With the holiday season in full swing, many families are decking the halls.
However, some common holiday decorations like tinsel, ceramic Christmas trees, and colorful stockings, feel more nostalgic, and could even be inspiring holiday decorating trends this year.
Leaning into nostalgic holiday decorations can also be a way to save money, especially as 31% of people say they plan to spend less on holiday shopping this year than last year, WalletHub reported.
Many resurging decorating trends, from cranberry or orange garlands to vintage Christmas villages, can either be made at home or found in thrift stores.
Take a look back at how people decorated their homes for the holidays in years past.
By the 1920s, some families were decorating their Christmas trees with electric lights.
Electric lights replaced the long-held tradition of attaching lit candles to branches.
By the 1930s and ’40s, families were decorating their Christmas trees with festive candy canes and strands of tinsel.
Tinsel added sparkle to the tree, while candy canes could be used as both holiday snacks and festive decorations.
However, wartime shortages in the 1940s also meant families had to conserve with handmade ornaments and less tinsel than usual.
Tinsel, which was often made with metallic materials, had to be rationed for the war effort.
Christmas stockings were typically made of red or green felt and trimmed with bells.
People still use similar stockings today, hung by the fireside with care.
By the mid-1950s, tinsel and other elaborate decorations were back in full swing.
There were tinsel garlands or long strands of metallic tinsel called icicles, like on the tree shown above.
Hanukkah tables were often decorated with ornate tablecloths.
Menorahs could also be simple or ornate to match the tablescape.
In the 1950s, ornaments became more uniform, and colored lights came into fashion.
Trees became centerpieces of the home for holiday entertaining, and fashionable sets of ornaments were sold to replace more homemade or collected ornament collections.
For holiday meals, families would break out a red tablecloth and festive-colored taper candles.
Taper candles are still commonly used in holiday table settings.
Strands of pearlescent beads were used to decorate Christmas trees in the 1960s.
“Silver and Gold,” a famous Christmas song performed by Burl Ives in the 1964 film “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” embodied the Christmas tree-decorating trends of the time.
Some families, like President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, adorned their trees with strands of popcorn, colorful flowers, and mismatched ornaments.
White House Christmas decorations are now even more extravagant.
“Flocked” trees covered in fake snow were also trendy in the 1960s.
People DIY-ed the look by dipping their tree branches in laundry starch.
Lawn ornaments like snowmen and reindeer also grew in popularity.
Inflatable versions of these vintage-looking lawn ornaments are still commonly seen today.
Families in the 1970s embraced colorful decorations with tinsel garlands and knit stockings.
Some holiday decorating trends never go out of style.
One popular decoration was the light-up ceramic Christmas tree.
The lights were often multicolored and in the shape of miniature birds.
Christmas villages were also popular, and people would collect different scenes to create a miniature town for their mantel.
People would often add cotton wool or sparkly white felt to create a snowy environment for their miniature Christmas villages. This decorating trend is still popular today, either new or secondhand.
Many trends have remained the same throughout the years.
However, elaborate light displays are one trend that probably would have seemed out of place 100 years ago.
The post Vintage photos show how people decorated for the holidays over the last 100 years appeared first on Business Insider.
