, and feminine items, and you wonder who on earth would purchase those items second-hand. But as I was making a hasty retreat, I saw a rack of very pretty children's clothes. At the end was this suit. I thought immediately that it looked like it would fit. The price was $3, so I took a chance. Turns out it is a teen suit by Hunt Club, a brand that I wore often in the 80's. It is in perfect shape and sports a velvet collar. Not bad for under five bucks! My pin is a vintage 1940's one, made from what I believe is celluloid due to it's thin and fragile nature.

Don't look too closely at the skirt below! I made it years ago to have something red to wear to the church Christmas play, and I still wear it to church every December. I purposefully made it shorter than the normal skirts I sew. That way a "petticoat" (an elastic-waist peasant skirt trimmed with lace found at Goodwill ;) could peek out from the bottom.

And you know I don't mind being silly. I even have a ginormous poinsettia in my hair

Below is the one I haven't worn in public yet. I found the skirt in Goodwill this June while shopping with my Dear Friend, Sherri. A Christmas skirt in the middle of summer...She just laughed and shook her head when I clutched it to my bosom. You notice I am wearing the same sweater as above. It also makes a peekaboo appearance under the grey suit jacket. I am definitely a mix-and-match kind of girl. I could wear either of the sweaters with the grey skirt of the suit for yet another look. I wore this outfit for our family sugar cookie decorating party, see here. And my adorable mitten apron was from my sweet pal, Andrea. Don't laugh at the white thermals peeking out from under the skirt! It was super cold that night, and you have to be tricky to stay warm in dresses and skirts in a house with a wood stove as the only heat.

The skirt was handmade by somewhere who added a very tasteful (he-he) trim of marabou feathers to the hem in place of fur. They liked it enough to put a tag with their initials in it- LC. Linda Claus, Lucy Claus, Lila Claus...does anyone know what Mrs. Claus's first name is?

With all the fun of holiday dressing, I got the strangest hankering...I suddenly wanted all the terribly gaudy Christmas brooches that my Moma got as a teacher in elementary school in the 80's. You remember them, right? The ones that came in the little cardboard boxes and sat waiting in every store, so that every single student could give one to their teacher at Christmas. (Yikes, what a thing to look forward to!) The thing is, I remembered that just the year before we had taken down the old round cookie tin and looked at the pile of snarled necklaces, Christmas pins, and outdated fripperies. And we decided to give it all to Goodwill...Yes, Dear Reader, that is why one should never get rid of anything. Soon you will desperately want it, even if it was hideous to your eyes only 12 months ago! Have you read about the debacle of Grandma's crocheted snowmen yet? It's here, pretty much the same story. When I went over to my folk's house, whining about the tragedy of missing brooches, Moma dug into her jewelry box. She had kept two pins that she had worn the most. And she gave them to me!! Oh joy, oh rapture! Now I have two terribly gaudy 80's Christmas pins that I adore. Thank you, Dear Mommy of Infinite Patience!

So, does it matter if you wear anything festive for the Christmas season? Not a smidgen. But there are times when I think about getting out into the holiday hustle of the world, with cranky people and nasty traffic, and I brace myself by dressing with a bit of holiday cheer. And when people stop and smile, and say that I look "Christmas-y", hopefully that moment of smiling will slow them down just for a moment to remember what December is really about. Not office parties, or food, or even the perfect present. It's about holding a little burning coal of God's hope, love, and peace in your heart while in the midst of it all. I'm off to work today and I will wear something red and pin on a silly brooch. And then I'm going to smile at everyone I see, and wish them (and you, Dear Reader) a very merry CHRIST-mas!