Weekend Junk Finds: Vintage Christmas Loot

 Blurry photo, sorry--it was taken with my phone and looked fine on the little screen. This represents the fruits of my Black Friday shopping. When you're in a tiny town where the only major store is Wal-Mart, you have to get creative. I hit the local thrift stores and turned up these. I'd rather have a pile of pink vintage Shiny Brites than a $79 flat screen TV any day!

The beautifully tarnished vintage glass glitter on this sleigh stuck out like a shining beacon on a thrift store shelf full of ugly figurines (one of those seasonal eye exams Barbara is talking about). It's a fun piece--it's marked Japan on the bottom but the fun thing is that the sleigh itself collapses almost flat! The flat part in the middle is actually two pieces connected with elastic string. They can be folded together, pushing up and making the glittered sides of the sleigh come together. Very handy for storage!

Why, oh why did the fashion of wearing a festive Christmas corsage pinned to your winter coat die away? Who's up for helping me to bring it back? My collection is getting to the point where I could wear a different one every day for the whole month.

 And one last small-town thrift store find. I saw this rubber-face Santa on my way out the door, after we had already paid. He was on the floor and I walked right by him the first time. I wasn't sure if I ought to spring for him, so I took the Phone-A-Friend option. Actually, I texted the owner of another rubber-faced Santa, who said she'd buy him.

I'm pretty sure I knew that would be her answer before I even hit "Send". I went back for him and I'm pretty glad she talked me into it. ;) My Santa is 24" tall with a rubber face, gloves, and boots. He's not in perfect condition by any means: there's a chunk out of the back of his peplum (the belt is cleverly attached to the peplum, to give him the appearance of wearing a separate coat and pants), there are marks on the rubber and some paint loss on his face and hair, and the tip of his hat seems to be covered in a glob of melted candle wax. I like him more and more every day! There are some faint markings on his gloves but I can't read them so I don't know anything about his manufacturer. Does he look familiar to any of you?

We dragged the Christmas tree up from the basement yesterday so that I can spend the week getting things decorated. I must admit that right now, the thought of having to haul out all of the boxes and bins, make a gigantic mess figuring out where to put everything, and then stow all the boxes again has me feeling completely overwhelmed. I have two events this weekend, and I have some other projects going on as well, all with top priority so I'm starting out the month already feeling completely stressed out. I think by a week from now I'll be feeling much better but for now I'm already feeling the holiday crunch.
What's your best tip for dealing with holiday stress?